How To Reconfigure X From Terminal on Fedora 9

First time Fedora installation on untested hardware sometimes needs some tweaking encouragement and tips from time to time. At times, X just would not work. Sometimes, X is misconfigured and needs to be reconfigured. Reconfiguring X takes no standard approach depending on the type of video card you have from your box.

As long as you have access to shell or terminal, the chance of reconfiguring X successfully increases. 

How To Reconfigure X from Terminal on Fedora 9

If by chance, your screen  is showing display error message like Input Signal Out of Range, simply press Ctrl + F1 to gain access to your linux terminal. Super user details is required, enter your root as username and your root password. Backup Xorg conf file

# cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11.xorg.conf.BAK

During the old Redhat days, executing redhat-config-xfree86 should give you access to reconfigure X. But in Fedora, every redhat-config-* command is renamed to system-config-* commands. Issue

# system-config-display

If problem persists, go back to Ctrl + F1, press Ctrl + C to gain back shell access and try issuing

# system-config-display --reconfig

Issuing system-config-display gives you access to reconfigure your X and build your /etc/X11/xorg.conf X file. If the problem could not be resolved, try issuing

# system-config-display --reconfig --noui

to force the command not to use GUI on reconfiguring X in Fedora.  This command rebuilds xorg.conf file.

For every play around with the above command, remember to check X if it has been properly configured by pressing Ctrl + F7 and afterwards, hitting Ctrl + BackSpace. This should restart X daemon.

If all fails, and reconfiguring X using system-config-display --reconfig did not work, try to copy the original Xorg conf file like so

# cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.BAK /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and edit it

# nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf

From the last few lines of the file, hack the Xorg conf file to have

Modes     "800x600" "640x400"

for the most basic display screen modes. 

Restart X by going back to Ctrl + F7 or by rebooting the system. Make sure that your system would start in level 5 by editing the file /etc/inittab . The file /etc/inittab should have the line

id:5:initdefault:

If the problem of reconfiguring X is still not solved, try changing and using a default VGA display driver like the ones from intel . Simply edit /etc/xorg.conf and have

#Drive    "nv"   # for nvidia cards

Driver     "intel"

under Device section. Save, exit, restart X and try again all previous commands until you get the system-config-display working. Most times, a tweak of video driver and modes from /etc/X11/xorg.conf should do it.

If you happen to have NVidia video card, simply head on here.