Hello all.

I'm not really sure if this should be here or in installation, but since I suspect a hardware issue....here it is.

I installed Red Hat 7.1 on an old machine at work yesterday (X version 3.3.6 I believe). The monitor was an IBM G70 (17 inch) and the video card was S3 based with 2 megs of memory. Both were detected and configured properly. I chose 1024x768 for the resolution, which was a suppported mode at 16 bit color.

The install went very well overall, except that when I went into KDE (2.1.1) I found that when I maximized or minimized windows the monitor degaussed automatically. Even if I resized a window it would sometimes degauss.

This monitor was working fine under Red Hat 7 a few days before, and works fine under windoze (before and after I tried it with RH).

I didn't necessarily need to use that monitor with it because I work in an IT department at a college and have tons of hardware lying around that I can switch and swap at will. I switched to a 15 inch NEC monitor and it worked fine with the settings from the other one. I then ran Xconfigurator and switched to 800x600. Then today I switched to a different IBM monitor (G74) and that worked fine.

Anyone ever run across this? Does it sound like a hardware issue or something I could correct with settings if I need to use that G70 again?

Thanks in advance

It sounds like X is not configured correctly, although I don't know much about the manual configuration of it. However, it could also have a been a prob with KDE, did you try a diffent desktop?

I have had probs with some 'old' monitors which couldn't work with Linux, but your monitor sounds quite new.

One problem could be the monitor is not setup correctly, but then that would usually affect all screens, not just KDE. (Not that you would minimise a screen in the log in! So you couldn't tell.)

CragStar,

Thanks for your reply.

I still don't know what to make of it. I've done dozens of Linux installs on lots of different hardware, but had never seen that problem.

Indeed your signature regarding feedback is appropriate. Trial and error is a good thing for learning. Although it's wonderful to be able to just give up and switch monitors at the drop of a hat, I would probably know a lot more about Linux right now if I couldn't simply change hardware and try again! :-)

Maybe I'll make myself go back and try that monitor again just for an excuse to try out some X configuration.

Cheers

Absolutely, try out some X config!

At the moment I am trying to get my Debian distro up and running, but am having probs with getting the desktop up. It doesn't bother me cus I am now actually reading the Xfree docs the How-to's and other info to try and get it working. Almost there, just a few more lines!