F-18 display setting problem -

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:41:41 -0500
David <dgboles at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> You could use  "system-config-display"  to do this. But Fedora dropped
> it several releases ago.

Did you ever get well informed about *why* it was dropped? There was a
reason for that.

> And now is when you will get message after message chock full of
> helpful 'try this' suggestions that won't work and many 'what does
> some cryptic CLI command say? Followed by more 'try this' suggestions
> that won't work either.

This is just FUD. There is always a well-defined way to troubleshoot
X-related problems --- read and understand the /var/log/Xorg.0.log
file. Or if you don't know how to read and understand it, send it to
the mailing list so that someone can tell you what's wrong and how to
fix it.

There are typically three types of causes for X problems:

(1) Driver misconfiguration. You want to use lspci to determine your
graphics hardware, and use yum to install an appropriate driver. Also,
reconfigure xorg.conf (if it is present on the system) to use the new
driver. While at it, rethink if you really need an xorg.conf file at
all (typically, you're better off without it).

(2) EDID data not being read correctly. This may happen on some very
very old (or broken) monitors which do not provide EDID data, or with a
faulty VGA cable, or with a lousy KVM switch which interferes with EDID
readout. Depending on the cause, either remove the KVM, or change the
cable, or manually set modelines in the xorg.conf (as a last resort
only).

(3) PEBCAK. Two Fedora versions ago, your graphics didn't work, and
someone gave you their xorg.conf, compiled their custom drivers from
source on your machine, and it started working. After two Fedora
upgrade cycles, the configuration is broken again. What could possibly
be wrong this time??!
 
Best, :-)
Marko