Display problem with SuSE 9.1

Theophylact · 06-19-2004, 03:34 PM

I've just done a clean install on a reworked system of mine (Athlon XP1500+, 512MB DDR 266, Maxtor 60 GB HDD, Shuttle AK31 (Via KT266A) motherboard, ATI Radeon VE video card). Everything seems to go well until I get into the graphical interface: It seems to have been magnified about fourfold! I can't see the whole screen at a time; I have to scroll from side to side and up and down. Resetting the resolution to 800X600 doesn't change that at all.

What do I do to fix this? The manual is silent on this effect.

bruno buys · 06-19-2004, 05:41 PM

Did you try to fix it at sax2?

Theophylact · 06-19-2004, 06:08 PM

Okay, I'll bite: why SaX2? Although I have a Radeon SE, I've only got one video card and one monitor.

By the way: I'm pretty nearly an utter Linux newbie, and the SuSE manual is pretty opaque. Although I would have found SaX2 if I had read straight through the manual, looking up "screen" or "resolution" or "video" gets me nowhere.

bruno buys · 06-19-2004, 06:15 PM

No special reason. This is the kind of stuff I do on sax2...

Theophylact · 06-20-2004, 09:47 AM

Just in case I didn't make myself clear: it's not as though I have a virtual desktop four times the usual size, it's that the desktop appears to be magnified. The cursor is about 3/4 inch high, the type face is an apparent 32 point or so, and the pixels are as large as freckles.

Theophylact · 07-06-2004, 01:28 PM

I'm gonna bump this one up.

I've fixed some of the problems, fiddling around in SaX2; but I'm still stuck with a desktop that overflows my screen by about 25%, and I can't seem to get it down to 1:1.

I've logged on to SuSE's web site, and I've registered, but although I have a legal copy of 9.1 Professional and this is an installation question, they haven't replied to any of my queries.

Any advice? Is the 14-digit serial number on the software not what I need to get the support that I thought I was entitled to?

Theophylact · 05-14-2005, 11:13 AM

Well, it's ten months later. I've run Knoppix and Ubuntu live on the same system, and they run properly from the CD-ROM, so it shouldn't be a video card problem; but when I install Ubuntu on the HDD, I get an analogous problem that can only be dealt with by selecting a resolution as low as 640X400.

I just bought a new Rosewill 19" LCD monitor and reinstalled SuSE 9.1; I get the same old problem.

Can anybody help me?

jschiwal · 05-14-2005, 11:55 AM

I had this happen after installing Mandrake 10.1 CE X86_64 on my laptop. Plus a native screen of 1280x800 didn't help. To fix it I used the "gtf" program to generate a modeline.

The format of the program is
gtf horizontal-size vertical-size sync-rate -x

For example: gtf 1280 1024 60

The gtf program is a part of X11 so you should have it at
/usr/X11R6/bin/gtrf

Also, just a note: GTF stands for General Timing Formula

Theophylact · 05-14-2005, 12:05 PM

Okay; but I'll need a little explanation. What's a modeline? And what numbers should I input to get a full display of the desktop at 1024X768, say? (The factory presets for that on my monitor allow vertical frequencies of 60, 70, and 75 Hz.)

And I've changed the resolution already, using SaX2, with the results described above.

jschiwal · 05-14-2005, 10:13 PM

Modelines go in the "monitor" section of the xorg.conf file in /etc/X11/ .
Here is an example:

Code:

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Dell"
    ModelName "Dell M991"
    HorizSync 30.0-96.0
    VertRefresh 50.0-160.0

    # 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

    # Dell D800 and few Inspiron (16/10) 1280x800
    ModeLine "1280x800"  147.89  1280 1376 1512 1744  800 801 804 848

    # Dell D800 and few Inspiron (16/10) 1680x1050
    ModeLine "1680x1050"  214.51  1680 1800 1984 2288  1050 1051 1054 1103

    # Dell D800 and few Inspiron (16/10) 1920x1200
    ModeLine "1920x1200" 230 1920 1936 2096 2528 1200 1201 1204 1250 +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

Quote:

from info xorg.conf
Modes "mode-name" ...
This optional entry specifies the list of video modes to use.
Each mode-name specified must be in double quotes. They must
correspond to those specified or referenced in the appropriate
Monitor section (including implicitly referenced built-in VESA
standard modes). The server will delete modes from this list
which don't satisfy various requirements. The first valid mode
in this list will be the default display mode for startup. The
list of valid modes is converted internally into a circular
list. It is possible to switch to the next mode with
Ctrl+Alt+Keypad-Plus and to the previous mode with Ctrl+Alt+Key-
pad-Minus. When this entry is omitted, the valid modes refer-
enced by the appropriate Monitor section will be used. If the
Monitor section contains no modes, then the selection will be
taken from the built-in VESA standard modes.

Your xorg.conf file probably has a section that looks like this:

Code:

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

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 8
        Virtual 1280 1024
    EndSubsection

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 15
        Virtual 1280 1024
    EndSubsection

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 16
        Virtual 1280 1024
    EndSubsection

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Virtual 1280 1024
    EndSubsection
EndSection

Instead you could use Modes rather than Virtual in the "Display" subsection entries.

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x786" "1024x480"
EndSubsection

Theophylact · 05-22-2005, 07:26 PM

Well, I got sick and tired of fumbling around, and I ordered an nVidia-based card from ASUS. That solved the display problem instantly, and gave me a DVI port in the bargain.

Perhaps there was a software solution that a newbie could follow, but I sure haven't found one.