Screen display in a dual boot system

[wazhang]

I am dual booting Red Hat 7.1 with Win2K Pro and have run into several problems. In this post, I shall report the problem with the screen display.

In RH7.1, the screen display is about 1/2 an inch off the left edge of the monitor, to the right. If I correct the problem, then the screen would be about 1/2 an inch off the right edge of the monitor, to the left in Win2K!

Is there a way to fix the problem??

My video card is a 16MB Riva TNT2 AGP, and the monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster 753DF.

Many thanks in advance.

[rattus]

IIRC xvidtune can center your X display without doing it through the monitor hardware.

Center it in Win2K (option 2: format Win2K partition :D). Boot into RH, start X, run xvidtune - enjoy :)

[ 27 September 2001: Message edited by: rattus ]

[wazhang]

The change is not permanent.
After I have booted out of Linux, into Win2K, and then back into Linux again, the screen is off the center once again, as before!

Is there a *permanent* way to center the screen??

Thanks in advance.

[MandK_10]

Are you using the latest greatest drivers? The thing that would cause the difference in where the screeens are placed would most likely be the refresh rate.

One option would be to change the refresh rate in Windows until you see the screen move off center about the same as it does in RedHat. then center it with the monitor hardware and all should be OK.

This is probably not the best fix but the easiest.

[wazhang]

"Are you using the latest greatest drivers?"

I have downloaded the "latest greatest" drivers from Nvidia's site(rpm) but am too chickened to insatll it. I am a *complete* newbie to Linux and not a techie in any sense regarding computers. Anyways, if you are generous enough to provide the step-by-step instructions here--Nvidia's instructions are not adequate, I am willing to give it a try--to insatll the "latest greatest" driver for my TNT 2 card, that is.

I have downloaded the latest Nvidia driver in the rpm format for the RH7.1 single cpu kernal. Since I have only one cpu in my system, I guess that must be the right choice. I have downloaded my RH7.1 from one of RH's mirror sites, BTW.

"One option would be to change the refresh rate in Windows until you see the screen move off center about the same as it does in RedHat. then center it with the monitor hardware and all should be OK."

I'll give it a try.

"This is probably not the best fix but the easiest."
Probably. Lowering the current refresh rate--it is currently set at the highest that the monitor can support(85Hz)--will degrade the video quality.

Thanks very much.

[ 27 September 2001: Message edited by: wazhang ]

[ 27 September 2001: Message edited by: wazhang ]

[rattus]

You'll probably find that X is _not_ running your monitor in the same mode that Win2K is - I'd imagine that it's picking a modeline that's running significantly less than 85Hz.

The trick is to get X to run in the _same_ mode that Win2K is. Unfortunately, I can't step through this on my own box ('cos I should be working rather than doing this, and there's no penguin at work :( ) I'll have a poke around when I get home and see if I can come up with a more concrete suggestion.

There _should_ be a way to make the xvidtune settings the default for X - agina, I'll be able to help more when I can actually play with X at home.