There is an on board graphics chip set which does not have the resolution I require so I have added a new card in a slot.
My problem is that I cannot find any way in Yast to change the card being shown as selected.
If I go the Hardware > Hardware Information, both “cards” are shown. However, even though the monitor is plugged into the new card and is working OK, the Graphics chip set shown in Hardware > Graphics Card & Monitor is the original on-board chipset.
So how do I change the card to be used without doing a new install?
First try disabling your onboard card in the bios configuration, then boot opensuse using runlevel 3 (init3). When booting reaches the runlevel 3 it will show the login in text mood. Type your user name and user password, then type the command su and then your root password. Next is to execute the command sax2 -r -m 0=vesa. Just accept the sax2 configuration for now.
At the next prompt type init 5 when it give you the graphical login screen, login to your favorite de. Go to yast2 and see if it is using the newly installed graphic card and edit the resolution accordingly.
You did not provide the specs of the new card, it will be helpful to some members if you can provide more information regarding your system for more relevant feedback.
Hi and thanks for the detailed reply. My first problem is that there is no means which I can see in the BIOS by which the on-board graphics may be disabled. I will check the PCI configuration to see if I can disable the “slot” which is assigned to the on board graphics chip (8) but I am out of my depth with interrupts.
The additional card I have added is an old Matrox Millenium. Not sure exactly which model (am on different machine at moment so cannot check,) but it is recognized and driver loaded.
I still cannot get the on-board graphics to work (with no Matrox card installed) at their best resolution but if I start with safe start option then resolution is OK but I believe only one processor working. There may be some clue here which would mean more to you than me.
There are strange things going on as, even without the Matrox card, I can restart from the desktop but cannot shut down completely.
Will come back with more info when I have looked harder at the BIOS.
Meanwhile a thought following reading other threads, what if I add the on-board chip driver to the modprobe.d blacklist so it is not loaded?
Sorry for the delay. I couldn’t disable the on board display card without creating other problems. When I tried to boot with the new display card installed anyhow, if I selected normal mode I was brought to a command line login so followed your advice. I received message along the lines that it could not start sax.
I have been able to boot with new card in failsafe mode. The command line inserted is
off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1x11failsafe vga=0x314.
vga=0x314 is the 800x600 installation resolution which works. I have no idea what processor part does but clearly I wish to use all four processors and I have no idea what off highres=off is for. Which of these should I include in normal boot process? I shall keep experimenting but more advice would be appreciated when you have time.
Regards and thanks,
Budgie2