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Your video card, monitor, mouse, and keyboard may be automatically detected and configured during Fedora Core installation. If they are not, there are a few things you can do to make sure they get properly configured. The following sections describe some techniques for getting a stubborn video card working, either during Fedora Core installation or later after the system boots up in text mode.
For even more stubborn configurations, try the Video Troubleshooting Tips and Tips for Particular Video Cards sections.
One of the first things Fedora Core does after you launch its Anaconda installer is try to probe for your display-related hardware. After you launch the install process, you should see the following messages:
Probing for video card: video card found Probing for monitor type: monitor found Probing for mouse type: mouse found Attempting to start native X server Waiting for X server to start...log located in /tmp/X.log 1...2...3...4...5.... X Server started successfully.
If the X server doesn't start, you have a few choices, depending on how it fails:
If you don't even get far enough to see these messages, you may have problems other than your video card. Refer to Chapter 2 for information on troubleshooting installation.
If your video card is not detected and X doesn't start, you might need to run the installation in text mode. To start installation in text mode, type the following from the first installation boot screen:
linux text
Continue through the install procedure in text mode. You will have the opportunity to configure your keyboard and mouse, but not your video card and monitor. After installation, your computer will boot Fedora Core to text mode (init 3). You can then go to the section on configuring your video card after installation.
If your video card was detected during installation, you can probably run the install in graphical mode. During that procedure you have the opportunity to configure the following features:
Keyboard-Different languages and countries use different keyboard layouts, which can also include special characters not available in other languages. The installation process lets you choose from more than 50 different keyboard configurations.
Mouse-You select your mouse configuration based on the way the mouse is connected to your computer. Select USB, PS/2, Bus, or Serial. With a serial mouse, you need to identify which serial port the mouse is connected to (for COM1 use /dev/ttyS0; COM2 use /dev/ttyS1; and so on).
Monitor-A list of known monitors and their manufacturers is displayed. When possible, choose the exact model/manufacturer of the monitor you have. Otherwise, you can choose a generic CRT or LCD setting, based on the screen resolution you want to use. Or, you can select Unprobed Monitor and choose the horizontal and vertical sync rates based on documentation that comes with the monitor.
After installation is completed, if your computer boots to a graphical boot screen (after completing the first boot procedure), you can log in and see if the desktop is acceptable to you. However, even if you were able to graphically install, your video card may not have been detected properly. Continue to the next section to check the video card settings and configure it further.
The Display Setting window is the interface that Red Hat, Inc., recommends for configuring video cards in Fedora Core. It's a good idea to run this window (either by typing redhat-config-xfree86 or clicking on the Red Hat menu⇨System Settings⇨Display). Figure 7-1 shows a shot of the Display Settings window.
There are three tabs on the Display Settings window: Settings, Hardware, and Dual Head. The settings you configure in this window will end up in the configuration file used when the X server starts up (/etc/X11/XF86Config).
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If the Display Settings window fails to run (because it is unable to probe and identify your video hardware), go to the Video Troubleshooting Tips section for other ideas on how to proceed. |
Basic choices on the Settings tab include the screen resolution and color depth. Acceptable resolutions and color depth for your video card should be available from those boxes. You can switch among acceptable resolutions on the fly later from the Screen Resolution window (from the Red Hat menu, click Preferences⇨Screen Resolution).
You can modify more critical settings by clicking on the Hardware tab and selecting Monitor Type or Video Card. You should be able to see the monitor model and video card settings that were configured during Fedora Core installation. If you can't find your exact models of monitor or video card, try the following:
Monitor Type-There are Generic CRT and Generic LCD display settings you can choose if your monitor's manufacturer and/or model are not listed. It is often best to choose a generic model rather than select a monitor from the same manufacturer that seems similar.
Video Card--If your video card is not listed, you might try VESA driver (generic) for most desktop systems. I've tried that on several systems, using an 800 × 600 resolution, just to get the GUI going. You can search for a better driver later if you like. Many laptop computers will use NeoMagic drivers. For further information on selecting the right driver for your video card, refer to the Tips for Particular Video Cards section later in this chapter.
By adding another video card to your computer, you can operate your display on two monitors at the same time. With this feature, you can either have the two displays operate as two different desktops or as one virtual desktop, where your desktop area simply expands across the two screens.
From the Display Settings window, select the Dual Head tab. Then click on the Use Dual Head check box. After that, from the information that is un-grayed, configure your second video card as you would your first one, by selecting monitor, video card, resolution, and color depth. Then you can select whether the two screens act as individual desktops or spanning desktops.
To reconfigure your keyboard after installation (presumably because you want to use a different keyboard arrangement for a different language), open the Keyboard window (from the Red Hat menu, click System Settings⇨Keyboard).
Select the keyboard type you want to use. When you click OK, the new keyboard layout immediately takes effect (the system updates the XFConfig file with a new XkbLayout value).
Run the redhat-config-mouse command to reconfigure your mouse (if your mouse isn't working or if you changed to a different mouse). Since you are probably not getting around on the desktop if your mouse isn't working, the redhat-config mouse command will start in text mode if no GUI is detected. There are generic settings if you can't find the specific model of your mouse on the list.
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