[clug] Re: linux Digest, Vol 73, Issue 5

[Rodney Peters]

On Monday 05 January 2009 17:47:45 linux-request at lists.samba.org wrote:
> clug] Weirdness with ATI Radeon X300 SE
> From:
> Fred Pilcher <fpilcher at netspeed.com.au>
>   To:
> CC:
> linux at lists.samba.org
>   Date:
> Yesterday 14:21:57
>    
snip
>
> Yesterday morning before I left I turned on the PC, and the sync was all
> over the place. I could just make out enough to change the resolution
> and the frequency, but nothing worked - the res changed, but the monitor
> refused to sync.
>
> I tried recovery mode, which (among other things) ditches xorg.conf and
> creates a new one based on the detected hardware. No change.
>
> I booted from the live CD that I'd used for the installation the
> previous day and it had exactly the same problem: no
> resolution/frequency combination worked!!
>
> I booted Windows, and it was fine. Rebooted Kubuntu - no sync.
>
> I plugged in another monitor - same problem. The second monitor I tried
> is identical to mine - a Sony G520 - which is magnificent and I've been
> using for years.
>
> Clearly it's not the monitor, then. But how is it possible that the card
> worked perfectly the day before, and didn't yesterday? I could
> understand it if something had been corrupted, but then it should have
> worked from the CD. Nothing I could would get it to sync.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas at all?
>
Step one is probably to add "3" to the end of your kernel boot line in GRUB, 
in order to boot to console, from where xorg.conf can be changed.  Then do 
init 5 and check the result.  Anticipate a lot of crashes and try to avoid 
mounting unnecessary partitions during this process.
 
The X300SE has two DAC, identified as DAC1 & DAC2, although not all cards base 
on it have two monitor connectors.  IIRC, it is possible to set one DAC or 
the other as default.  xorg.conf should indicate whether DAC2 is being used.  
It's also possible that Windows has changed the default, for example, if it 
has been configured to use monitor 2 on DVI.

> Fred


Rod