Need new graphics card.

IsaacKuo · 04-29-2008, 10:34 PM

That may be because of the lower VertRefresh rate. So, what resolution does GNOME say it's using? 1152x864? If so, then maybe the mga driver can't figure out 1440x900.

So, maybe you can try a modeline for 1440x900. You may have luck with this one:

ModeLine "1440x900" 110.09 1440 1504 1824 1952 900 902 914 940 #60Hz

I used http://koala.ilog.fr/cgi-bin/nph-colas-modelines

H_TeXMeX_H · 04-30-2008, 05:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IsaacKuo

Why should it say "Yes"? His current card is a Matrox, which I don't think has any 3d acceleration support.

Quote:

mga is an Xorg driver for Matrox video cards. The driver is fully accelerated, and provides support for the following framebuffer depths: 8, 15, 16, 24, and an 8+24 overlay mode.
...
Option "NoAccel" "boolean"
Disable or enable acceleration. Default: acceleration is enabled.

Yes, the drivers allow for acceleration, and if it is on, it'll reduce whatever lag there might be.

You could try using this howto, the intel part of it, except use the 'mga' instead of 'intel' driver. It might work:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...in-x11-402003/

phantom_cyph · 04-30-2008, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IsaacKuo

That may be because of the lower VertRefresh rate. So, what resolution does GNOME say it's using? 1152x864? If so, then maybe the mga driver can't figure out 1440x900.

So, maybe you can try a modeline for 1440x900. You may have luck with this one:

ModeLine "1440x900" 110.09 1440 1504 1824 1952 900 902 914 940 #60Hz

I used http://koala.ilog.fr/cgi-bin/nph-colas-modelines

Modeline doesn't work. I get the same Out of Range error.

phantom_cyph · 04-30-2008, 04:51 PM

Now, I did look at the link, and Direct Rendering is enabled. But, at this point, I'm interested more in trying to get my resolution to 1440x900 without the lag. I can't operate very well when my text is large enough for my grandmother to read...

IsaacKuo · 04-30-2008, 05:17 PM

It may be that the mga driver isn't able to handle custom modelines well, with your card. (I've had some luck with custom modelines with my older Matrox cards.)

So, going back to GNOME--what resolution does GNOME say it's using, when you log into GNOME and get a usable desktop? 1152x864? If so, then you could try removing the modeline and putting 1152x864 in xorg.conf (removing 1440x900). Then see if you can log into fluxbox at that resolution. It's not the ideal resolution, of course, but at least it's a start at a functioning resolution, and a step toward solving the problem.

phantom_cyph · 04-30-2008, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IsaacKuo

It may be that the mga driver isn't able to handle custom modelines well, with your card. (I've had some luck with custom modelines with my older Matrox cards.)

So, going back to GNOME--what resolution does GNOME say it's using, when you log into GNOME and get a usable desktop? 1152x864? If so, then you could try removing the modeline and putting 1152x864 in xorg.conf (removing 1440x900). Then see if you can log into fluxbox at that resolution. It's not the ideal resolution, of course, but at least it's a start at a functioning resolution, and a step toward solving the problem.

Will do.

I made some changes to my file, but they didn't seem to do much. Here is what I changed:

Code:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "MGA Framebuffer"
    Driver      "mga"
    Busid       "PCI:01:00:00"
    #Option      "XVideo"       "On"
    Option      "MonitorLayout" "TMDS"
    Option      "AGPMode"       "4"
    Option      "BusType"       "AGP"
    Option      "PanelSize"     "1440x900"
    VideoRam    32768
    # Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

The Option "XVideo" is commented out as I couldn't find a description of it at the site I was at, but I can try if it will help.

phantom_cyph · 04-30-2008, 05:23 PM

Well, I changed the xorg.conf to 1152x768 and now Fluxbox and XFCE work! I must say, the change of view is refreshing even though its still huge.

What next?

phantom_cyph · 04-30-2008, 05:34 PM

While looking at this, I found this. Would this be better than what I'm using?

IsaacKuo · 04-30-2008, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phantom_cyph

The Option "XVideo" is commented out as I couldn't find a description of it at the site I was at, but I can try if it will help.

The XVideo option won't help or hurt you for your current concerns. It supports the "video overlay" feature common to most video cards. Basically, it is used by mplayer, xine, totem, and other media players to play back videos smoothly and efficiently. It will only affect the performance of video playback.

Quote:

Well, I changed the xorg.conf to 1152x768 and now Fluxbox and XFCE work! I must say, the change of view is refreshing even though its still huge.

What next?

You put in 1152x768, as opposed to 1152x864? The latter is a relatively standard 4:3 aspect ratio resolution, but 1152x768 is a "weird" resolution. If 1152x768 works, then there's good hope that other resolutions could work also. Hmm...1440x900 doesn't seem to be working, but maybe you can at least bump up the resolution to something closer to it. Maybe try 1440x768 next? As far as the monitor is concerned, it might see this as the equivalent of 1024x768, so it will work.

Hmm...that model of monitor is correct, right? It couldn't be some other monitor, with a native resolution of, say, 1366x768, could it?

phantom_cyph · 04-30-2008, 06:12 PM

I'm using the monitor right now. It says HANNS*G on the bottom, and at the top left it says HW191D. Native is supposed to be 1440x900.

...no luck with either 1440x768 or 1440x786. Back to 1152x768 now.

phantom_cyph · 04-30-2008, 06:51 PM

Is xorg-server-1.3.0.0-i486-2 the latest?

phantom_cyph · 05-01-2008, 06:02 PM

I'm still here with the same problem..

phantom_cyph · 05-01-2008, 10:24 PM

I just found something interesting. After going through xorgconfig (instead of xorgsetup), I took a look at it and found this:

Code:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Standard VGA"
    VendorName  "Unknown"
    BoardName   "Unknown"

# The chipset line is optional in most cases.  It can be used to override
# the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.

#    Chipset    "generic"

# The Driver line must be present.  When using run-time loadable driver
# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver
# module.  Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line
# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.

    Driver     "vga"
# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices
# this section is intended for.  When this line isn't present, a device
# section can only match up with the primary video device.  For PCI
# devices a line like the following could be used.  This line should not
# normally be included unless there is more than one video device
# intalled.

#    BusID      "PCI:0:10:0"

#    VideoRam   256

#    Clocks     25.2 28.3

EndSection

Now, I know I'm not the smartest guy on the block, but is that using a driver for a VGA when I'm using DVI?

IsaacKuo · 05-02-2008, 05:55 AM

Is that what your xorg.conf looks like now? Hmm. I'm not a big fan of automated xorg configurumators, I don't know what they'll do to my xorg.conf.

It occurs to me that the official matrox driver may or may not ignore some xorg.conf settings. I'm currently trying to do some things with a computer with nVidia video and, for the first time in a very long time, I decided to use the closed source official driver. It simply ignores my xorg.conf's HorizSync, VertRefresh, and Modeline settings.

So now I'm thinking that if the nVidia official driver ignores some xorg.conf settings, maybe the official Matrox driver might also. So, I'd be more comfortable using the open source mga driver, myself. It's too bad I can't definitively experiment with my own Matrox dual head card, since it seems to have gone bad. I hadn't been using it lately, and when I tried to use it a few weeks ago no vga modes wouldn't work at all.

Well, if you find working with your Matrox card too frustrating, you could get an inexpensive Ati 9200 or something like that and use the open source driver. I always seem to have the best results from Ati cards using the open source driver, and xorg.conf settings actually work.

phantom_cyph · 05-02-2008, 07:50 AM

Any idea where I can get an opensource mga driver? I'm all for that if it works...