Alright, I have a problem.

I followed all the instructions in this tutorial.

Worked fine. Logged into Xubuntu... everything was working fine.

When I restarted, and the login screen came up. I couldn't see anything. I could see the blue background for the login... but everything was garbled.

I typed in my name anyway, and password.

Colors changed to indicate that I had logged in... but everything was still garbled.

By a Miracle... I was able to find the log out button... and the display magically fixed itself.

But when I restarted, I had the same problem all over again. And I haven't been so lucky to find the log out button again.

Is there a shortcut for that?

I'm hoping to edit my kboot.conf file to put the video mode back to its original setting.

But, I can't see anything.

If I try to do it at kboot before I login, I get a read-only error.

What can I do? Thanks for your help.

Nevermind...

I was able to blindly login.

I then hit ctrl+alt+f1 to quit XFCE

I was then able to edit kboot.conf
sudo nano -w /etc/kboot.conf

put the videomode back to 3 rather than 131

So now I can see the login screen again properly.

But I have the black borders again.

So why didn't it work for me?

I was so happy yesterday when I seemed to have fixed it. But restarting kills it.

This happens every once in awhile due to fbset not running properly at startup. When that happens all you need to do is hit ctrl+alt+backspace to kill the X server, and then when gdm comes back up just click the restart button. Nine times out of ten upon reboot everything will be fine. Basically this is caused by the fbset command being placed in rc.local. Sometimes it tries to run the command after gdm starts instead of before and that is what causes the garble.

I have been looking for a safer place to put the command but I think I am just going to end up writing an init script for it. When I do I will post back in this thread and revise the howto.

So put everything back the way it was your linux wasn't broken hehe, and you did fix the border issue. You will just have to live with that happening once in awhile on boot until I get that init script done.

Worked just like you said. Thanks!

ok, maybe not.

It worked in that when I press Ctrl+alt+back space I kill x server. and then I can log in.

But it's not using my fbset settings... and I'm still having overscan.

For clarification... here is exactly what I did, and at the end, I'm still having overscan.

1) Open terminal window and type
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

type in password.

2) in non-gui screen (whatever it's called)... I type in login/password

3) I type in
ps3-video-mode -v 131

4) I type in
fbset -a -xres 1236 -yres 692

5) I type in
startx

6) XFCE starts up, and it looks perfect.

7) I log out.

8) I type in
fbset -a -xres 1236 -yres 692 -vxres 1236 -vyres 692

9) I type in
sudo nano -w /etc/kboot.conf

type in password

10) I edit kboot.conf so ps3video line reads 131'
Hit ctrl-x. Save it with y. Hit enter to write to file.

11) I type in
sudo nano -w /etc/rc.local

type in password

12) I edit rc.local by adding in
fbset -a -xres 1236 -yres 692 -vxres 1236 -vyres 692

in the line just before exit 0 or whatever.
ctrl+x. hit y to save. enter to write to file.

13) I should be done. So I restart with ctrl+alt+delete

14) The login screen is all garbled.

15) I hit ctrl+alt+backspace to kill x server.

16) magically the login screen comes back. but already I can tell there is overscan.

17) I log in... and still have overscan.

Why?

Now, I could just login with the overscan. Stop gdm. Enter ps3 video mode. enter fbset settings. Start x. and I'd be in heaven.

but I'd have to do that every single time.

Please tell me I'm doing something wrong. Thanks.

Everything you did was correct, except you need to completely reboot the ps3. Here is what you should do...

1. Power on the ps3

2. When you boot if the screen is garbled you hit ctrl+alt+backspace this will kill x and restart the server, but you will have overscan.

3. You REBOOT from gdm

4. After the ps3 has rebooted and started X again it should be ok, if not repeat steps 1-3 *I have only had to do this twice in a row one time*



This does not happen that often, usually about one out of every ten times I boot the fbset command runs after gdm has started which causes problems. I have been experimenting for the better part of the day with init scripts, when I find one that I am 100% sure will fix every issue with this, I will post it.

Is this at the login screen, where I click restart on the bottom left?

or after I login.... and click on the top right. ??

I ask because I've been doing what you've instructed, but I keep getting the garbled display everytime.

Also, does it matter when and how I shut down the PS3 (before turning it on again to follow the steps)??

Login screen, you wouldn't happen to be running gnome would you? Another user here is getting the garbled screen on every reboot, and he is running gnome. However I tested and I could not reproduce it. If that consistently happens you may be forced to wait until I get that init script figured out, or just do it manually everytime with startx, which sucks. There is another more extreme option that I am hesitant to mention here because it involves editing driver files and kernel compilation, but if this is going to pose a problem for some people I may write a howto on it as well.

Could you also do me a favor and post the exact contents of your rc.local file steve?