Configuring 22" wide format LCD
 

Yesterday I bought BenQ FP222W (Analog, 22" wide format LCD) monitor. I would greatly appreciate any and all help I can get on configuring it on my amd64 PC with openSUSE 10.3 OS. I have read the thread "need help setting up wide screen LCD", particularly the suggestions by jschiwal. I understood it as recommending to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf, which I am willing to try, but have not done yet. (Currently my suse 10.3 is "broken" with 800x600 screen, struggling with w/h ratio 4/3, whilst I need 8/5). Monitor "natively" supports 1600x1050, 56-76 Hz image frequency, 30-82 kHz Line frequency.

I have tried to use sax2 with two commands with various parameters:
"sax2 -a" - no luck
"sax2 -V 0:1024x640@70" - no luck, either.

To do that I went to console (ctrl+alt+F1), logged in, switched to root, killed the x-win server with "init 3", issued sax2 command, then ran the x-win server by "init 5". Is this wrong and if so why?

All help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

OldAl.

unless Suse has a gui tool, I think you're going to have to edit your xorg.conf file. It's not really that hard, just sudo or su to root, then edit the file by adding the Hsync and Vert. refresh range to the Monitor section, and the resolution to your mode line (not sure about your particular monitor, but I'm guessing that should probably be 1680x1050, not 1600). If your video card supports that resolution, I think that should be all you need to do. If you're still having trouble, post your xorg.conf and we'll try to set you up.

Just had to configure a 22" myself. After probing it with different settings I commented sync lines out and X started up perfectly using DDC, 1680x1050.

I looked up the specs for you:
http://www.benq.com/products/LCD/?pr...specifications

Native resolution 1680x1050
Horizontal Frequency 30 - 82 (KHz)
Vertical Frequency 56 - 76 (Hz)
Video Bandwidth 25 - 165 (MHz)

I put those values into videogenand got the outputYou probably don't really need to add a modeline (to the monitor section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf). You probably don't really even need to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf at all. But once you know how to select exact resolution and timing by adding modelines, it's actually easier than the more automated methods.

Be sure to make a copy of /etc/X11/xorg.conf before editing it.

Then you can edit it with your favorite GUI text editor, and use Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to kill and restart the X server to try the new settings. If it works, great.

If it doesn't, X is then pretty sick. It sounds like you know how to log into terminal mode at that point. I've never fully understood the consequences of changing run level and for some of what I do when I have a bad /etc/xorg.conf changing run level seems to be too much. Instead of changing run level, I've had perfect results with
to clean up after X dies and to restart it (except that in some distributions that should be gdm instead of kdm). I assume I don't need to tell you how to restore from the backup of xorg.conf if you remembered to make one.

You are quite right - it is 1680x1050. My old age and frustration is showing... I am quite happy to try to edit the xorg.conf and will report my experience with it.

Thank you for the offer to post xorg.conf. Hopefully I will not have to do that, but the offer gives me some peace of mind (so, again hopefully, my fingers will press fewer wrong keys).

I am really grateful,

OldAl.

I have a really miserable lack of understanding of acronyms - what is DDC? You really give me encouragement to do the editing of /etc/X11/xorg.conf - I will not forget to save the old xorg.conf in a directory called /etc/X11/trash :-)

Thank you for your good advice,

OldAl.

DDC: Display Data Channel (VESA)
Above is the whole contents of my Monitor section.

Thank you for your detailed response and instructions. Thanks for looking up the spec - my quoting 1600x1050 was my mistake - it is 1680x1050, as is shown in the printout of p 37 of the "user manual" that comes on the BenQ CD.

I will printout your instructions for my reference and keep it in front of me when I proceed to edit the xorg.conf file! For sure, I will first make a copy of it!

Your carefully thought out response is greatly appreciated and it will probably will be appreciated by others who are bound to fall in the same desperate state as I found myself.

Sincerely,
OldAl.

Yes, and if that was not clear for the OP, what it means is that if you comment out everything in your Monitor section, the X server will automatically chose the correct resolution and refresh rate by asking the monitor through the DDC.

Thanks for that! Made a copy to "Kate" of your contents of Monitor section (together with some other detailed instructions). Will print that out on paper and keep it in front of my nose when I do edit the xorg.conf (using vi editor).

This instant reply is great - its quicker than I can implement/try the suggestions...

Many thanks,

OldAl.

I'm curious if you have the "videogen" program mentioned. I'm using SuSE 10.3 and I don't think I have that program. I do have "gtf" however. For an LCD monitor I'd use a refresh rate of 60HZ. SuSE has a "use Modes[0]" entry in the Monitor section, so if you generate a modeline yourself put it in the Modes[0] section and not the "Monitor" section. Make sure to edit out the ".00" part of the Modeline label. Xorg doesn't seem to work with it. Then insert the Label in double quotes in the Section Screen / Subsection Display / Modes entries. Even if you let xorg.conf figure out the Modeline itself, I think you need a Modes entry for your resolution.

Which card are you using? If it is nvidia, you will want to install the nvidia drivers. In YaST2 -> Software there is a "Community Repositories" section that will include repositories for "NVidia" and for "ATI". That will make it easier to install a driver using the package manager. If you run an install program, nvidia's install program installs /usr/bin/nvidia-xconfig. Running that as root (in init level 3) might generate a working xorg.conf file that works.

Good Luck!

Actually, you can "steal" modelines from Xorg log. I'll add here my Screen section, with LCD you normally do not need to specify wide range of configurations.
Yea, people are different ... it's Saturday night here, why I'm not out there doing silly things as normal people do ... ?

Do you know how to use vi? It isn't beginner friendly!

I may not have been clear enough: xorg.conf is only used to start X. It isn't used while X is running, so you can edit it while X is running (I assume at an inferior but visible resolution). So you can use kwrite or whatever other simply GUI editor you like.

In the monitor section, you may already find the HorizSync and VertRefresh lines with the values read from your display 30 - 82 and 56 - 86. If not, it is a good idea to put those in. The # on those lines in Emerson's example is a comment character, telling X to ignore those lines. You probably don't want that # there.

That monitor section is where you would add the modeline. Then the name of the modeline "1680x1050" usually should be referenced on the Modes lines in the Display subsection(s) of the Screen section.

So you know SuSE comes with an old Xorg version which is not DDC aware?

I installed the RCS package and make backups before editing.

cd /etc/X11
sudo mkdir RCS # ( just for the first time )
sudo ci -l xorg.conf

This will allow you to backup different versions of your xorg.conf file. If the RCS directory exists, the backup will be there which reduces clutter.

You can go back to the latest backup with "sudo co -l xorg.conf".

There are options to restore an earlier backup as well.

I checked the version of x11 in suse10.3. It is version 4. I would suspect it to be the latest - suse generally go for the latest version. Not allways the safest way to go...

I changed the Monitor section. However, I now find it changed again by the system in some devious way. Suse tends to do these windows like mysterious things IMHO. I did not keep a copy of my changes, but I sure know that I had the sync lines commented out. The section now looks:

The display size is surely wrong - it should be 474 297 (measured visible width height in mm.) Also, according to my reading of specs, HorizSync is 30-82 and VertRefresh is 56-76. I will try again to edit, but would not be surprised if suse restores it back to what it thinks is right.

BTW, in suse10.3, kdm is located at /opt/kde3/bin/kdm. I think that gdm is its equivalent when gnome, rather than KDE desktop manager is used. I agree that vi is not the most convenient editor, but it is good bet in any distro that it is there. Anyway, many people like it, too.

Thank you all for your contributions. I sure got a lot of valuable suggestions to go through.

(1) I don't have a videogen program as the following dialog indicates:
(2) I did not install video card and use nvidia chipset on the mobo. According to mobo manual, that is NVidia GeForce 6100 nForce 430. I did install the NVidia driver, directly downloaded from the NVidia site and directly installed. It does mean that with every change of the kernel installation I need to re-install the NVidia driver, but I find it a small inconvenience. I will try your suggestion of looking for a package via Yast. It would make suse happier, I am sure.

I am truly grateful that a real guru has bothered to give me some clues - thank you!

Look in /var/log and scan through the Xorg log. Look for lines that begin with (EE). Since you installed the NVidia driver from their installation program, try the "nvidia-xconfig" program. Do you have the resolution you want in the "Modes" entries. You absolutely need that. Also run "krandrtray". This program is a handy way to change resolutions on the fly. It will also indicate which resolutions you can use with your current settings.

here's my xorg.conf sections, if it might help you sort it. My LCD is 21", but the resolution is the same. Just plug in your hsync and vrefresh values and make sure the 1680x1050 res. is in the "Modes" line in the screen section:

Your Monitor section doesn't have a UseModes[0] or Modeline entries.

On my laptop, there is a Use modes[0] line even though the Mode[0] section doesn't contain any Modelines.
If that doesn't work use the gtf program.
gtf 1680 1050 60 x

Remove the ".00" from the modeline title. You could change the title to "1680x1050". This would mean you wouldn't have to edit the Screen Section.

If it still fails, read the xorg.conf log. Note any lines starting with (EE).

I have implemented your suggestions prior to this one. I now have 1280x800 quite readable screen, with circles that are round and not egg-shaped. I will need to try "krandrtray", but first let me summarise what I did to get to this quite satisfactory screen appearance:

1. As suggested by you, I installed the Revision Control System (RCS) and use "ci -l xorg.config" to check in revisions and "co -l xorg.config" to check out the revisions when required. Minimal instructions in a very readable format are in man:/rcsintro, as shown by konqueror.

2. With mode still 1280x1024 (with oval shaped circles etc.), in Yast changed the screen size to nearest available diagonal, 22.2", x/y ratio to 16/10 and acceptable frequencies.

3. The gtf is fabulous - thank you for pointing out this program. With gtf help, I have installed the following modelines and referred to them by name as required in "Screen" section:
I am experiencing problems with Yast now. First, it takes a really long time to display sax2 configuration dialog. The dialog gives choice only to old resolutions with x/y ratio of 4/3. It is not urgent to resolve this as I can happily work with the current screen setup (1280x800). However, it does need to be resolved eventually. I think the reason for this, somewhat frustrating, display of available screens that are not in the /etc/X11/xorg.config is that there is another version of this configuration file in /var/lib/sax/xorg.config.

It seems to be derived from the original /etc/X11/xorg.config, prior to editing. It only has one Modeline in it. My sheer guess is that Yast uses that to display the screen in test mode when the "Test" option is invoked from yast's display of configuration dialog for monitor. I suspect that the problem would resolve itself if I were to copy the /etc/X11/xorg.config to /var/lib/sax/xorg.config. I am just a little worried about breaking the display system that now is satisfactory... (No Yast access, though...).

I think I should look at the logs, first. Thank you jschiwal - all your suggestions proved to be quite correct and most useful.

Also thanks are due to slackhack for his kind contribution, as well as all others.

OldAl.

I have the FP222WH model (with an additional H), which is basically the same but alsohas an HDMI interface.
I could not get my screen running in PnP mode, so I generated the modelines from the technical specifications out of the manual.
Here is the configuration that works for me:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "BenQ FP222WH"
Vendorname "Generic LCD Display"
Modelname "LCD Panel 1680x1050"
Horizsync 30.0-82.0
Vertrefresh 56.0 - 76.0
modeline "640x480" 30.60 640 656 664 816 480 482 483 505 # 31 MHz, 37.5 kHz, 74.3 Hz
modeline "800x600" 47.92 800 824 848 1024 600 602 604 632 # 48 MHz, 46.8 kHz, 74.1 Hz
modeline "1024x768" 78.70 1024 1056 1088 1312 768 770 773 808 # 79 MHz, 60.0 kHz, 74.2 Hz
modeline "1152x864" 99.36 1152 1192 1240 1472 864 866 869 909 # 99 MHz, 67.5 kHz, 74.3 Hz
modeline "1280x1024" 131.20 1280 1320 1384 1640 1024 1026 1030 1078 # 131 MHz, 80.0 kHz, 74.2 Hz
modeline "1680x1050" 142.68 1680 1736 1816 2152 1050 1052 1055 1105 # 143 MHz, 66.3 kHz, 60.0 Hz
Gamma 1.0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "BenQ FP222WH"
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Virtual 1680 1024
Modes "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Thank you for that. Somehow I managed to get to 1280x800 screen in suse10.3, which is satisfactory. I can not change the screen resolution from Yast (Yast->Hardware->Graphics Card and Monitor). Are you using suse 10.3?

I find 1280x800 quite satisfactory, but would like to find out more about the video configuration. jschiwal's suggestion of gtf for Modeline generation was very useful. I do have suse 10.3 installed twice, in two different partitions. I will try some configuration options in a partition that has pre-set screen sizes in the ratio 4/3 only. Yast "hides" that configuration somewhere... Or is it KDE, as "krandrtray" from the "kdebase3" package displays only choices for screens with x/y = 4/3 in my "spare" installation of suse10.3, which has not been configured for the wide screen at all.

I assume that the reason why your video chooses to start with 1680x1050 screen is that you have only one choice in the "Default Screen" section - is that right?

Schoenste Gruesse auss Australien - Verzeihung dass ich keine umlauts habe...

Many thanks,

No, if that's the only listed resolution and it doesn't work at that res then either X will fail, or else it might try to write some default configuration in the attempt to start.

If you're happy with 1280x800 on a 22" widescreen that's up to you, but you're really selling yourself short. Have you tried just the basic configuration, i.e.: adding the proper Hsync & Vrefresh values to the monitor section and "1680x1050" to the screens section? You shouldn't have to mess around with generated mode lines unless that first course of action fails.

As someone else said, jschiwal I think, you should look at and probably post the output of cat /var/log/Xorg.log.0 |grep EE while trying to start in 1680x1050 to find out what the errors are. We can't really help effectively if we're mostly just guessing and saying "try this, try that" without knowing what the actual problem is.

Thank you for the mail. I will try to follow your and some other recommendations on the "secondary suse10.3" installation on my computer. It is in a separate, but somewhat smaller partition, though it shares the data with the "main suse10.3" installation (via a symbolic link for Documents folder in the data partition.)

I will attempt to systematically record all I had done and report back to the list. In this manner I will be able to use my "main" suse10.3 for day to day activities (including chess playing on FICA with people from all corners of the earth. No, I am not a "chess great", just a "club player".)

Currently I am writing from the "secondary" suse10.3 with 1280x1024 resolution, just to say a BIG THANK YOU ALL.

here's a good Howto:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Widescr...ns_%28WSXGA%29

Had a first, so far superficial, look at it. It is an excellent reference - thank you for that!

I have tried on my "spare suse10.3" to do just about everything suggested without success. The xorg.conf.0.log has _no_ lines with EE (more accurately, it has only one line that explains the meaning of (EE), (WW) etc.)

With 1650x1050 resolution I get "out of range" message. I could not get even 1280x800 working, as SUSE "restored" xorg.conf to somewhere predetermined values with r = 4/3. As I had to kill x-windows with ctrl+alt+<-, the strongest warning I got in the log was "x-session terminated unexpectedly". I think what is happening is that x-windows is working "perfectly", but the monitor's bios detects out of its range signals and gives a warning to the user, whilst x-windows has nothing to complain about...

In suse the xorg.conf is generally generated by the suse system (sax2, probably). In fact, xorg.conf is in at least two different places. I should get and read the "Administrator manual" from SUSE. If it looked like an unnecessary ballast in the past, it becomes quite intriguing and I may even understand what they are talking about. (The manual is very good, it is the reader that is "crook").

For the time being, I will try manual configuration on a Feisty Fawn kubuntu, or even install more current kubuntu 7.10 "gorilla" - I do have an iso image of the desktop version already on my PC. All I need is to burn a CD and find the least useful partition and to install it there (There will be some mucking about with GRUB, though.)

Thank you once more for the reference. Reading of it with notes is my very next step.

Kind regards,