Re: Problems with vesa X driver

[Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@alice-dsl.net>]

On Thu, 2013-10-17 at 07:47 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote:
>    Section "Device"
>            Identifier "Default Device"
>            Driver "vesa"
>    EndSection
>    Section "Screen"
>            Identifier "Configured Screen"
>            Device "Default Device"
>            Monitor "Default Monitor"
>            Subsection "Display"
>    #
>    # Note: specifying a mode name of "1024x768" eliminates interlaced modes
>    # from consideration.  Interlaced modes have a mode name ending in "i".
>    # For example: "1024x768i".
>    #
>                    Modes "1024x768"
>            EndSubSection
>    EndSection
> 
> However, the first problem may be a usage issue that
> I can solve with appropriate tweaks in xorg.conf.  I just need to know
> what to do.  Ideas anyone?

[rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ cat /mnt/avlinux/etc/issue
Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 \n \l

[rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ cat /mnt/avlinux/etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
  	DisplaySize  305 230
  	HorizSync    29-98
  	VertRefresh  50-120
	modeline     "1152x864" 128.42 1152 1232 1360 1568 864 865 868 910
  	Gamma	     1.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver	"radeon"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth	24
		Modes      "1152x864"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

In the past it was possible to get the frequency range by trial and
error, today this doesn't work for me anymore, you need to get it from
the web or your monitor's manual or IIRC I looked at a Suse install,
they provided default values for monitors. My German monitor might be
equal to another, international one, but IIRC I couldn't get info by the
web, just Suse supported it. On Arch Linux with a nearly equal config, I
get 81.9kHz/90.0Hz with the above config. IIRC the frequency thing does
work with the vesa driver too, just the resolution has to be 1024x768 or
another, but at least not 1152x864. I heard that modelines should be
obsolet, but IIRC it doesn't work here without. IIRC  used an online
calculator to get it.

Hth,
Ralf

PS: I own a NVIDIA and a ATI graphics and sometimes I need to switch the
graphics, very seldom I need to use the vesa driver too. Most of the
times both graphics can be used. Usually X isn't an issue here, but
seldom it is and then it's a real PITA.