automating monitor configuration

abejarano · 05-26-2006, 12:27 PM

Hi, I'm new to linux from XP(ee). I'm having trouble setting up my new system with respect to the monitors. I've posted this in the SuSE Novell forums a week ago and haven't got a comment. This is with SuSE Enterprise 10 64 bits and Gnome. The card is a Radeon X800. I believe I have installed the proprietary Radeon 64 bit drivers correctly, at least I can use higher resolutions now (but I don't know where to check to see what driver is installed correctly).
A basic part of the problem is that I can't get the system to show the all refresh rates possible when set with SaX2 video configuration program. When set at VESA 1280x1024x60Hz it shows 58Hz and the panel won't accept it at all. I can't find the specifications for the panel online. SaX2 allows inputting the parameters but I don't know what they are. Similarly but not important for the HP it shows 1920x1200@89Hz. 1920x1440x80 and 1920x1200x85 are not available. All these resolutions have worked with the same card and displays in XP.
I have two display locations for my computer - using a Hyundai L70S panel with optimal settings of 1280x1024x60Hz in one room and a HP A7217A (Sony GDM FW900) with 1920x1440x85 elsewhere. What I'm trying to do is to have the system boot up at a resolution the Hyundai panel can handle and when I need to do so change back and forth to the higher resolution that the HP can do. It should always switch back to 1280x1024x60Hz if I logout or reboot.
Mostly I have no idea what is possible with linux. Can I write a script that switches configuration files and have it do what I want? (I do understand the very basics of script writing.)
If this is a possiblity where and when would the script have to run for it change and set settings for user accounts logging off and on and for the system booting?
I don't mind creating a user for each location though I'd rather not. I've looked at SCPM but it's not exactly designed for this and I've been unable to get it to do what I want.
I've tried Cntrl-Alt-Backspace for rebooting the X-server a few times but last time it was difficult to restart the X system. I'd like to know more about what that does and why I get different or no console prompts when I do it.
I realize perhaps it is too much too ask for detailed responses but any comments, pointers or references would be much appreciated.
Thanks

nadroj · 05-26-2006, 01:07 PM

could you edit your post and make it more readible by including line breaks, thanks

abejarano · 05-26-2006, 02:39 PM

Sure. Is that usual here, you have to add line breaks?

Hi, I'm new to linux from XP. I'm having trouble setting
up my new system with respect to the monitors. I've posted
this in the SuSE Novell forums a week ago and haven't got a
comment. This is with SuSE Enterprise 10 64 bits and Gnome.
The card is a Radeon X800. I believe I have installed the
proprietary Radeon 64 bit drivers correctly, at least I
can use higher resolutions now (but I don't know where to
check to see what driver is installed correctly).
A basic part of the problem is that I can't get the system
to show the all refresh rates possible when set with SaX2
video configuration program. When set at VESA 1280x1024
x60Hz it shows 58Hz and the panel won't accept it at all.
I can't find the specifications for the panel online. SaX2
allows inputting the parameters but I don't know what they
are. Similarly but not important for the HP it shows 1920x
1200@89Hz. 1920x1440x80 and 1920x1200x85 are not available.
All these resolutions have worked with the same card and
displays in XP.
I have two display locations for my computer - using a Hyundai
L70S panel with optimal settings of 1280x1024x60Hz in one room
and a HP A7217A (Sony GDM FW900) with 1920x1440x85 elsewhere.
What I'm trying to do is to have the system boot up at a
resolution the Hyundai panel can handle and when I need to
do so change back and forth to the higher resolution that the
HP can do. It should always switch back to 1280x1024x60Hz if
I logout or reboot.
Mostly I have no idea what is possible with linux. Can I write
a script that switches configuration files and have it do what
I want? (I do understand the very basics of script writing.)
If this is a possiblity where and when would the script have to
run for it change and set settings for user accounts logging
off and on and for the system booting?
I don't mind creating a user for each location though I'd
rather not. I've looked at SCPM but it's not exactly designed
for this and I've been unable to get it to do what I want.
I've tried Cntrl-Alt-Backspace for rebooting the X-server
a few times but last time it was difficult to restart the
X system. I'd like to know more about what that does and
why I get different or no console prompts when I do it.
I realize perhaps it is too much too ask for detailed
responses but any comments, pointers or references would
be much appreciated.
Thanks

nadroj · 05-26-2006, 02:45 PM

no its not mandatory but itll attract more readers and potential solutions.

can you post the relevant sections from your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file? if you dont know what is relevant, just post it all here. this file tells the X-server (the GUI) how to setup your mouse, keyboard, video card, monitor, and dispaly settings.

abejarano · 05-26-2006, 11:10 PM

Here it is. As I said sax2 is set to 1280x1024@60 but it shows 1280x1024@58 and there's a '@61' to the side of this in the sax2 grafic display.

Section "Monitor"
DisplaySize 300 230
HorizSync 28-64
Identifier "Monitor[0]"
ModelName "1280X1024@60HZ"
VendorName "--> VESA"
VertRefresh 50-60
UseModes "Modes[0]"
EndSection

Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
Modeline "1280x1024" 105.15 1280 1360 1496 1712 1024 1025 1028 1059
Modeline "1280x960" 97.68 1280 1352 1488 1696 960 961 964 993
Modeline "1280x800" 80.58 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 827
Modeline "1152x864" 78.82 1152 1216 1336 1520 864 865 868 894
Modeline "1280x768" 77.37 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 794
Modeline "1024x768" 61.89 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 794
Modeline "800x600" 36.88 800 832 912 1024 600 601 604 621
Modeline "768x576" 33.74 768 792 872 976 576 577 580 596
Modeline "640x480" 23.06 640 656 720 800 480 481 484 497
Modeline "800x600" 40.00 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +HSync +VSync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
Device "Device[0]"
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Monitor "Monitor[0]"
EndSection

Section "Device"
BoardName "Radeon X800SE (R423) UK (PCIE)"
BusID "3:0:0"
Driver "radeon"
Identifier "Device[0]"
VendorName "ATI"
EndSection

abejarano · 05-26-2006, 11:56 PM

I've stumbled onto how to get the refresh rate correct. In sax2 I changed the top of the range of VESA 1280x1024@60 'synch frequencies' 'vertical' from 64 to 75. I wish I knew why that worked.

Can I generate another xorg.conf file with sax2 that works well with the CRT and then paste together the different resolution and refresh rate specifications in the "Modes" section so that they will be available without rebooting the system when I change monitor? Will I have to change other specifications in xorg.conf?
Can I put a command to change resolutions in a script and be able to choose the resolutions at or before the login prompt and when logged on?

nadroj · 05-26-2006, 11:59 PM

can you comment out (put a # at the beginning of the line) the 'UseModes "Modes[0]"' line under the Monitor section.. does that help at all?

also the 'Driver' in the 'Device' section is 'radeon'.. i thought ATi's proprietary driver was called 'fglrx' or something similar.
did you download the driver from the official site and follow the instructions there? it basically consists of downloading the files, running a script, and running a program to setup the X-server configuration file. i think its called 'aticonfig --initial'. does any of this ring a bell? if not then go back to the site and read the instructions and follow them exactly.

also, when it is installed properly, i think there is a graphical tool to configure resolution, refresh rates, screen brightness, position etc etc, which is handy and may help you find what you need.

hope this helps at all.

cs-cam · 05-27-2006, 03:13 AM

Quote:

Sure. Is that usual here, you have to add line breaks?

It's called paragraph structure, punctuation and grammar. None of which are mandatory but all of which are appreciated.

For your CRT monitor, I've found this works on every CRT I've tried.

Code:

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier   "Monitor0"
  VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
  ModelName    "Monitor Model"

  HorizSync    30.0-98.0
  VertRefresh  50.0-120.0
EndSection

I'm with nadroj (or Jordan?) on the modes part. Ditch those and and just put the resolution you want in the Screen section under the colour depth you have set and that should work fine.

nadroj · 05-27-2006, 04:04 PM

yes cam

iv also never had to put the usemodes and my display has always worked as it should

abejarano · 05-28-2006, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nadroj

can you comment out (put a # at the beginning of the line) the 'UseModes "Modes[0]"' line under the Monitor section.. does that help at all?

also the 'Driver' in the 'Device' section is 'radeon'.. i thought ATi's proprietary driver was called 'fglrx' or something similar.
did you download the driver from the official site and follow the instructions there? it basically consists of downloading the files, running a script, and running a program to setup the X-server configuration file. i think its called 'aticonfig --initial'. does any of this ring a bell? if not then go back to the site and read the instructions and follow them exactly.

also, when it is installed properly, i think there is a graphical tool to configure resolution, refresh rates, screen brightness, position etc etc, which is handy and may help you find what you need.

hope this helps at all.

Thanks! The ATI WAS not installed. Reinstalled it and trying to understand aticonfig. It's command line and I'm not sure where to look for the graphical tool. /usr/share/fglrx has the following files
. drv.list km.list postun_km.sh rn.list
.. fglrx-install.log postun_cp.sh postun_rn.sh
cp.list fglrx-uninstall.sh postun_drv.sh preun_km.sh

The .log file looks OK. I'll post it at the bottom. The drv.list is mostly a list of .html files. They seem to belong to a manual or perhaps the graphical tool. It also has short lists of .a , .so , a couple of .h and a few other file names. I'll just post the two .list files also. I think the .sh files are script files but all I found that postun is a cleanup program run after a build so I won't run them unless advised. I'll play with the xorg.conf file as you suggested and the aticonfig program. I'm still very interested in what options I have in automating the changing of resolutions for my two locations. Thanks for your questions and comments. It has been very helpful.

fglrx-install.log contents:

[Message] Kernel Module : Trying to install a precompiled kernel module.
[Message] Kernel Module : Precompiled kernel module version mismatched.
[Message] Kernel Module : Found kernel module build environment, generating kernel module now.
ATI module generator V 2.0
==========================
initializing...
cleaning...
assuming new VMA API since we do have kernel 2.6.x...
doing Makefile based build for kernel 2.6.x and higher
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.13-15-smp/build SUBDIRS=/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15-obj/x86_64/smp'
make -C ../../../linux-2.6.13-15 O=../linux-2.6.13-15-obj/x86_64/smp modules
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.o
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: In function ‘firegl_put_user_ptr’:
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:1246: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:1246: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:1246: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:1246: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: In function ‘__ke_unregister_ioctl32_conversion’:
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:2406: warning: ‘return’ with a value, in function returning void
LD [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST
Warning: could not find /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/.libfglrx_ip.a.GCC4.cmd for /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/libfglrx_ip.a.GCC4
CC /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.mod.o
LD [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15-obj/x86_64/smp'
build succeeded with return value 0
duplicating results into driver repository...
done.
==============================
- recreating module dependency list
- trying a sample load of the kernel modules
done.

linux:/usr/share/fglrx # cat km.list
/lib/modules/fglrx/make_install.sh
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/Makefile
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/agpgart_be.c
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/agp.h
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/drm.h
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/libfglrx_ip.a.GCC3
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/libfglrx_ip.a.GCC4
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/firegl_public.c
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/firegl_public.h
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/agp_backend.h
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/make.sh
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/i7505-agp.c
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/nvidia-agp.c
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/agp3.c
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/drmP.h
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/agpgart.h
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/drm_os_linux.h
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/drm_compat.h
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/drm_proc.h
linux:/usr/share/fglrx #

linux:/usr/share/fglrx # cat rn.list
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/noboarder.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/clipbrd.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/backgrnd.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_10.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/aticol.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_82.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_83.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_84.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_85.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_86.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_87.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_88.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_89.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_8a.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/caution.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/index.html
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/ATI_LICENSE.TXT
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/LICENSE.GPL
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/LICENSE.QPL
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/LICENSE.expat
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/LICENSE.xmlconfig
linux:/usr/share/fglrx #

linux:/usr/share/fglrx # cat rn.list
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/noboarder.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/clipbrd.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/backgrnd.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_10.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/aticol.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_82.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_83.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_84.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_85.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_86.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_87.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_88.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_89.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/linux_8a.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/images/caution.gif
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/release-notes/index.html
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/ATI_LICENSE.TXT
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/LICENSE.GPL
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/LICENSE.QPL
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/LICENSE.expat
/usr/share/doc/fglrx/LICENSE.xmlconfig
linux:/usr/share/fglrx # cat cp.list
/usr/share/applnk/fireglcontrol.kdelnk
/usr/share/gnome/apps/fireglcontrol.desktop
/usr/share/icons/ati.xpm
/opt/kde3/share/applnk/fireglcontrol_kde3.desktop
/usr/src/ATI/fglrx_panel_sources.tgz
/usr/X11R6/bin/fireglcontrolpanel
linux:/usr/share/fglrx #

abejarano · 05-28-2006, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cs-cam

It's called paragraph structure, punctuation and grammar. None of which are mandatory but all of which are appreciated.

For your CRT monitor, I've found this works on every CRT I've tried.

Code:

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier   "Monitor0"
  VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
  ModelName    "Monitor Model"

  HorizSync    30.0-98.0
  VertRefresh  50.0-120.0
EndSection

I'm with nadroj (or Jordan?) on the modes part. Ditch those and and just put the resolution you want in the Screen section under the colour depth you have set and that should work fine.

Thanks for your suggestion and comments. I'll try it next and I replied more fully to Nadroj.

nadroj · 05-28-2006, 07:16 PM

after you install it (running the script file as mentioned on the website's instruction) then all else you (should) have to do is run the 'aticonfig --initial' command, or, again, whatever the website says exactly, and it should set things up. normally, you wouldnt have to do anything else.

when i installed it, i think the graphical tool was added to the KDE menu so i dont know the full path to it sorry, try typing 'ati' at a console and press TAB afew times to get a list of all files that start with 'ati', and go from there. or check ATi's site, or elsewhere online.

good luck

abejarano · 05-31-2006, 09:34 AM

Everything is working now. Thanks!