XFree86 Modelines
 

I am brand new to linux and am trying to set it up for use with my 20" Sony GMD-1962B fixed frequency sync-on-green work station monitor. I am running Mandrake 9.0 on an Athlon 1900+ w/ 512mb PC2100 RAM and a GeForce3 Ti-500 graphics card. I have installed the nvidia drivers after much frustration and several linux re-installs. My problem now is setting the XFConfig-4 file to run my monitor. In windows, I have it adjusted to run at 1024x768 @ 72Hz. I also had to change th sync polarity. This is what I added to my XFConfig-4 file under the monitor secion, but it has no effect on my display at all. I have searched and searched online, but there is nothing that really has helped me figure out what I need to do.

Modeline "1024x768" 65 1024 1032 176 1344 768 771 777 806 -hsync -vsync

No mater what i have changed in this modeline, it seems to do nothing to affect my display when I restart the x server. I have tried changing other values such as the refresh rate with success, but I really do not understand how the modelines need to be implemented. If any one could help, it would be greatly appreciated.

you WANT 1024X768 on a 20" monitor?? fair enough.. . the name of the modeline (1024x768) is actually arbitrary, and you could easily just call it "pruple monkey dishwasher" if you wanted to. is that modeline name listed in the screen section? it should naturally override the default for 1024x768, but maybe that's not happening. changing the name might help if that's not happening, at least you'd know it's not fallig back to anything if there is nothing to fall back on. that's incase your modeline is wrong somehow. check your logfile in /var/log/XFree86.0.log to see if there are any warnings abuot it.

I checked the log file, and found some information that I think mau be important, here are some of them.

-Failure reading EDID parameters for display device 0
-Screen0 Using boot display
-1024x768 (bad mode, clock/interlace, doublescan)
-1024x768 (no mode of this name)
-Virtual screen size determined to be 800x600

there were a large number of entires that said [resolution] (out of vsync [or hsync] range)
I tried changing the name of the modeline to "1024x768@72" and added that to the modes under the 8, 15, 16, and 24 bit displays and i got the message
-1024x768@72 (no mode of this name)
What am I doing wrong? It says that it is booting at 800x600 even though I have it set to 1024x768 because it seems that no other modes are available. Please help

well there are a few tools around to help you, i'm very fond of this little cgi page... http://koala.ilog.fr/cgi-bin/nph-colas-modelines which will generate modelines for you. there's also xvidtune which you can use to fiddle about with vsyncs and such like, but not change the clockrate.

I respectfully submit that no mode line should ever be called "purple monkey washer" :D