Setting monitor and screen resolution to optimal settings. Slackware 12.1

glore2002 · 06-06-2008, 05:41 AM

Hi!

Here I am, continuing setting up Slackware 12.1, my next step is to set up my monitor and resolutions to the best possible settings. I already installed nVidia drivers (I hava a nVidia 7300GT graphic card).

My monitor is a Samsung 732NPLUS (LCD 17"). The specifications are (I took them from Samsung web site):

Resolution: 1280x1024
Frequency: Horizontal: 31-81Hz Vertical: 56-75Hz.
Signal (I don't know if this matters): Analogic RGB.

I will really appreciate any help. After setting this up, is there any possibility to optimize fonts and icons. I mean something like (clear type in Win). I would like to see my screen as clear as possible.

Thank you vey much.

Glore2002.-
My wife and children say "You are becoming Slackware addicted!" :-)

brianL · 06-06-2008, 06:53 AM

The easiest way is to run xorgsetup, alternatives are xorgcfg and xorgconfig. There's a thread somewhere on these forums about improving font rendering.

pixellany · 06-06-2008, 07:32 AM

With an LCD, put in only the maximum (native) resolution. Every one I have ever used looks terrible at any other setting.

Every time I use xorgconfig, I wind up hand-editing the config file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) also. I find it better to just hand-edit from the outset.

You don't mention if you already changed the config file to specify the nvidia driver.

Here is an example of the sections you'll be editing: (I've removed all unnecessary or optional stuff)

Code:

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    HorizSync 31-81
    VertRefresh 56-75
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

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

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1280x1024"
    EndSubsection
EndSection

I've never seen that format before (5:4), but that's another story.....

GazL · 06-06-2008, 08:19 AM

Code:

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

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1280x1024_75"
    EndSubsection
EndSection

One thing I stumbled upon a while back that I found useful was that with the 'nvidia' driver you can add a suffix to the Modes line entry to set a specific refresh rate (example in red above). In theory the driver should choose the optimal vertical refresh rate based on what your monitor can support. In practice, I've found this a bit hit and miss, so I tend to hard code it.

Having said that, I'm not sure if vertical refresh really matters that much with LCDs. On mine, even at only 60hz I can't see any flicker. My old CRT had to run at a good 85hz or higher to avoid flicker.

As for fonts, there's a topic in here somewhere called "Beautiful fonts" or something very similar, scroll down a little and you'll find it. It's not an approach I agree with as I believe that: faking your screen dimensions to 96 DPI in order to optimise the MS fonts, is the wrong thing to do, regardless of the results. My "cheap" screen is only 85 DPI and the stock fonts seem to suit it. When I tried all the subpixel hinting and anti-aliasing stuff, I only seemed to make things look worse.

pixellany · 06-06-2008, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GazL

One thing I stumbled upon a while back that I found useful was that with the 'nvidia' driver you can add a suffix to the Modes line entry to set a specific refresh rate (example in red above). In theory the driver should choose the optimal vertical refresh rate based on what your monitor can support. In practice, I've found this a bit hit and miss, so I tend to hard code it.

That does not work here....
I had thought that that notation "1280x1024_75" was just a label used with modelines---ie generate a modeline for a specific refresh and then put the label into the display subsection.

OOOOOPs---You said nvidia. So that's a feature of the nvidia driver and not of xorg?

pixellany · 06-06-2008, 09:02 AM

Tried on my laptop with Nvidia Quadro and nvidia driver. It has no effect. This laptop seems to run at 50Hz no matter what settings are put in.

GazL · 06-06-2008, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Tried on my laptop with Nvidia Quadro and nvidia driver. It has no effect. This laptop seems to run at 50Hz no matter what settings are put in.

That's strange. it worked here, though only with the nvidia driver and not the 'nv' one. I've not tried the very latest driver yet though, are you running that one?

Xorg itself does have some inbuilt modes too but I think you have to specify them the long winded way, something like

"1280x1024@75Hz"

update:

I've just installed nvidia 173.14.05 drivers and without the modes line
I get 60hz @ 1280x1024

Adding

Modes "1280x1024_75"

does indeed give me 75hz refresh with no other changes to my xorg.conf
I know what you meant by the custom modelines thingy, and I have seen those before, but in this case, this stuff is definitely built in...

My full xorg.conf is here,

Code:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder63)  Mon May 19 00:33:37 PDT 2008

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    RgbPath         "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
    ModulePath      "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/OTF"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "glx"
    Load           "xtrap"
    Load           "record"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "XkbModel" "microsoftpro"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

	#DisplaySize	  380   300	# mm
 ### Comment all HorizSync and VertRefresh values to use DDC:
	# HorizSync    31.0 - 81.0
	# VertRefresh  56.0 - 75.0
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "HSD"
    ModelName      "HC194D"
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"

        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "SWcursor"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "HWcursor"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "NoAccel"            	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ShadowFB"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "UseFBDev"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "Rotate"             	# [<str>]
        #Option     "VideoKey"           	# <i>
        #Option     "FlatPanel"          	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "FPDither"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "CrtcNumber"         	# <i>
        #Option     "FPScale"            	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "FPTweak"            	# <i>
        #Option     "DualHead"           	# [<bool>]
    Identifier     "Card0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "nVidia Corporation"
    BoardName      "NV34 [GeForce FX 5200 Ultra]"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Card0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1280x1024_75"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

if this doesn't work for you, then all I can assume is that its something card specific. I've been doing it like this for the last few years.

GazL · 06-06-2008, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Tried on my laptop with Nvidia Quadro and nvidia driver. It has no effect. This laptop seems to run at 50Hz no matter what settings are put in.

DING!... I think I've just figured this out. it was the 50hz that gave me a clue. There's some sort of bug/feature in the nvidia drivers (to do with xrandr and dualhead support or something like that)

As you can see, it thinks I'm running at 50hz too,regardless of what its actually running as, but in actual fact the OSD on my monitor says, "80.3HZ/75.4HZ 1280x1024"

Code:

bash-3.1$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1280 x 1024
default connected 1280x1024+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1280x1024      50.0*    51.0  
   1280x960       52.0  
   1152x864       53.0  
   1024x768       54.0     55.0     56.0     57.0  
   832x624        58.0  
   800x600        59.0     60.0     61.0     62.0     63.0     64.0  
   800x512        65.0  
   640x512        66.0     67.0  
   640x480        68.0     69.0     70.0     71.0  
   640x400        72.0  
   640x360        73.0  
   576x432        74.0  
   512x384        75.0     76.0     77.0  
   416x312        78.0  
   400x300        79.0     80.0     81.0     82.0  
   320x240        83.0     84.0     85.0  
bash-3.1$

H_TeXMeX_H · 06-06-2008, 02:45 PM

If you use the nvidia drivers, which you seem to be, try running 'nvidia-settings' and in 'X Server Display Configuration' set the resolution to 'Auto' that should give you native screen resolution. If you want to set your own refresh rate then set it to native resolution 1280x1024 and change the frequency to the one you want. If you want you can run 'nvidia-settings' as root and export 'xorg.conf', make sure to backup the old one.

onebuck · 06-06-2008, 03:44 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianL

The easiest way is to run xorgsetup, alternatives are xorgcfg and xorgconfig. There's a thread somewhere on these forums about improving font rendering.

Daedra's, post for 'Beautiful Fonts in 12.1' is a post that everyone should look at. Good reference!

I have listed the link in ' So you want to be a Slacker! What do I do next?' and 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

glore2002 · 06-06-2008, 04:25 PM

Great explanation!

Many thanks to all of you for such a great help. Now my display looks much better. I still need to try "clear-type like fonts". I will try that out soon.

I'll be keeping asking questions. As a teacher, I am willing to learn from the ones that really know (you!!!) :-)

Thank you very much.

Glore2002.-