Display Problem Installing FC3 on HP Laptop

[fryem720]

Hello all. I am currently running FC2 on an HP Pavilion zt1175 laptop with no (or at least, no insurmountable) problems.

I recently tried installing FC3. However, the display was all screwed up once the graphical installer started. Essentially, the right quarter of the monitor was not being used and the bottom quarter was so distorted that I could neither see what was down there nor navigate any of the buttons. Mouse-clicking on the bottom quarter produced what appeared to be an inch and a half high cursor. Navigating by keyboard and by guess, I was able to proceed through the installation (without, I should mention, seeing a screen permitting me to select my monitor type). Once rebooted into FC3, the display problem persisted. Changing the hardware settings for the display to what worked fine in FC1 and FC2 (Generic LCD 1024-768 with 60Hz refresh rate) and rebooting did not solve the problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Here are some of my system specs (if further info is needed, just let me know):

HP Pavilion Notebook PC
capabilities: smbios-2.3 dmi-2.3
slot: Insyde Software SM-BIOS For VT8703

product: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Mobile CPU 1.40GHz
slot: PGA478
size: 1400MHz
capacity: 1400MHz
clock: 1199MHz
capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm

L1 cache
size: 8KB
capacity: 32KB
capabilities: burst pipeline-burst internal write-back

L2 cache
size: 512KB
capacity: 512KB
capabilities: burst pipeline-burst external write-back unified

SODIMM DDR Synchronous
serial: 1
slot: DRAM Slot 0
configuration: width=64

SODIMM DDR Synchronous
serial: 1
slot: DRAM Slot 1
size: 256MB
configuration: width=64

P4M266 Host Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
clock: 33MHz
resources: iomemory:a0000000-a3ffffff

PCI bridge
product: VT8633 [Apollo Pro266 AGP]
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master cap_list

display description: VGA compatible controller
product: VT8375 [ProSavage8 KM266/KL266]
vendor: S3 Inc.
size: 128MB
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: vga bus_master cap_list
resources: iomemory:e0000000-e007ffff
iomemory:90000000-97ffffff
irq:11

description: Multimedia audio controller
product: VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: cap_list
configuration: driver=VIA 82xx Audio
resources: ioport:e100-e1ff
irq:9

[KevinAlaska]

I had just found out about this forum from LinuxQuestions.Org and I am a newbie trying to start up his Linux Know How.

I have a Old Gateway Solo 1100 laptop and my installation screen does that exact same thing you just distribed. I ran the installation from the none graphical setup and once it rebooted after the install I had that same problem again.

I am not sure now how to get around this to fix it but if there is something I should know about please help me..

Good luck to Fryem720 in his problem as well...

Sincerely,

Kevin in Alaska

[ghaefb]

Moved to Laptop.

[killaweegee]

Have you played with the display settings to see what happens if you set it to 800x600? Also if you could post your xorg.conf file.

[fryem720]

killaweegee: I didn't try 800x600. I have since restored my original FC2 install. Do you want the xorg.conf file from that or should I try the FC3 install again, chage the res to 800x600 and post the new xorg.conf file?

[fryem720]

On a side note, it would be interesting to a relative newbie like myself to learn how FC3 and/or anaconda discovers your display and its specs and what it does to set it up. Bearing in mind that I am still VERY new to linux (despite using it for almost a year now), can anyone point me to a good resource or newbie-friendly tutorial on this? (I'm sure there is good stuff on this in these forums and I'm not looking for anyone to go nuts answering this, but if something comes immediately to mind, any responses would be much appreciated).

[gnurob]

fryem720, I noticed your problem was similar to my own. Hopefully my resolution will help you find a solution to yours. http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/sho...d.php?p=157465

BTW: Nobody suggested (a little surprising) that you install in text mode (instructions provided on installation boot cd on the very first interactive screen). This will give you the opportunity to set your display before switching to a graphical environment on reboot (hey, who really needs to mess with X configuration files). Installing in text mode really isn't that much different; it is a fair option if resolution and nofb don't solve your woes.

Good luck!