"Cannot Display This Video Mode"

[Apollo]

I installed SUSE 10.0 running alongside WinXP using GRUB to dual boot. When i select SUSE, it loads, then this error message appears....:
"Cannot Display This Video Mode".
has this ever happened to anybody? anyone have any ideas as to how to fix this?

[deltaflyer]

what gfx card do you have ? you could try to boot to failsafe, log in as root and run sax2

andy

[Apollo]

umm video card. 256 Radeon. can't find the specific details. i'm running XP, is there a place where i can find very specific details? i've seen them somewhere b4.

[Apollo]

anybody? also does anybody have a list of commands that i can use at the "failsafe" command line of SUSE 10.0?

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

when the error message displays does it send you to a command prompt? that's the easiest way to do things. otherwise, try running sax2 in the failsafe and set up your video settings through that.
if that doesn't work, try downloading the ATi drivers from the online update. just run yast then select the online update and select the ATi drivers.

[Apollo]

i did try running sax2 which repetedly froze. i'll have to try the ATi driveers next then.

[Apollo]

ok update to this thread. I have tried re-installing SUSE 10.0 on 2 seperate occasions now, both times the installation was pretty different. Still i get the same error message and my SaX2 freezes. Any more suggestions or ideas? I haven't tried the ATi drivers yet, because i'm not sure if YAST is gonna freeze like sax. how would i get into yast from the command line? just type yast?

[oldcpu]

ok update to this thread. I have tried re-installing SUSE 10.0 on 2 seperate occasions now, both times the installation was pretty different. Still i get the same error message and my SaX2 freezes. Any more suggestions or ideas? I haven't tried the ATi drivers yet, because i'm not sure if YAST is gonna freeze like sax. how would i get into yast from the command line? just type yast?

Did you try to tell sax2 to use its VESA settings?

First, please note, sax2 -m 0=vesa is MUCH more benign than the other sax2 settings, and I highly recommend you try that in run level 3. Note the previous assumes you have only one graphic card. If you have graphics on the motherboard and also a graphic card, the setting might (but not for certain) be sax2 -m 1=vesa. (in which case the motherboard graphics should also be disabled in the BIOS).

To be more specific as to what I am recommending:

You should try to get it to run xwindows under VESA driver, and then after you have that running reasonably well, load a custom driver.

Specifically: Boot to run level-3 (and I don't mean run init3 from KDE). i.e. To do this, at the very start of the boot, when the grub boot selection appears for different boot selections, press the keyboard (I think its F2 ??? - it states at the boot what to press to get options) and type "level 3". (or if that doesn't work, boot to failsafe). [Note run-level-3 is a text mode, and run-level-5 is a graphical mode].

So now when booting to run level-3 brings you to a text loggin prompt. loggin as user "Apollo" (ie the regular user that you created) and then type "su" to get root permissions (entering the root password). Then type "sax2 -m 0=vesa". Select a conservative "vesa" graphic mode in sax2. Test it. If it works, exit sax2. Type "exit" to get rid of the root permissions. Type "whoami" to confirm you are back to being user "Apollo". Then type "startx". Does that work? If not, please post the error messages you get.

Note, for this time (only), when you exit kde, it will put you back to run level-3. Reboot at this time by typing "shutdown -r now" or shutdown by typing "shutdown -h now" with root permissions (ie via using "su"). After this you will hopefully be able to run xwindows using the VESA standard.

You can then load custom drivers for your ATI graphic card.

Also note, if you have both on-motherboard, and also card graphics, you need to disable the one you are not using (probably the motherboard graphics) in your BIOS.

[Apollo]

thanks you much for the help. try all this when i get home this evening.

[Apollo]

ok that worked fine. i just went into failsafe and typed:
sax2 -m 0=vesa
then i was able to change my resolution and KDE worked fine. thanks for the help.