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How to recover from a xorg.conf snafu!

So one of the few gripes with Linux that I have is the whole monitor / graphics management thing. It can go horridly wrong but if you have root, admin access (and another machine) you can recover from monitor config hell!

Ok so the following is assumed!

You have borked your monitor configuration and you can no longer access it thru an attached monitor - in effect you have locked yourself out of your machines GUI.

You are using a fedora system that used to have a working GUI. (Note this process may work for other linux systems but use at your own risk etc etc....)

You have appropriate access (ie root or sudo access via ssh)

you have another machine with network access to the bourked machine.


The above screen to the right may be familiar!

This is how to fix the problem.

Arrange things so that you are in front of the borked machine and can access the mouse and keyboard of said machine!

ssh in either as root or a sudo capable user.

issue the following commands

cd /etc/X11/

this will switch you into the directory where your xorg.conf is located.

Now back up your existing xorg.conf just in case we need it

cp xorg.conf xorg_backup.conf

now delete the xorg.conf

rm xorg.conf

(you will have to probably confirm the process .. do it!)

now issue the following

system-config-display

and now you should see something like this on your machine!




From hear you can re set the monitor (using the GUI) to something useful!

Note you may at this point need to do a re-start.

shutdown -r now

PS. It is a good thing to start with a low resolution setting at first and then work up the scale to what ever config you want. If you botch things up again just repeat the above steps until you get a working system.

I hope this helps


Steve

PS. Once you have a working system again it will be a good idea to clean up / delete the old xorg_backup.conf file.






© 2006 Steve Abrahall