I recently installed Mandrake 9.1 in a dual boot with Windows XP. I am running on a Pentium 4 with an Intel 82845G chipset and a MAG 465 monitor. I have been having graphics problems from the start. Initially, I was unable to run startx and was working from the command line. I followed some suggestions to run XFree86 -configure to create a XF86Config-4 file, and then to modify it by changing the Device section driver listing from "i810" to "vesa." When I rebooted I was sent into KDE, but the screen resolution is too low, 800x600. I can't see the entire control panel window when I open it, but when I try to set it to 1024x768, nothing seems to happen. I've heard I may have to set up some VRAM or something like that, but I haven't the foggiest how to do that, or if it would even work. Any suggestions?

Look in your XF86Config or XF86Config-4 for these sections:
This section specifies your default color depth:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "video1"
Monitor "monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24

This section specifies the resolutions for 24 bit color:

Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

If 1024x768 isn't the first in the list, put it there.

When I went to edit XF86Config-4, the section pointed out by aaa read:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 0"
Device "card0"
Monitor "monitor0"

And there were no modes listed after any of the depths, so I added all of those shown in the above post and restarted KDE. Still no luck getting higher resolutions. Should I add the default depth line, and edit the Device, Monitor, etc, lines?

Undo any changes you made to the "Screen" section. Can you post your whole XF86Config?

I reran XF86Config and altered the driver line to "vesa" to get things back up and running at 800x600. I will post that XF86Config-4 file as soon as I can get back to that terminal, probably this afternoon.

My file XF86Config-4, in etc/X11, reads:


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "unix/:-1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "xtrap"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "BMM"
ModelName "CY-465"
#DisplaySize 280 220 # mm
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
VendorName "Intel Corp."
BoardName "82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset Integrated Graphics Device"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
#Option "XvMCSurfaces" # <i>
#Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>]
#Option "Dac6Bit" # [<bool>]
#Option "NoDDC" # [<bool>]
#Option "CacheLines" # <i>
#Option "DRI" # [<bool>]

### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>]
#Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>]
#Option "ColorKey" # <i>
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 16

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
EndSection

X is currently running, without the need to substitute "vesa" for "i810" in the driver line. Is it possible that my problem is my monitor? Being a newbie, I belatedly checked the HCL at Mandrake and did not see it listed (a MAG Innovision 465). It's just that my chipset 82845G is not listed either, and I've read that is now supported (according to Intel and XFree86). Any ideas?

I have partially solved the problem. By editing the BIOS so the Video RAM is set to 8192K instead of 1024K, KDE starts up fine, and windows fit properly on the screen. However, the screen resolution is still maxed out at 800x600. I'd like to get that up to 1024x768, but when I reset my resolution in the configuration center, when I restart there seems to be a frequency problem, the screen is "fuzzy" and wavy. I know my monitor supports this resolution, I've used it in XP. How do I tell linux (or XF86 or whatever) to use frequencies in my monitor's ranges? My monitor manual says 1024x768 is supported at 48.36KHz hsync, 60Hz vsync; 56.48KHz,70.1Hz; and 60.02KHz, 75Hz. My current XF86Config-4 file reads:

# File generated by XFdrake.

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Mandrake 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
FontPath "unix/:-1"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
#DontZap # disable <Crtl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
#DontZoom # disable <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse doesn't work
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx" # 3D layer
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "Keyboard"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbCompat" ""
Option "XkbOptions" ""
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "50"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor1"
HorizSync 31-60
VertRefresh 60-75

# Sony Vaio C1(X,XS,VE,VN)?
# 1024x480 @ 85.6 Hz, 48 kHz hsync
ModeLine "1024x480" 65.00 1024 1032 1176 1344 480 488 494 563 -hsync -vsync

# TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
# 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576" 50.00 768 832 846 1000 576 590 595 630

# 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576" 63.07 768 800 960 1024 576 578 590 616
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "Intel Corporation"
BoardName "Intel 845"
Driver "i810"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen1"
Device "device1"
Monitor "monitor1"
DefaultColorDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "layout1"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
Screen "screen1"
EndSection

Any ideas?

I managed to solve the problem.

First, as I said above, I had to manually change the videoRAM settings in the BIOS (for my machine that means getting into the BIOS utility during startup by pressing enter before XP boots). I changed it from 1024K to 8192K.

Next, I had to run xf86config and pay special attention to the settings for the hsync and vsync. Previously I had defined them manually as per the limits in the monitor manual (31-60 KHz hsync, 60-75 Hz vsync). This time I went with the preset for hsync that fell within my monitor's range (31.5-57.0 KHz) and manually set the vsync as before.

Lastly, documentation at Intel online support indicated to use the i810 driver, which I did. After replacing the previous XF86Config-4 file with the new one generated by xf86config, the new resolution of 1024x768 was the default upon initiating startx.

Thanks for all pointers.