[Novalug] RIPLinuX quandary

[Beartooth]

 	I'm trying to shift my #1 machine over from Fedora 8 to 
Fedora 9. I got it out from behind the KVM switch, and did the 
install with direct connections to the peripherals, so that it 
could negotiate with them any way it needed. This worked fine 
with my #2.

 	#1, after what seemed a normal upgrade, however, is so 
far off that I just get a brief little box on the monitor saying 
it's outside something, and to set it to 1680x1050.

 	With RIPLinuX, I can edit what seems to be the machine's 
own /etc/X11/xorg.conf (not RIPLinux's). I've tried that a couple 
ways, trying to clone what #2 (running F9) and #3 (running F8) 
have -- the hard way, behind the KVM switch.

 	I would much rather ssh into #1, or simply scp a config 
file over. But, although RIPLinux will make it connect to the 
router, it then refuses ssh and scp from the rest of the LAN.

 	Nor have I yet managed to get it to boot from its own 
hard drive into init3. I can hit I for the interactive boot, but 
it then does that its own way, with plenty of yes/no questions, 
but without (afaict) giving me any chance to tell it init3.

 	With RIPLinux, if it gets to its useless, promptless 
display, I can hit Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to get a root prompt; but 
with the machine booted from the hard drive, that fails.

 	#1 machine does fine with this  monitor (an HP w2207h) 
running F8; so do #2 and #3, albeit without actually using 
1680x1050. (They think it's 1280x1024, and one of them uses 
1440x900 under that (!), but it's close enough for the monitor 
itself to accommodate the difference by stretching.

 	So it can't well be really hardware.

-- 
Beartooth Gerontoflatulocrat,
Cantankerous Codger
I have hunted, and I have lived.