RedHat Linux: Monitor Type?

[TWTCommish]

Alright, I'm having some trouble.

Thankfully, I have a copy of "Learning Red Hat Linux" from O'Reilly -- it comes with a RedHat CD. A couple days ago, I stuck in the CD, and ran the installation program. I followed the directions within the book as well as I could, but it seems now that, to reach the GUI ("X", I believe it's called), I need to set some things up...

...one of those, I believe, is called Xconfigurator -- while setting this up, I'm asked for information about my video card, my monitor, etc. I simply do not know the answer to these questions. How can I find things out? I try accepting all the defaults, but that doesn't seem to work.

[sowen]

Are you installing RH to dual boot with Windows? If so just boot into windows and jot down the details from the display properties.

I wasn't and had the same problems and ended up installing windows just to find out those details There must be an easier way

[Aidan Bahta]

You may be able to find the monitor info by looking on the back of your monitor, and the videocard info by looking at your videocard

[TWTCommish]

Sorry, no dual boot -- I formatted everything until all I had was 4GB of space, a CD ROM, and a boot disk for Windows ME -- I didn't even have a C drive.

Aidan: my monitor isn't here with me, but I'll try looking at it when I get back. However, it's quite old. As for the video card: well, I don't know if I have any paperwork about it or anything -- I didn't really think the necessary information would be sitting there right ON my video card.

[Aidan Bahta]

If all else fails, you can try selecting generic drivers, but be sure you run at 640x480 until you can find the correct drivers

[qslack]

Sometimes, the video card name and model number is shown right before the BIOS screen. Maybe you could look there.

Also, if it's a name brand, then you could check their website and see what that model shipped with. I'm assuming it's a somewhat old computer, and until recently, there weren't several video card choices when you were selecting the components for your computer.

[freakysid]

There should be some generic options given to you during the install. If you must you can choose the generic setting to start with. Linux wants to know your monitor to know its specs like its refresh rate.

[TWTCommish]

Hi Sid. Yeah, I was looking for some kind of default/generic option, but I couldn't find it. Perhaps my version of RedHat is older than it should be? I can't seem to find the version on this CD anywhere (or in the book).

I guess there arn't any other ways to determine the specifications of my video card/monitor? I'll definintely try what has been mentiond when I get back to it, though.

[qslack]

You can probably find the distro version with one of these commands:

cat /etc/motd
cat /etc/issue
uname -a

[Technosailor]

The monitor is easy. If you can't tell by looking at the front of it...mine is a Gateway VX900 (19" yeah baby!) then you can find out by looking at the back.

The video card, you can find by
a) looking in the BIOS (hit F1, or Del or F2 or something like that)
b) or (it may not be pretty) actually pulling your card out and looking at it. It should be imprinted somewhere on the card.

HTH.

Sketch