VGA Display Does Not Work With Many Linux Distros


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I have had a problem for a long time now, where I cannot get many linux distros to work with my vga monitor on my desktop. I remember it did not work with ubuntu, and now as I am running SLAX off of a USB, it does not work either. It shows everything mounting, but as soon as it gets to any GUI, the monitor goes to standby as if it is not receiving any signal. However, I can hear the startup music while it's loading. Is there anyway to fix this?

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Not very familiar with linux, but this seems to be down to the driver for the display adapter.

Tried running it in "vga" mode? if there is such a thing on linux.

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It sounds like your video card is set to use a higher resolution than your monitor is capable of displaying.

Now, Linux does probe the monitor and use the DDE info it reports. But perhaps there is something in the traffic that says it is capable, but it really is not.

Fortunately, it is very easy to toggle around the different X display modes. Simple use CTRL+ALT+[num pad plus] or [num pad minus] to bump over to the next listed display mode. Just pick either plus or minus, and give it a try a couple of times to see if you can find a display mode that works with your hardware.

Once you have a GUI, then we can go about setting your default entry, and make sure that the problem one(s) aren't in your xorg.conf file any more. (Y)

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It sounds like your video card is set to use a higher resolution than your monitor is capable of displaying.

Now, Linux does probe the monitor and use the DDE info it reports. But perhaps there is something in the traffic that says it is capable, but it really is not.

Fortunately, it is very easy to toggle around the different X display modes. Simple use CTRL+ALT+[num pad plus] or [num pad minus] to bump over to the next listed display mode. Just pick either plus or minus, and give it a try a couple of times to see if you can find a display mode that works with your hardware.

Once you have a GUI, then we can go about setting your default entry, and make sure that the problem one(s) aren't in your xorg.conf file any more. (Y)

That worked great! Thank you. I can now see all the different resolutions that it says the monitor is compatible with.

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Glad you got it. I find using the CTTL+ALT+[num pad] keys the quickest immediate solution to the problem. Too bad you spent that extra time trying different distros and such.

Glad it worked for you! (Y)

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