No screen in Xorg -- Modeline dotclock expected [Solved]

Message

Penguin of Wonder · Post by **Penguin of Wonder** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:57 pm

I've read several threads on this forum about No Screen Errors, but those don't have my problem, I didn't think so anyway.

Everytime I use

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startx

All I get is a blank screen. Thats is. Just a blank screen. In my Xorg.0.log it says

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Parse error on line 50 of section monitor in file /etc/X11/xorg.conf 
     ModeLine dotclock expected
(EE) Problem parsing the config file
(EE) Error parsing the config file

Fatal server error:
No screens found.

This is the monitor section of my Xorg.conf file.

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Section "Monitor"
     Identifies   "Monitor0"
     HorizSync  30 - 85
     VertRefresh  50 - 160
     VendorName   "Gateway"
     ModelName    "VX730"
     Modeline    "1280x1024_100"  -HSync +VSync
EndSection

Its obvious which line is the problem line, but how do I fix it? I got the HorizSync and VertRefresh from the book the monitor came with, but I don't know how to figure out the other numbers. Thanks for any help!!

jrz · Post by **jrz** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:32 pm

use a program like vidgen or gtf to generate the modeline

SinoTech · Post by **SinoTech** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:35 pm

Not sure if the "ModeLine" could also be part of the monitor section, but in normal case it's part of the "Modes" section and gets referenced in the "Monitor" section. e.g.

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[...]
Section "Modes"
     Identifier     "16:10"
     ModeLine "1680x1050" 119.06 1680 1728 1760 1840 1050 1053 1059 1080 -HSync +VSync

EndSection


Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "DELL 2005FPW"
        VendorName      "DELL"
        UseModes        "16:10"
        HorizSync       30.0 - 83.0 
        VertRefresh     60.0
        Option          "DPMS"
EndSection
[...]

To get a correct "ModeLine" you could use the "gtf" command which comes with xorg-x11.
Regards,

Sino

EDIT:
You should rename

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Identifies   "Monitor0"

to

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Identifier   "Monitor0"

Penguin of Wonder · Post by **Penguin of Wonder** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:55 pm

Alright I computed my Modeline using gtf, I fixed it in my xorg.conf and I no longer get the no screens error. Here's the line i'm using:

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Modeline "1280x1024_75.00" 138.54 1280 1368 1504 1728 1024 1025 1028 1069 -HSync +VSync

With that now in its own section "Modes" as suggested by SinoTech.

I'm still getting the blank screen though. My Xorg.0.log no longer shows any errors.

Oh, and my Xorg.conf actually said "Identifier" not "Identifies" that was a typo on my part, sorry. I even tried commenting the BusID line in my Nvidia Card section (something I saw in another thread), but that didn't fix it either.

Any ideas what the problem might be now? I'm totally clueless now.

Penguin of Wonder · Post by **Penguin of Wonder** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:15 am

Are there any other log files produced by Vixie Cron that might be recording an error message?

Penguin of Wonder · Post by **Penguin of Wonder** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:35 am

Ok guys I've figured out what was wrong, but that just means I have new problems.

I get a blank screen when I type

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startx

because something is wrong with my nVidia driver. In my xorg.conf file I switched from

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Driver   "nvidia"

to

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Driver "vesa"

and now it works. I don't know whats wrong with nvidia, so I'm going to have to look into that. Also after X finally started, I was given several errors so i'm going to have to look into all of those. Thanks for all the help though guys!