After install monitor flashes (ALMOST SOLVED...)

[Seragx99]

Hi to everyone! I'm Sergi, Linux newbie from Mexico, I decided to give a try to Vector Linux! i just installed VL soho 5.9 and I have one issue, well, many actually, but in order to be concise here's one i'd love to solve (along with the short version):
- Installed, during screen configuration  I chose 1024x768 and the open nvidia driver (I have nvidia Geforce fx5200), then after reboot when the gui starts all i see is my monitor flashing, since i've done a number of installs and reinstalls (explained in the long version)what I'd love to know is if there's a way to configure the xorg.conf without entering graphic mode, help!
My PC: AMD athlon xp 2000, 512 ram, asus motherboard, nvidia geforce fx5200 and two HD, 1st one with win xp and 2nd one for my linux experiments
long version:
I started my linux ride with ubuntu 6.10 (i installed it on 2007 but got that version from an old imported spanish mag) and it was cool, but after sucessive updates my old pc started to feel every time slower, until in one of 08 versions it froze a la win98, tried clean install and problems wtih my graphic card started to never being resolved, that + continued freezes made me change my views to other linux flavors, yesterday i tried VL 6. When i tried first install after gui told me to choose resolution none worked (my screen flashed thus making further installation attempts impossible) ,so I tried text, chose 800 x 600 and open nv driver, install was succesful but i couldn't see the edges of windows (like firefox), so i reinstalled twice to check the nvidia drivers and different resolutions, being installing soho edition my last choice, i thought the open drivers wouldn't give no prob since they worked on 800x600 but big dissapointment, they didn't, I had problems setting internet but I'll get to that problem when i solve this one, big thanks to all!

[M0E-lnx]

Si yo fuera tu, hubiera instalado la version 6.0
Los drivers han sido actualizados, por lo que hay mejor probabilidades de que tu video funcione mejor.
Si decides quedarte con 5.9, puedes intentar cambiar tu driver de video a "vesa" mientras que compilas los drivers de nvidia.

____

I'd install vection 6.0. Drivers have been updated, so you have a better chance of getting your video hardware to work.

[Seragx99]

Nice to get an answer in spanish, but i'll sitck with English just in case someone else gets gets help with my solution.
Luckily I found an answer in some other post, well i kinda knew it but didn't know how to get there, and it wasn't so simple:
1. Login in text mode, meaning when LILO appears choose "linux tui".
2. Login as root
3. Edit the xorg.conf file, in the post it said: mcedit /etc/x11/xorg.conf and add  "HoryzSync 30-55" section.
And this was the tricky part, until number 2, everything was cool, but then I entered the command (mcedit /etc/x11/xorg.conf) and a big warning said something like "this file can't be opened for reading", after that I noticed that if you just enter mc instead of mcedit you can simply browse to the file, so the command was "mc /etc/x11/xorg.conf". Another bump, although i saw the file list and commands (file, edit, etc) like i was on a browser I didn't know what to do with them, then i noticed the mouse was working, so i picked the xorg.conf file and pointed the mouse to the "edit" command and bingo! i just searched the "horySync" line, changed the values to 30-55, I restarted and it was great, i'm still dealing with some unfinished issues with Winxp so i'm writing from there, but i'll keep exploring.
And why the ALMOST SOLVED tag? because i'd like to try if i can run my machine with closed nvidia drivers, so my new question, how can i do that from vector linux, and get back to old configuratios in case something messes horribly?

PS I picked VL 5.9 because i wanted to try kde4, and i read in a review that in VL it ran smoothly in an old machine like mine, and since the only one with it was SOHO and the only downloadable was 5.9 i gave it a try, hence another question, should I install VL 6 would it be possible to install KDE and not turn my machine into a toast?

[M0E-lnx]

I dont recall 5.9 SOHO having KDE4 by default.
KDE4 is in our repositories, and can be installed on any 6.0 version. And yes... 6.0 SOHO will have it. Should be out for testing soon.

[Seragx99]

Heey is that true? because 5 9 is running smoothly, still i'd like to try the nvidia drivers once I have completed my installation, how's that done? and is kde available throgh slaptget?