X windows on RedHat Linux 9

[Gilbert Sebenste <sebenste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Tom, et al,

I have now tried swapping video cards on weather.admin.niu.edu. RedHat 
recognizes the new card, creates an XFree86Config file...alas, it doesn't 
work. Same result each time: Type "startx", and all you get is a blank 
screen. In fact, using other cards other than the one that is in there, 
the monitor goes into "safe" mode.Would maybe switching away from the 
current version work, possibly? 

I have had help from David W. at UIUC. He has no clue what is happening. 
It's not the cards, and it does it to other monitors as well (IE, it 
doesn't work). So I tried the latest BETA version of XFree86 from RedHat. 
Still didn't fix anything.

ANY ideas?

From sebenste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tue Jun 10 09:34:29 2003

On Fri, 30 May 2003, Unidata Support wrote:

> Hmm...  I would venture to guess that the problem would most likely
> be in the driver for the video card and not the card itself.  After
> all, it _was_ working for you under RedHat 8, and it is most likely
> working on tens of thousands of machines running Windows.

Where can I get such a driver? Running redhat-config-xfree86 still yields:

[root@weather X11]# redhat-config-xfree86
* ddcprobe returned bogus values:
ID:   None
Name: None
HorizSync: None
VertSync:  None

Couldn't start X server, trying with a fresh configuration
* ddcprobe returned bogus values:
ID:   None
Name: None
HorizSync: None
VertSync:  None

Trying with card: NVIDIA GeForce 4 (generic)
Error, cannot start X server.

> Please let us know if your problem goes away with a different video
> card, and if it does, what video card didn't work, and what card(s)
> do work.

None do. We have tried several. Weird.

From sebenste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tue Jun 10 10:17:05 2003

I now have a working X windows system on weather.admin.niu.edu.
Problem was a faulty installed * NVidia driver kernel module*. Downloaded 
it, compiled it, typed "Startx" and away it went, back to normal. 
Sheesh!!!

Now, I need to change my runlevel by default back to 5 from 3. If I can 
remember the name of the file!

Thanks for all your help! I found that it was happening to everyone else,
and you may have to do this each time you install a new version of the 
OS, if you use NVidia. Sheesh.

*******************************************************************************
Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
Internet: gilbert@xxxxxxx    (My opinions only!)                     ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University                      ****
E-mail: sebenste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                                 ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
Work phone: 815-753-5492                                                *
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