X broken on FC4 x86_64 system after nightly YUM update

[John Collier]

After my nightly "auto-yum" update, I found that I had a new kernal. Nothing really shocking about that, but I also noticed that some of my graphics were not behaving as I would have expected. Uppon looking at the log file from the yum update, I found that my ATI fglrx driver for my Radeon 9550 graphics card was updated as well. Figured that it might have something to do with it and decided to try a reboot to see if all would straighten out. (mistake #1)

On reboot, all I got when there should have been graphics was a screen message of "frequency out of Range'. I finally had to power cycle the box and reboot into single user to move on.

I was able to get a basic graphical login screen by doing the following...

Step 1.
Booted the box into single user mode by adding â -I 1â to the command line in Grub.

Step 2.
Edited the xorg.conf file and changed the HorizSync and VertRefresh to settings specific to my monitor

Step 3
In the same file, section â Screenâ , SubSection "Display" (second one), I swapped the first value of 1280x1024 with the fourth value of 1024x768

Step 4.
Saved the file and rebooted normally.

These steps gave me the first taste of the messed up graphical logon screen and the desktop was FUBAR when I got into it as well. Using the options through the menus, I changed the resolution back to 1280x1024 and tried leaving it with the same refresh of 75 Hz. When this failed, I backed the refresh off to 60Hz with the same resolution and it worked fine. At this point, I instructed it to be the default for the whole box and closed it all out thinking that it would all be OK.

Then I went back into xorg.conf through a terminal window in the GUI and swapped my values back (Step 4 above) so that I would be back where I started from and rebooted to make sure that it was all OK.

This is when I found that the logon screen was giving me the Frequency Out of Range error again. I am still not sure why, but I decided to try a logon to root and found that when I did that the screen problem cleared up and was just as expected. Testing this behavior, I then tried to log on as another user and found that did not work at all. The same Frequency message again.

This is where I currently am. As long as I log in as root, I can have a desktop that works as expected, but my logon screen and any other user environment is giving me the Frequency Out of Range error.

I have found that Gnome has a set of config files that it apparently checks at logon and this seems to be where the GUI gets all of it's X info from. This explains why the desktop comes up when I get into Gnome. Of course, it does NOT explain why no user other than ROOT can logon since the resolution and refresh is suposed to be a global default ofr all Gnome sessions.

Logic seems to state that a default refresh setting is now off somewhere and simply needs to be changed, but I do not see where that can be done in the xorg.conf file.

Does my logic work for anybody else? If so, does anybody know where I can change the default refresh rate?

If not, what is the next thing to do?

(I have attached a copy of the xorg.conf file that I worked with in the steps above in hopes that one of you may see something there that stands out to you)

[Steven E. Protter]

Very detailed post.

The natural conclusion here is that somehow the settings are being overridden somewhere else in the gnome setup, after globals are set.

The only think I can think of is for users to run a find $PWD -exec grep -l for a string that could result in settings being overridden.

I suppose it could be a bug, but you have yum updating the machine, so I assume its a yum -y update * so you must be current.

SEP

[Ivan Ferreira · Accepted solution]

Try using a "fresh" configuration, to do that, use:

system-config-display --reconfig

[John Collier]

Steven,

Too detailed? I hope not.

I was just trying to cover the history so that I would not have to answer small questions that I should have included to begin with. Too many times I have had to go back and fill in places I found omitted which seemed like a waste of everybody's time.

As far as your suggestion on the find, I guess I am not smart enough to figure out the exact syntax of the search you suggest. I tried putting in the pipes in the places I thought they might go and even doing a direct copy/paste, but got no love.

At best, I could be considered an intermediate level Linux user. I am afraid I still need my hand held sometimes...



Ivan,

If I follow your suggestion, will I have to go back and re-install the Kernel module all over again or is it basically just a wipe and redo of all global X configurations?

Just want to know what to expect from the command so I will not be shocked with the results.


Thanks to you both for responding so quickly!

[Steven E. Protter]

No, not too much data. At least I don't have to ask for more. :-)

Here is the find command then its to bed with me.

find /path -exec grep -l 'searchstring' {} \;

My suggestion is the path you use is the users home directory and the searchstring you use is a variable or variable name from the conf file attached that could override the settings you have set globally.

SEP

[Ivan Ferreira]

The system-config-display --reconfig command won't install anything. It will just create a new xorg.conf configuration file.

When you run system-config-display, it reads the existing configuration file. If the existing configuration file is bad, then the command won't work. So use the --reconfig to start with a new configuration file.

The system-config-display is just a tool for setting the video adapter, monitor and resolutions.

[John Collier]

Ivan,

I see bunnies in your future!

Your suggestion seemed to get me back to an environment where I was able to use the logon screen and other users were able to logon and get a desktop. However, all is still not well in the graphics world.

Basically, the only thing that got changed when I ran your suggested command was the refresh rates and the driver.

The driver was changed to "radeon" instead of "fglrx" which, as stated, did give me a usable desktop for the GUI but it also disabled my 3D acceleration.

I have booted the box back into init 3 and played with the xorg.conf file many times to see exactly what breaks the X session and determined beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is the Driver. If I want 3D (which is essential to some of the things I do) then I HAVE to have the driver listed as "fglrx". Problem being, as soon as I do that, I get the same issue I reported above.


QUESTION:
Where are the configs that are used for the bootup screen (the screen directly before the logon screen)? Doesn't that get read directly from the xorg.conf? If not, then where does it get the info for the resolution and refresh?

Speaking of refresh, is there a way to set the refresh rates for each resolution? I know that I am not asking for a resolution that the monitor and/or the vid card is not able to do. How do I set the refresh for each resolution?

I thought about searching the Gnome config files, but I do not believe that Gnome is responsible for the display until after you get by the logon screen, is it??


Steven,

I guess I am still a bit confused on what to search for using your search string. What kind of value do you see as being appropriate to plug in there? My only thought is screen resolutions, but surely that is not what you had in mind, is it?


Thanks for the great advise so far, guys. I am sure we must be close to a solution...

[Ivan Ferreira]

In this article, they shows a sample xorg.conf configuration for enabling 3D hardware accelearation. The Linux distribution does not matter. See:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/dri-howto.xml

[Steven E. Protter]

I would search for the parameters in the conf file that control the refresh rate/screen resolution.

My search does a content search of files in the first parameter. If you find the variable names/parameters set in user profiles, then you have located the problem.

Or possibly run xconfigurator again and see if it can resolve the problem GUI style.

SEP

[John Collier]

Gee. Seems like this is one of those issues that nobody likes to touch.

Anyway,

I have been looking into this a bit further and attempting to apply logic to it. While the link that Ivan has supplied is great for rebuilding and/or compiling a module or kernal in general, I did not find the info on where Xwindows pulls it's orriginal resolution and depth from. Perhaps I just overlooked it on that site.......?

In my searching, I found a thread through another source that pointed me back to the
Section "Screen"
in the conf file.

It was suggested on the other thread to change each "Depth" value to the same number(all at 16, all at 24, etc) including all of the 'Subsection' areas.

Questions:

What is the meaning of each 'Subsection' and why have multiple monitors described there?

Does anybody know what the full effect of changing them all to the same value would be in the long run?

Why not just delete some of them if they should all be the same anyway?

[Ivan Ferreira]

A good description of the xorg.conf configuration file can be found here:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/


Download the Red Hat Enterprise Reference Guide, it will give you the answers that you want.

Also, you should assing points to people that helped you, maybe you could get more help then ;).

[John Collier]

Ivan,

Thanks for the link and the advice on the download. I will review it as time permits since it seems to be rather lengthy.

As for the points, I invite you and anybody else that has not done so as of yet to review my profile to see my track record on point assignment. I think you may be suprised.

I am not unaware of the point system here nor am I affraid to award points to those who help, but I have gotten into the habit of assigning points to a thread when the issue is resolved so that I may give credit where credit is due and hopefuly make searching the forum archives a bit easier for others in the future.

I cannot count the times I have searched and found bunnies where none were deserved. It makes finding your answer much more difficult.

You and the others will get your points. That is a promise and my profile record will prove that I am telling the truth.


Fair?

[Ivan Ferreira]

Very fair, I understand now.

Good luck with your configuration!