Dushan Mitrovich wrote:

>Pure speculation: LVM wants a color that it can't get from only 256 colors
>(8-bit), so dies.  If this is what's going on, the LVM problem is just a
>consequence of the preceding one - my inability to pick monitor, resolution,
>color depth, and refresh rate.  What could cause the 'system-config-display'
>program to mis-behave the way it is doing?
>  
>
That's the correct interpretation of the error message from 
system-config-display -- but LVM itself doesn't require any video.

Depending on what you want to use the machine for, configuring LVM by 
command-line or by GUI may make more sense.  On the other hand, if 
you're in learning mode, by all means, do it both ways!

-Luke

P.S. As a starting point for the command-line way, try "man lvresize".  
Also, there are a lot of good howto documents on LVM out there.