Dushan Mitrovich wrote:

>Luke Scharf <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>  
>
>>Dushan Mitrovich wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>- After booting, and invoking LVM (needs password), a window appears and
>>> immediately disappears.  What gives?
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>As a rough guess, it looks like video isn't properly configured.
>>
>>Log as root on the console and run "system-config-display" and make sure
>>everything looks right.
>>    
>>
>
>I hadn't run that, but had specified the monitor as a Hitachi CM812.
> 
>  
>
>>What kind of video card do you have?  If it's made by nvidia, special
>>things may be required.
>>    
>>
>
>The card is an Elsa Gloria Synergy, with 4 MB of RAM.
>  
>
That's an unusual card.  I remember having a few with a similar name a
long time ago, in a far-far away corner of the campus.

Do you know which chipset the card uses?

The rest of the machine sounds normal -- for an older Workstation-class
PC.  Shouldn't cause a modern Linux any consternation.

>Is there a way to invoke "system-config-display" during the install phase?
>  
>
The installer is supposed to lead you through it, but I almost always
have to reconfigure the monitor when I deliver the machine (and attach
it to it's real monitor).  Also, if you used the text installer, or if
it's guestimate of your configuration was wrong, it might have just
skipped that step.

One other thing that you'll want to know is that once
system-config-display has been run, you can do some real tweaking by
logging in on a text-console as root, shutting down the graphics by
changing runlevel 3 ("init 3"), and editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf with Your
Favorite Text Editor.  (Try nano if you don't have one; I use and love
vim, but learning it is painful).  You can test the new config-file by
typing "X" on the command-line.  This method can be irritating, but by
using system-config-display in conjunction with editing
/etc/X11/xorg.conf, you can hit what I think is the sweet spot between
ease-of-use, power-of-configuration, and irritating-time-sink.

-Luke

-- 
Luke Scharf, Systems Administrator
Virginia Tech Aerospace and Ocean Engineering