Strange problem with laptop

[xsrvx]

I just want some opinions on this weird problem because I am not very laptop savvy.
I have a Winbook FX and I installed Win95 on it set everything up and then I ran fips and resized the partition.I installed Linux based on slackware and everything dual boots fine.
Now here is where it gets weird
After setting up X it worked fine with settings I have used in countless other installs of this OS.If I dual boot to Win95 and then boot back to Linux when I run X the video is pretty messed up.I tried all kinds of settings,even went so far as to look up the exact settings for the video and display to no avail.
I wiped it and started over and this time just booted Linux over and over to see if it was related to the dual booting into Windows (95 btw) because I could not see how it could be but everything was pointing there.
I booted Linux many times with no X problems at all but sure enough the first time I went into Windows and then back to Linux BAM X was all messed up.

Can you guys give me some opinions on what you think it may be because while I do not HAVE to dual boot it would be nice for those few windowy things I have to do.



[This message has been edited by xsrvx (edited January 05, 2001).]

[ledrichard]

hey man, I don't know about linux but, is there somewhere where you can set the refresh rate manually.?

[Percy]

No real idea of a solution for you, but you've got a laptop, which means integrated video. It sounds like when you're booting into Windows, the drivers are setting some hardware config, like refresh rate or maybe resolution and then when you go into Linux your video's all dinked up. I had a similar problem with a SuSE install. Being lazy, and since it was a home machine I just dealt with it when ever I switched OSs.

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Perseverance in all matters.

[Larommi]

Do you completly power off when you reboot to Linux? Possible there is something residing in your ram that is not being flushed. Especially if the laptop has low power save your work type settings. It is supposed to save your work to the hard drive but might keep some in the ram.

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You spend your whole life believing that you're on the right track,
only to discover that you're on the wrong train.

[korpse]

Wow thats one of the weirdest things i've ever heard. I agree with Larommi and suggest you completely power down before booting into Linux. Let us know how it works out. Also, have you tried any other distributions of linux and had the same problem?

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"You dumb bastard...it's not a schooner, it's a sailboat!"

[BreakWindows]

l've seen things like this before...my modem would switch IRQ's and have to be reset when l was in Win, and assorted little hardware inconsistencies. Check the BIOS...you should NOT have "PnP OS" set to yes, nor should "settings be made auto" and anythign else that lets the OS change the harware settings.

The one thing l thought was odd, is that Linux has strict settings that it reads from a configuration file. l'd check the BIOS, chmod your XF86Config to read only, and actually, double check the settings in there to make sure it defines the modes...you should see at least one line like this:

Modeline "1024x768" 65 1024 1032 1176 1344 768 771 777 806 +hsync +vsync

(it won't have to be those numbers exactly, that is for 1024x768@65hz)