[ViolentGreen]

I have had mandrake 9.0 installed in my VAIO laptop for some time now. For reasons I don't want to get into, I have had to reinstall both windows and mandrake. For some reason now I am having trouble getting X to work properly. I have my video card selected correctly and my monitor set as a flat panel 1280x1024.

When I start X, the screen flashes. There is a white box in the top left corner. After a few seconds and gnome loads I can make out the taskbar but it's stretched to about half of the screen.

I examined the config file and tried disabling glx and some other stuff to no avail. I don have the config file on me right now but I did notice one of the lines in it appears to be setting a resolution of 1024x4xx (some number in the 400s). It is the section right above where it sets the video resolution. Is this normal?

If that isn't the problem any idea what it might be? I could post my config file tonight if that would be of help.

Thanks

[danleff]

I would suggest posting the XFree86 config file, so the experts can help better. Also, what model Vaio is it? I have read about issues with Intel video on some Vaio laptops.

Have you tried a screen of 1024X768?

Also look at the specs for the monitor and see if the horiz. and vertical rates are correct. But it seems that you get some video & no error messages, where X won't start at all, and if it is not flickering, that the screen resolution may be the issue.

[ViolentGreen]

Quote:

I would suggest posting the XFree86 config file, so the experts can help better. Also, what model Vaio is it? I have read about issues with Intel video on some Vaio laptops.

Have you tried a screen of 1024X768?

Also look at the specs for the monitor and see if the horiz. and vertical rates are correct. But it seems that you get some video & no error messages, where X won't start at all, and if it is not flickering, that the screen resolution may be the issue.

Yes, I have tried that screen resolution and all the available resolutions down to 800x600. My VAIO is a PCG-FXA59 running an ATI graphics card. Here is my config file.

The following lines look suspicious to me:
# 1024x480 @ 85.6 Hz, 48 kHz hsync
ModeLine "1024x480" 65.00 1024 1032 1176 1344 480 488 494 563 -hsync -vsync

Code:

# File generated by XFdrake.

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"
    # Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
    # By default, Mandrake 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
    # the X server to render fonts.
    FontPath "unix/:-1"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    #DontZap # disable <Crtl><Alt><BS> &#40;server abort&#41;
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse doesn't work
    #DontZoom # disable <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> &#40;resolution switching&#41;
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
    Load "extmod"
    Load "type1"
    Load "freetype"
    Load "glx" # 3D layer
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Keyboard1"
    Driver "Keyboard"
    Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option "XkbLayout" "us"
    Option "XkbOptions" ""
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Mouse1"
    Driver "mouse"
    Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
    Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option "Emulate3Buttons"
    Option "Emulate3Timeout" "50"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Generic"
    ModelName "Flat Panel 1280x1024"
    HorizSync 31.5-67
    VertRefresh 50-75
 
    # Sony Vaio C1&#40;X,XS,VE,VN&#41;?
    # 1024x480 @ 85.6 Hz, 48 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "1024x480"    65.00 1024 1032 1176 1344   480  488  494  563 -hsync -vsync
   
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
    
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    BoardName "ATI Rage Mobility"
    Driver "ati"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
    DefaultColorDepth 24
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 8
        Modes "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
    EndSubsection
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 15
        Modes "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
    EndSubsection
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 16
        Modes "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
    EndS
ubsection
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "800x600" "640x480" "1280x1024"
    EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection

[danleff]

Wow, this is a little over my head! What I did do is a search on Google using Linux VAIO PCG-FXA59 and found issues with the ATI graphics, just as you noted. You may want to nose around to see if anyone found a fix. Laptops can be a challenge with Linux. The stats in you config file do look odd. You may need to configure X manually, but I forget how to do this (it has been a while).

Any xfree86 gurus out there?

[cruark]

You may want to try using the 'vesa' driver for your video card instead of the 'ati' driver. Although this will disable some of your video cards features, you should be able to at least get a picture. You also may want to try dropping down your resolution when trying to get X to work.

C