Re: Different Sarge kernel upgrade question

["John Fleming" <john@wa9als.com>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrey Andreev" <andreev@cs.helsinki.fi>
To: "John Fleming" <john@wa9als.com>
Cc: <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 5:32 PM
Subject: Re: Different Sarge kernel upgrade question


> John Fleming wrote:
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrey Andreev" 
> > <andreev@cs.helsinki.fi>
> > To: "John Fleming" <john@wa9als.com>
> > Cc: <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 11:13 AM
> > Subject: Re: Different Sarge kernel upgrade question
> >
> >
> > > John Fleming wrote:
> > >
> > > > Please tell this newbie about issues regarding kernel upgrades.  I'm 
> > > > having trouble using my Dell flat panel display with Sarge and 2.4 
> > > > kernel.  I've tried all the X reconfigure options to no avail.  The box 
> > > > works fine with a CRT, but with the flat panel, it just flashes and is 
> > > > unusable.  Is it crazy to think trying the 2.6 kernel might help this 
> > > > problem?  I'm under the impression that 2.6 has better hardware support 
> > > > than 2.4.
> > >
> > >
> > > The kernel does not drive the display, your display adapter does. Can 
> > > you submit the exact display model and the model of your display 
> > > adapter? Maybe we could help.
> >
> >
> > Display:  Dell E152FPc
> > Display ATI Rage Fury (8MB)
>
> From:
>
> http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/monitors/E152FP/English/specs.htm
>
> we get the refresh rates and supported resolutions for the display:
>
> [quote]
> Horizontal scan range 30 kHz to 63 kHz (automatic)
> Vertical scan range 56 Hz to 76 Hz (automatic)
> [/quote]
>
> We go to
>
> http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl
>
> and feed those for 1024x768 at 60 Hz. We get the following modeline
>
> Modeline "1024x768@60" 64.56 1024 1056 1296 1328 768 783 791 807
>
> Put this in the Monitor section of your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
> and add the mode in the Display subsection (for the color depth you use( 
> of the Screen section in the same file.
>
> When you get this to work, you can play with the xtiming site and 
> different modelines to get the optimal refresh for your display.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Andro

Thanks for the insights and xtiming link, Andro.  (Pardon the double-copy, 
but it's been a few days, and I wanted to increase my chances you see this 
as well as others that might be able to help.)

I've tried the above suggestions for both 1024x768 and 800x600, and it 
really doesn't help my problem.  This isn't easy to explain, but I hope that 
someone has some more suggestions.

I use kdm, and when the login screen comes up, it seems stable (no 
flickering).  I can login, and things seem fine at first.  Then let's say I 
use Kmail to look at some email, or decide to look at the contents of a text 
file.  Within a few minutes, I will get a 1-sec of so screen flicker, often, 
but not always, when I move the mouse.  Over the next 30 min or so, this 
problem gets worse and worse until the screen is blank most of the time with 
only a flicker of visibility.  If I use ctl-alt-F1 to get a shell, it also 
has the same flicker problem.

I think I've also tried at least one of the above resolutions at 2 different 
vertical scan rates, i.e. 60 and 75, to no avail.  I really don't know any 
particular rationale to plugging in any other numbers, and doing so randomly 
isn't appealing.

In addition to manually editingf the config file, I've also used 
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 and tried both ATI and VESA choices, as 
well as LCD screen or not, all with no effect.  Could the mouse choices 
affect screen performance?  I usually enable scroll wheel (and it doesn't 
work later) and I don't enable 3-button mouse emulation.

What's going on here?  Any other approaches to the problem?  THANKS!  - John



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