Need help: X GUI objects invisible

[James Wilkinson]

Bruce Elliott wrote:
> <Note: this is a reposting of a message I sent two days ago, but which 
> never appeared in the digest.  Perhaps I sent it too soon after I'd 
> joined the list?>

I never saw it, either: oh well...

> I'm new to this list, and to Fedora, having just installed Fedora Core 3 
> on a Compaq Presario desktop with an 800 MHz Celeron processor.  I've 
> been running Red Hat Linux 9.0 for a bit over a year, though, so I'm not 
> a total Linux newbie (but I'm not far off).
> 
> The problem I'm having is that as soon as X is started, the GUI widgets 
> don't work right.  When I booted for the first time, I got the intro 
> screens that prompted me to set the root password, define a non-admin 
> user, set the monitor type, and so forth.  Even at this stage, I noticed 
> that the drop down menus weren't redrawing themselves correctly when I 
> manipulated the scroll bars.  Only the last visible item would change, 
> until I moved the cursor over the rest of the list, whereupon it would 
> update as well.
> 
<snip further problems>
> 
> BTW, I doubt this is a hardware problems, since this PC had Win2K on it 
> when I got it, and then I briefly had SuSE Server installed on it, and 
> both worked fine.  I didn't think I'd need anything from the SuSE 
> install (and I'd already wiped out Windows), so I just did a clean 
> install of FC 3.  My monitor is a generic 1024 X 1280 LCD panel model 
> (labeled "Envision"), and I don't know the brand of video card, although 
> I'll check that if it would help.

Yes, it will probably be necessary.

Take a look at /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and post the section that looks like
this (it's the Videocard* bit that identifies the section: much of the
rest will be different):

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "nv"
        VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
        BoardName   "NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX (generic)"
EndSection

Then, as root, run
/sbin/lspci -v
and report the section that starts with some numbers then "VGA
compatible controller".

Thanks,

James.

-- 
James Wilkinson       | History books in Ireland and Scotland are littered
Exeter    Devon    UK | with the 'wrong' spelling, and there is no law that
E-mail address: james | tells you how to spell whisky. The Welsh even spell it
@westexe.demon.co.uk  | 'chwisgi', which makes sense after two or three large
                      | ones.  -- http://uk.glenfiddich.com/world/faqs/