Can someone check my xorg.conf for me

frammy7 · 03-05-2009, 05:43 AM

Just wondering if someone can check my xorg.conf file for me to make sure I'm not likely to fry my monitor, lol - I'm a bit of a newbie and not sure I can afford a new one if I blow it up...

All my xorg.conf contains is:

Code:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Configured Monitor"
HorizSync       30-80
VertRefresh     56-75
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Monitor         "Configured Monitor"
        Device          "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth    24
SubSection "Display"
Depth   24
Modes   "1280x1024" "1024x758" "800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection

My monitor is a DGM 17" - the specs say Scan Frequency: H:30-80KHz V:56-75Hz.
I think it should be ok?! I just wanted to force it to display 1280x1024, as it wasn't an option under the 'Preferences' > 'Screen Resolution' thing in Ubuntu 8.10 - which is seems to do now (albeit a bit sluggish - but that might be the pc?!) - but just want to check I'm not missing something quite crucial here???

pixellany · 03-05-2009, 05:54 AM

I don't see any issues.

Is the monitor an LCD? If so, the standard recommendation is to run it at its native resolution.

Modern LCD monitors will probably not be damaged by wrong settings---they will just give you some kind of error message.

farslayer · 03-05-2009, 07:32 AM

another reason it might be sluggish is if you are not running the 'best' driver for your video card..

could you post the output of the following commands ?

lspci
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i driver

frammy7 · 03-05-2009, 07:53 AM

lspci gives:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 741/741GX/M741 Host (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS AGP Port (virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge)
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 8d)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760 PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i driver, gives:

Code:

	X.Org Video Driver: 4.1
	X.Org XInput driver : 2.1
(II) Scanning /usr/share/xserver-xorg/pci directory for additional PCI ID's supported by the drivers
(==) Matched sis for the autoconfigured driver
(==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//sis_drv.so
	Module class: X.Org Video Driver
	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 4.1
(II) SIS: driver for SiS chipsets: SIS5597/5598, SIS530/620,
(II) SIS: driver for XGI chipsets: Volari Z7 (XG20),
(II) SIS(0): SiS driver (2005/09/20-1, compiled for X.org 1.5.0.0)
(II) SIS(0):          whether enabled or disabled. This is no driver bug.
(**) SIS(0): *Driver mode "1280x1024": 108.0 MHz, 64.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(**) SIS(0): *Driver mode "800x600": 49.5 MHz, 46.9 kHz, 75.0 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "1280x1024": 135.0 MHz, 80.0 kHz, 75.0 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "1024x768": 78.8 MHz, 60.1 kHz, 75.1 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "1024x768": 75.0 MHz, 56.5 kHz, 70.1 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "1024x768": 65.0 MHz, 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "800x600": 50.0 MHz, 48.1 kHz, 72.2 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "800x600": 40.0 MHz, 37.9 kHz, 60.3 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "640x480": 31.5 MHz, 37.5 kHz, 75.0 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "640x480": 31.5 MHz, 37.9 kHz, 72.8 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "640x480": 25.2 MHz, 31.5 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(**) SIS(0):  Driver mode "720x400": 28.3 MHz, 31.5 kHz, 70.1 Hz
	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 4.1
	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 4.1
	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 4.1
	Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
	ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 2.1

The PC is actually a HP T5720 thin client, with a hard drive, etc in it - it has onboard graphics using a SiS741 chip. I haven't 'installed' any drivers for it myself as such - its just using whatever a stanard install of Ubuntu comes with. Any help in checking/finding a driver for it would be amazing!

johnsfine · 03-05-2009, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frammy7

make sure I'm not likely to fry my monitor, lol - I'm a bit of a newbie and not sure I can afford a new one if I blow it up...

Frying a monitor because of bad timing in the video signal was never as likely as people seemed to think and got less likely as monitor design improved. A monitor that supports 30-80KHz HorizSync almost certainly is designed to lose sync on an out of range signal well before it is far enough out of range to do permanent harm.

But anyway, you apparently gave it the correct info, so the signal won't be out of range. Short of experimenting, I don't know quite enough about X to be sure that those timing settings in the xorg.conf really override the values that the driver gets automatically by interrogating the monitor. In your case, we can assume the values it would get automatically are the same as the ones you provided.

If you're getting the resolution you want with that xorg.conf, I wouldn't worry about frying anything.

Quote:

which is seems to do now (albeit a bit sluggish - but that might be the pc?!)

I assume the video is using shared memory, so the higher resolution may be placing enough extra demand on ram speed to make the system noticeably slower. I don't know what type and speed ram you have. I'm used to dual channel DDR2 800 ram on systems with shared memory for video. With that, you would not notice any speed change from a higher resolution, but maybe you have only one memory stick and some lower speed.

There is also the fact that the CPU must draw more into the video memory at a higher resolution. Maybe your CPU is slow enough that is a noticeable factor.

frammy7 · 03-05-2009, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsfine

If you're getting the resolution you want with that xorg.conf, I wouldn't worry about frying anything.

That is good to know

I hoped it would be less likely with newer monitors - but... I'm not 100% sure of what I'm doing... and I keep finding warning messages about it... so its good to have some reassurance - so thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsfine

I assume the video is using shared memory... Maybe your CPU is slow enough that is a noticeable factor.

Well...

Its a HP thin client: It has a 1.0GHz AMD processor. 512MB of 333MHz DDR SDRAM (PC2700 - which is the fastest RAM it can take) and.. well, wait for it... a whopping 16MB! of shared memory for graphics... so I think we know where the problem is going to be! I'm not sure if I can 'do' anything about upping the amount of RAM available for the graphics - its something I'm looking into (I could also put a PCI graphics card in it - but I would prefer not to) - so any tips/things I can change to get the most out of 16MB of graphics will be very welcome!!!

I'm hoping someone will be able to point me in the direction of the best driver for the SiS741 graphics chip - so hopefully that may improve things slightly - but its not too bad as it is really...

johnsfine · 03-05-2009, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frammy7

I'm not sure if I can 'do' anything about upping the amount of RAM available for the graphics

The amount of ram available for graphics doesn't affect the speed, so don't bother trying to increase it.

1280x1024 with 32 bit color requires 1280x4KB = 5MB of graphics ram. Ordinary programs never use more than that 5MB. Something like a player for a full screen movie might be able to double buffer and need 10MB. Anything beyond that would only be useful for high speed games that your CPU probably isn't fast enough for anyway.

farslayer · 03-05-2009, 12:05 PM

From what you posted it is already using the free sis driver (the only sis driver afaik) and those aren't the most impressive graphics chips to begin with.. IF there is an option to give more RAM to the video it will probably be in the system BIOS.

http://www.sis.com/support/support_faqs_16.htm

Quote:

The linux OS has default driver for SiS products

I think that pretty much sums it up. and boy is that FAQ old or what ?? 2.4 kernel.. heh

frammy7 · 03-05-2009, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by farslayer

From what you posted it is already using the free sis driver (the only sis driver afaik) and those aren't the most impressive graphics chips to begin with.. I think that pretty much sums it up. and boy is that FAQ old or what ?? 2.4 kernel.. heh

Tell me about it! Ok, well its good to know I have got what drivers are available...

Is there any general advice about buying the best Nvidia or ATI cards for linux? Or it is just whatever I can find drivers for/other people say seems to work /using the HCL ?

farslayer · 03-05-2009, 03:46 PM

the proprietary nVidia drivers work well in Linux, I haven't run into any issues. Some people have had issues with newly released cards but those seem to disappear rapidly as nVidia updates the drivers. Pretty much any nVidia card should work well for you in Linux.

older nVidia cards (which you probably wouldn't bother with anyway) need the legacy nVidia driver versions but still work well in Linux.

ATI support has been improving in Linux, I don't see many posts of people having trouble getting them to work any more, so ATI seems to be a good choice as well if you like their products. The Early ATi drivers seemed to have a lot of issues, but ATI has apparently spent some time sorting most of that out.

ATI also released Specs for their drivers to the Community, so some day there will actually be a fully working Open Source 3D Graphics driver for ATI. Kudos to ATI for that move, I just wish we knew when that driver would be complete and fully operational.

Personally I'm an nVida fan so I go that route and have no complaints. but it's sorta like the old ford vs Chevy debate or vi vs emacs..

frammy7 · 03-08-2009, 08:09 AM

Thanks for the info farslayer! I will have to see what I can find - I'm usually an Nvidia fan myself generally

so its good to hear they work well when using Linux