Ati control panel and xorg configuration

koloth · 10-16-2009, 07:14 AM

Hi everyone,
I had a problem yesterday, i managed to solve it but i would like to ask if anyone can explain to me how it was solved.
Here it goes : I bought a new LCD monitor a 22'' LG using a 1920x1080 resolution. After starting X (Slack 12.2) the monitor still used the old 1280x1024 resolution, although xrandr told me 1920x1080 was supported. Since I use Window maker i am not privy to the resolution changing tools of KDE or Xfce, so i tried changing the resolution the "hard" way by adding mode 1920x1080 to my xorg.conf. After several failed attempts, i remembered of the ati control panel application which successfully altered my resolution. Although the problem is solved, I'm curious as to where are the parameters i entered stored since Window maker does not start any ati applications.

Thanx,

adamk75 · 10-16-2009, 07:53 AM

The ATI control panel utility stores it's configuration in /etc/X11/xorg.conf and, iirc, /etc/ati/amdpcsdb . These are read by the driver when X starts up, which is why the driver chose the new resolution you selected when you restarted X.

koloth · 10-16-2009, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamk75

The ATI control panel utility stores it's configuration in /etc/X11/xorg.conf and, iirc, /etc/ati/amdpcsdb . These are read by the driver when X starts up, which is why the driver chose the new resolution you selected when you restarted X.

Thanks for your swift answer, this technique works like a chasrm for the ATI driver but what about the radeon driver? I tend to use it sometimes because fglrx has issues with my tv tuner.

Thanx again,

adamk75 · 10-16-2009, 03:04 PM

For the radeon driver, you can use xrandr to dynamically change monitor configurations once X is running, or you can edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and use the PreferredMode option to configure X to use that resolution each time it starts.

For example, in my xorg.conf file I have:

Code:

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "DVI-1"
        Modeline "1280x1024_75.00" 138.75  1280 1368 1504 1728  1024 1027 1034 1072 -hsync +vsync
        Option   "PreferredMode" "1280x1024_75.00"
        Option "RightOf" "DVI-0"
EndSection

If xrandr already detected 1280x1024@75 as a possible mode, I could have just:

Code:

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "DVI-1"
        Option   "PreferredMode" "1280x1024@75"
        Option "RightOf" "DVI-0"
EndSection

Adam