Corruption and artifacts

[Founder]

I searched the forums for a topic like this and found something similar, but not in the same situation. Forgive me if this has been posted. I've been trying to use the Kubuntu Live CD dated as of April 1st 2006 on my gaming pc. For some reason after I configure everything I get pink and grey-blue lines on the screen. Last night I tried it on my old computer and it worked fine, I am curious as to why something like this might happen.

Specs of my gaming PC:
AMD Athlon 3700+ @ 2.3ghz
nVidia Geforce 6800GS
1 gb of RAM
MSI K8N Neo 4 Mother board

My older computer's specs:
Intel P4 1.8ghz
nVidia 5200FX
512mb of RAM
Motherboard is an American Megatrends or similar


Much help would be GREATLY appreciated

Thanks in advance,
Founder

[askrieger]

Re: Corruption and artifacts

Search the forums for "xorg.conf". It'll make your day

[Founder]

Re: Corruption and artifacts

That just further confused me. Could you (or someone) explain this to me step-by-step, or point me to somewhere this has been done.

[askrieger]

Re: Corruption and artifacts

You're right. Sorry, I didn't realize this post was in the "Help the New Guy" forum. When you get a fouled up illegible screen, it means that the file that the OS reads to know how to write to your screen is set up improperly. That file is called /etc/X11/xorg.conf (for reasons, that are irrelevant, here). The file is organized in a series of "stanzas", actually called Section and sub stanzas called Screen. Your Section "Monitor" stanza is not appropriate for your monitor.

You need to find the following numbers for your monitor: the number of horizontal and vertical pixels (if it's a flat panel), the maximum and minimum horizontal sync frequencies that it can take and the maximum and minimum vertical refresh rates that it can take. If your monitor is a flat panel just use the line frequency 50 or 60 Hz)for the VertRefresh number.

Once you have these numbers, from the user manual (if you can still find it) or the manufacturer's web site. Start your computer in Rescue Mode hit the down arrow once when the screen comes up that gives you the choice of Linux or Windows, and then hit return, if Rescue mode is selected. If it then says "login:" log in with your username and password. If it says something about Root Password, just hit Return. Kubuntu doesn't have a root password. When you get to a full screen black and white text console give the comand

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

That command will come up in a strange half keyboard-half gui form called ncurses. Use <Tab> to get from one option to the next and <Ret> to indicate you've made your choice.

If dpkg-reconfigure doesn't work, we'll try it the easy way. We'll edit the xorg.conf file by hand.

[Founder]

Re: Corruption and artifacts

1024 x 768 at 75 Hz or 85Hz

Keep in mind I'm using a LIVE CD. I'm not sure if that changes anything although it seems what your stating requires I have Kubuntu installed..

[askrieger]

Re: Corruption and artifacts

You're right. My suggested fix won't work well on a live CD. You'd have to repeat it every time you started it up. You might want to try dpkg-reconfigure once in order to insure that your Kubuntu Breezy will work with your equipment. However, I can assure you that if you did install Kubuntu Breezy, it would work well on your new computer. I have an ASUS A8N mobo with an Athlon 64 3800 and an nvidia 6600 and it works well with Kubuntu.

Your problem is that the display settings in the initial install are deliberately set to conservative values in order to avoid generating tiny script or damaging anybody's monitor. This produces unsatisfacory results with more advanced equipment.

[Founder]

Re: Corruption and artifacts

OK, I installed Kubuntu....still get the same problem. I tried nUbuntu...same problem, I tried Ubuntu itself...same problem. The only Linux distros I have gotten to work are SLAX server (haven't tried the others yet, but I'd assume they would work) and DSL.

[askrieger]

Re: Corruption and artifacts

If you've now installed Kubuntu, you can fix your xorg.conf file. I didn't see your horizontal sync rate in your earlier post. That's the most important number for "sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg".