Widescreen problems

[Billy McCann]

Hello everyone.

My name is Billy and I've been working with various Linux distributions over the past couple of months.

I've successfully made my laptop into an XP/Ubuntu dual-boot system and wish to do somewhat of the same for my desktop, if not making it a straight Linux desktop.

One problem though ...

It seems that nearly every disto has problems with the widescreen monitor that I recently purchased (HansG - HW191D).

Either things simply do not show up at all and the screen dies or the screen won't die and there will be these horizontal distortion lines all over the screen.

I've Googled and read forums for days and days now with ZERO luck.


Does anyone have any idea what's going on?


Thanks in advance for any and all help and advice.


BM

[Billy McCann]

It seems as though Fedora Core and Knoppix do the best with the widescreen. If only those distortion lines didn't show up when I open programs and such, it would be workable.

Oh yeah ... and it's not just that the screen becomes "unattractive", but that you really cannot see what's going on.

For instance, if you try to scroll any window, part of the window becomes "frozen" while the rest of it distorts like all crazy.


No one else had this problem?


No one knows what a solution might be?

[antidrugue]

Which Linux distribution are you using in the end ?
What is your video card model ?
Did you install the drivers for it ?

[Billy McCann]

Hi antidrugue. Like the name. Thanks for replying.

Which Linux distribution are you using in the end ?

Unfortunately, none of them. I'm forced to go with XP because it's the only OS that will correctly display on this monitor. I run Debian on my laptop.

What is your video card model ?j

Honestly, I'm not really sure. I think it's SiS.

Did you install the drivers for it ?

As I was installing it in XP, the install program said that the driver I was using for it now was better. (??) If I were to try to run Linux in order to install it for a Linux system, my screen would go all crazy on me, so I wouldn't be able to see what I was doing.


Thanks for taking the time to drop a line, antidrugue.

Peace.


Billy McCann

[antidrugue]

Honestly, I'm not really sure. I think it's SiS.

When in Linux :

/sbin/lspci | grep -i vga

will tell you.

I'm sure you can get any recent Linux distribution to work on that. It is very well possible that it won't work out of the box, but the solution is very simple. If you feel like trying again, just post your exact card model and we'll help you on that.

As I was installing it in XP, the install program said that the driver I was using for it now was better. (??) If I were to try to run Linux in order to install it for a Linux system, my screen would go all crazy on me, so I wouldn't be able to see what I was doing.

That's the drivers for XP, so it is completely independent from Linux.

If your screen is to go all crazy again, just hit CTRL-ALT-F1, and it will drop you to a console, where you can type that lspci command.

[Billy McCann]

When in Linux :

/sbin/lspci | grep -i vga

will tell you.

I'm sure you can get any recent Linux distribution to work on that. It is very well possible that it won't work out of the box, but the solution is very simple. If you feel like trying again, just post your exact card model and we'll help you on that.



That's the drivers for XP, so it is completely independent from Linux.

If your screen is to go all crazy again, just hit CTRL-ALT-F1, and it will drop you to a console, where you can type that lspci command.

I'll do that now.

[Billy McCann]

Tried to pull it off in a Knoppix LiveCD. Couldn't do it.

In Windows, debug read:

SiS 6326 AGP True Color Graphics and Video Accelerator
SiS 6326 PCI True Color Graphics and Video Accelerator
6.Mbyte Video Memory
BIOS version 1.28
1. Support VESA BIOS Extension 2.0

[Billy McCann]

But ya know, it seems that the Knoppix LiveCD is displaying fine now. Before it was a bit sketchy. Hmm ... weird.

[Billy McCann]

Howdy again, antidrugue.

Well, Knoppix seems to be working well with my monitor now, for some reason. I prefer the desktop look of Debian or the Ubuntu distros, and I'm experiencing alot of problems with Knoppix right now, but I'm glad to just be able to see the screen.

Here's part of what the lspci command brought up:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 86C326 5598/ 6326 (rev 0b)


I'd love to switch away from Knoppix to the straight up Debian distro, without all the "extras." Maybe being able to get the screen to work with it would help..


Thanks again, antidrugue.

[antidrugue]

Yes, you can try either Debian or Ubuntu if you like to.

If you run into a problem, just switch to the console with CTRL-ALT-F1 and run the X configuration utility :

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

and choose the sis video driver.