[NTLUG:Discuss] Boot Up Parameters - Keeping them in LiveCD

[Robert Pearson]

On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 7:53 AM, David Simmons <dave at dgnal.net> wrote:
>
>
>>> Can you do Ctrl-Alt-F1?  This would determine the extent of
> lockup (the
>>> whole machine or just the graphical
> environment).
>>>
>> Or can you do a ctrl+alt+backspace
> and kill the x session?
>
> All good ideas....but I'm talking about
> a module or something killing it...don't think it's a X-Server
> issue....machine locks (as in only by Reset Button can I reboot)....none
> of the 'backdoors' work.
>
> -dave
>
>
>
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>

I had a similar problem to these symptoms and the picture you posted.
The problem turned out to be the LCD monitor. Once I retired that I
have had no problems with any distro.
My only conclusion (no hard data other than replacing the monitor) was
that the monitor info was either not returned to the OS or incorrect
monitor info was returned and then Xorg set the monitor to something
that couldn't work.
 If you have an working CRT or a known good LCD I would try those.
I did finally get openSUSE 11.0 to install but I could never get the
monitor set right for a decent display.

I believe this is actually a flaw in the way Linux "X" is setting the
monitor at boot. From what I read, it appears that Ubuntu 8.10 does
not use this process any longer signaling a trend away from the old
problematic way.