[NTLUG:Discuss] I screwed up

[bkontr]

> Hello,
> 
> I installed RedHat 9.0 on my Gateway Solo 9550 laptop a few days ago. The 
> other night I was reconfiguring the display settings. I noticed that the 
> Install program hadn't recognized my LCD, so I told it what LCD I had, or at 
> least which one I 'thought' I had. I told it I had a flat panel LCD capable 
> of 1600x1200 and then I set the resolution to that. Apparently I was wrong 
> and now when it boots up it comes to a blank screen, typical if the display 
> settings are wrong. I don't know how to fix this particular problem in Linux. 
> Upon boot-up there doesn't appear to be a way to prevent going into XWindows 
> but rather go to a command prompt. Any help would be appriciated.
> 
> Will
> 

Will,

As last resort, you might try the RH9 install CD which usually has a 
rescue feature.  From there you can mount the linux partition and chroot 
to the root directory to fix the problem.  Also, you might want to edit 
/etc/inittab to default to runlevel 3 (instead of 5) until you are
sure X will start OK on boot. After you think you fixed X try (from text 
mode) the command startx to see if X starts OK. Ctl-Alt-Backspace gets 
you back to the CLI. Finally, try telinit 5 to see if the login screen 
for X comes up OK. If Those tests work then X should start OK at boot 
with /etc/inittab set to boot to runlevel 5 .

Regards,
Brian