[adding cc to mailing list again]

Andy Elvey wrote:

The window appears just before X starts. You're correct in that the mouse pointer moves "below" the window. The monitor is an "AOC LM925" - AOC is the manufacturer. It is a VGA one.

Okay. After figuring out that "AOC Monitor Australia/New Zealand" sells different monitors than "AOC Europe", it was easy to get to the manual:

http://www.aocmonitor-anz.com/support/manuals/LM925usermanual8ms.pdf

Okay. Now boot your Linux that works. Then press the rightmost button on your monitor (MENU) to get into the OSD menu (if this does not work, someone locked the OSD menu. Read page 8 of the manual - OSD Lock function - on how to unlock it). Use Left and Right (the keys left and right from the power button) to move to the "Information" icon (that looks like a "i" in a circle) and press MENU again. It will show screen resolution and horizontal and vertical refresh rate (i.e. three values). Exit from the OSD with the EXIT button (leftmost button). Post them here :)

If you want, you can repeat this inside GRML. Page 18 of the manual lists "suggested refresh rates", but it does not list all supported ones. For 1280x1024 it suggests 60Hz or 75Hz.

< rant directed at the bouncy window's designer - not directed at you or grml... >

Drop your rant here: http://www.aocmonitor-anz.com/contact.php :)

Very poorly-thought-out by the bios people or whoever..... </rant>

It's not the BIOS. In fact, it is not inside your PC at all.

VGA signals are designed for CRT monitors. So, your LCD panel needs a microcontroller chip that converts the signal so that it can be used on the LCD.

That microcontroller will display OSD error messages on the screen - they are *not* present in the signal that goes from PC to monitor. Buy a monitor from a different manufacturer next time *g*. (By the way, it sounds a bit silly that the RAMDAC chip on your graphics card converts the image in the frame buffer to analog signals and your LCD panel convert them back to digital. But that is how it works if you use a VGA connector).

Michael