Today when I turned on my Linux computer, the monitor worked fine, until the end of startup, when it started flashing grey lines. After turning it off and on again, the problem continued. I shut down the computer, and then tried turning the monitor on, but the same problem occurred. After unplugging the monitor and plugging it back in it worked fine, so I started up the computer, only to have the same problem as before.
What’s going on?
It is an LCD monitor, and I think maybe the computer is trying to set it to a resolution that is not compatible. This is also strange because the monitor worked fine yesterday, and as far as I know, nothing has been changed since then.
Have you tried changing the resolution of your Linux desktop, and seeing if the problem continues? I presume you are running a graphical environment like Gnome or KDE, correct me if I’m wrong.
Can you boot into safe mode? Usually, safe mode uses extremely conservative settings for XFree86. If the graphical environment works in safe mode, then you can reboot and use one of the text consoles (ctrl+alt+F1, for example) and run “xf86config” and set your XF86Config file to good values.
Before you do this, copy /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.bak. If your distro doesn’t use XF86Config-4, copy XF86Config. Either one should be in /etc/X11.
If you can’t boot into safe mode, jump right to trying accessing a text console, copying your XF86Config-4 and running xf86config.
More strangeness to report - after restarting again, and unplugging/replugging the monitor during startup, everything worked!
My new hypothesis is that the monitor is dying, and is having difficulty switching resolutions.
And an unrelated question - How can I change my default browser? I installed Firebird, but now it is set as a default browser. I tried changing it in “preferred applications” but nothing happened.
Why is there no anti-aliasing on Firebird? Can I turn it on somehow? (I’ve checked through the options menu, but I haven’t found anything)
Which window manager are you using? KDE, GNOME? Maybe BlackBox, FluxBox, WindowMaker or IceWM? Give us a hint.
What do you mean when you say your default browser is Firebird? Do you mean that you are browsing your home directory using Nautilus (GNOME) or Konqueror (KDE) and Firebird is executed when you click on an html file? If so, then in in the control center for whichever desktop you are using, you can change the program associated with the file type .html.
In GNOME, open Nautilus and go to “preferences:///Advanced” and click on “File types and programs”. In the expandable list, go to “Documents > World Wide Web > HTML Page”. Click edit. Add browser of your choice.
For the browser GNOME should use, go to “preferences:///Advanced” like before, but click on “Preferred Applications”.
For KDE, use the menu to pull up KDE Control Center or, from the command line, execute “kcontrol”. Components > File Associations > Text > html