24" ASUS-VK246 screen is still blurry running CentOS 4
 

I'm having a screen resolution problem and have surfed the web for three days trying to solve it. Maybe it is easily solved, but I really feel like I've bashed my head against the wall and am ready to give up.

I installed Linux (Centos 4) and I'm using a 24" wide monitor that can handle 1920x1080 screen resolution. The monitor is manufactured by ASUS, model VK246. I believe the video card is nvidia, as indicated by lspci (shown below). Changing things in the Applications, Display GUI doesn't seem to have any effect, even after rebooting (or logging out and logging back in).

I tried to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file in order to change the screen resolution and the horizontal refresh rat (upper range was at 67.0 now at 75, according to the specs from the monitor manufacturer). Here's the relevant bits of the xorg.conf file as it stands now:

Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "LCD Panel 1920x1080"
HorizSync 31.5 - 75.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 65.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "VESA driver (generic)"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480" "1920x1080"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1080" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

I also tried to run the ddcprobe:

[root@dhc016360 X11]# ddcprobe

Monitor DDC probe results
Monitor DDC Probe failed.


I also tried running lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub to ESI Port (rev 13)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 13)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 13)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 13)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev 13)
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 13)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 13)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev 13)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 8 (rev 13)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 9 (rev 13)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 10 (rev 13)
00:10.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Physical and Link Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 13)
00:10.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Routing and Protocol Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 13)
00:11.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500 Physical and Link Layer Registers Port 1 (rev 13)
00:11.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500 Routing & Protocol Layer Register Port 1 (rev 13)
00:13.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub I/OxAPIC Interrupt Controller (rev 13)
00:14.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management Registers (rev 13)
00:14.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers (rev 13)
00:14.2 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers (rev 13)
00:14.3 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Throttle Registers (rev 13)
00:16.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)
00:16.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)
00:16.2 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)
00:16.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)
00:16.4 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)
00:16.5 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)
00:16.6 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)
00:16.7 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 1
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 5
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 6
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller
01:04.0 IDE interface: Integrated Technology Express, Inc. IT8213 IDE Controller
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection
04:00.0 PCI bridge: NEC Corporation uPD720400 PCI Express - PCI/PCI-X Bridge (rev 06)
04:00.1 PCI bridge: NEC Corporation uPD720400 PCI Express - PCI/PCI-X Bridge (rev 06)
0a:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G96 [Quadro FX 580] (rev a1)


Any information/help would be really wonderful!

Make sure you have a backup of your file and change
to
and remember you should restart the X server (daemon), not just logging out from your desktop.

I don't even know what you mean by blurry. It'd be a lot better if you attach a screenshot.
Good luck.

Thanks. I tried changing the config file to list just the correct Mode. Then I shut down the whole system and restarted. Before finishing the restart, after attempting to start x, the screen showed a blue-error reporting that it could not read the config file. After proceeding through two windows it asked whether I wanted to start in default mode. I did, and now I am back to where I started. I will try and find out how to attach the screen shot I took (I'm new to Linux). The screen is blurry in the same way any screen is blurry when the computer tries to project the wrong screen resolution for the resolution of the monitor. I know that this particular monitor can be much crisper because the machine is a dual boot machine that can boot in Windows. In Windows the screen is crisp and lovely. Thanks for any further insight.

I presumed you were new to Linux. Which is perfectly fine ;)
The so called SAFE-MODE uses Vesa (generic driver). That's why your screen looks awful.
Once you get it to work you'll see it looks even better -sometimes- than Windows stuff.

That's my experience with an nvidia card.

Now, take another look at your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change your whole screen section to:
(eliminating modes so the hardware handler guesses for you)

If it doesn't work: Make sure you have a backup of the original file and try doing: nvidia-xconfig as root which is to say, log as root or use
It will override your defaults and accommodate to your actual settings.

I can't give you extensive help right now but count on me for solving your problem. Let's walk through.
PS:// If you get tired of Centos try better distros like OpenSUSE. Cheers.

To know the precise series of your video card issue:

According to the Asus site it would appear that the correct refresh rates should be 30~80 KHz Horizontal, and 55~75 Hz Vertical
Can you try those?

Please take a look at my extended answer here, I think it will be very useful for you:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ttings-772995/

Thanks for all the help! I haven't had a chance to look into resolving this problem on th 24" monitor because I've since become preoccupied with trying to use the advice you have all provided into resolving the same issue on my T61 Lenovo laptop.

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

The monitor is also blurry and I can't change the xorg.conf file without it crashing. The monitor is supposed to handle 1440x900 screen resolution, and I can change that in the xorg.conf file but it doesn't seem to change the actual resolution that the monitor displays. The xorg.conf file (that is currently working, but blurry) is given below. Any help on this monitor issue would also be really appreciated. Is it possible that the laptop just can't support the better resolution? I tried changing the xorg.conf screen settings to:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
EndSubSection
EndSection

but this crashed.



the xorg.conf file is:

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Synaptics" "AlwaysCore"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
Load "synaptics"
Load "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
# Option "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
#
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "LCD Panel 1440x900"
HorizSync 31.5 - 56.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 65.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "vesa"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "VESA driver (generic)"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "1440x900"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection

apparently there is a long history of problems/bugs with the intel integrated graphics card:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...el/+bug/252094

Don't get anxious, you know that will make everything look worse.
Take a deep breath an check what you are doing:
Should be
Your monitor is looking worse because you have VESA as driver (do remember it is the generic one, it does not even support hardware acceleration nor wide-screen)

Don't forget you can take a look at my full setup and more detailed instructions here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ttings-772995/


Your problem is not fully solvable with J.W. advice.
EDIT: It is not about generic monitor modelines but the ones working for the intended resolution.
Use my working config as an example (see link above) and use the program pointed there to guess your specific monitor "modelines" for your specific resolution in the "new" format.

By the way, are you starting by means of xinit? If not it will be a little problematic reading your error logs. Anyway, you can always access them in /var/log/Xorg.0.log and see what is going wrong.

Good luck

I changed the xorg.conf file so that "Driver" is "nvidia". It failed. The section "Device" in the failed xorg.conf file is:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "VESA driver (generic)"
EndSection

Should I change BoardName?

thankx

It looks like it is more difficult than a simple change in the xorg.conf file to make the Lenovo T61 work. Oh Yak.

http://www.linlap.com/wiki/ibm-lenovo+thinkpad+t61

"Quite a lot of work and Linux experience is required to get the Lenovo Thinkpad T61 working with Linux. Definitely not a install and use laptop but you can get everything working with a bit of work. Update: Ubuntu 7.10 and more than likely other recently released distributions now include good support for this laptop. The sound and wireless work without extra configuration."

That is just a cosmetic change. Not big deal.
Please tell me whether you are using startx for starting the server... It is not just that the server fails. You need to look at the terminal output or /var/log/Xorg.0.log instead to know for certain what is going wrong.

ok...
so the
/var/log/Xorg.0.log
is really big. Would it be safe to save this log file as Xorg.0.log_Dec05, then remove the Xorg.0.log, then change the xorg.conf file back to the one that causes the startx to crash, then retrieve the new Xorg.0.log file? (just so that the log file contains just the stuff that is relevant to this episode?)

tx again for all your help

Yes!!