Linux - HardwareThis forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
The problem. I can only use 16 bit colour with compiz running, which makes the desktop a bit sad. If I ramp up the depth to 24 bits then the entire desktop (with the exception of the desktop icons) shifts to the left by about 25% leaving a big black block of unusable space on the right of my screen. I'm using a Dell latitude D600 laptop, btw.
Here is my hacked version of xorg.conf I have only added the sections that are / might be relevant.
Thanks for your help on this one. I have only just discovered pclinuxos and my god, its fast and easy and just first class really. The colour depth problem is the only fly in the ointment - and believe me, 16 bit colour on a modern desktop is not pretty. And I'm a sucker for problem solving...cheers!
Which didn't work. The Virtual at 1920 1440 in ubuntu gutsy offset the display to bring it back into line, but pclos is having none of it. The driver supplied is one I have not seen before, But as the problem was exactly the same with the xorg-ati driver in gutsy I have assumed that the essentials in each driver are the same. Also pclos repo doesn't have the same driver as ubuntu which means I may have to trawl the net looking for an appropriate RPM. The one thing about ubuntu that pclos currently trails is a) package management is rpm and b) the official repo is being built from the ground up, so at the moment one cannot expect every little thing to be in there. But pclos is worth the odd bit of hassle because she flies on my aging laptop. Ubuntu just sat in the ram like a sedated walrus.
But pclos is worth the odd bit of hassle because she flies on my aging laptop. Ubuntu just sat in the ram like a sedated walrus.
Based on your comments, you prefer a Debian package manager. When installing Debian you have the option of installing a base minimal system, then add just the features you want.
I was a die hard RPM user for many years before I installed Debian this way, and found the fastest distribution with a full featured desktop like KDE or Gnome is Debian.
Of all the distributions I have, Debian gets used 99% of the time, my Red Hat varieties only get used once in a blue moon when I'm relaxing and just doing e-mail, forum chat or downloads while doing dishes. They are actually just there for the sake of having the different Linux version so as not to be bias. But because Debian has pretty much every software I need in their repos, leaving only the Nvidia module built from source, makes it that little bit more appealing not having to install from source.
Yes, I do prefer apt over rpm any day. If Debian is as fast or faster than pclos I will give it a whirl. I do have an .deb for the driver I want and am going to check out Alien and learn something new. I have heard good things and bad things re Alien. But use with caution seems to be the message. Thanks for the advice, though. I will check it out. God alone knows what makes Ubuntu crawl and pclos fly on my laptop...and Debian to soar perhaps.
For all intensive purposes, below are the steps I use after going through a Debian installation and only selecting "standard system" during the installation stage in deselect, then after a re-boot and logging in as root I issue these commands to get a naked yet nice system, before tweaking by installing the software I regularly use for making money, and lots of it, straight out of Debian repositories.
Oooooh! You smooth talking debian rascal you! I'm persauded. Will download latest debian and return to the ample bosom of apt. A shame though. However pclos looks like it has a good future ahead of it once they have done all the donkey work adding rpm's to their repo's. Hmmmm...I wonder if ubuntu have such a bare bones install option. Anyways, thanks for pointing me in the right direction before I started having dreams about xorg.conf.
Actually I have just discovered that ubuntu have an iso of a mini install disc...sets up the barest of systems by default.That will be my first port of call, and if the distro drags its heels, off to merry debian I go...not worth going for it now, will wait on hardy to be released good n proper...thanks again.
Last edited by larryfroot; 04-19-2008 at 05:15 PM.
The one thing about ubuntu that pclos currently trails is a) package management is rpm
You probably don't know the differences between the following acronyms: rpm, deb, apt... For your information, PCLinuxOS is a RPM-based distro which uses APT as package manager and Synaptic as its front-end. A package manager relies on the format and metadata of the packages it can manage, in your case it can manage rpm. So rpm, like deb, is a format of packaging software, not a management tool. The tool is APT.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
