Dell LCD monitor slow when using console

wilson47 · 08-05-2010, 05:26 PM

The 14" (pretty sure of the size) LCD monitor is hooked up with "digital input" (not the VGA or whatever). I tend to use the console (i.e. ttyX) more than X windows, and it is extremely slow refreshing. A concrete example is opening a man page, or cat-ing a file go so slow it takes a second or 2 for them to fully display.

Is this a video driver issue? Here are some stats:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV380 [Radeon X600 (PCIE)]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV380 [Radeon X600]
03:02.0 Communication controller: Conexant Systems, Inc. HSF 56k Data/Fax Modem
03:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB X-Fi
03:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) LAN Controller (rev 01)

Running linux kernel: 2.6.27.31-smp

Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated. I can't look at the screen when it refreshes; it is that awkward and discontinuous.

Thanks!
Glen

yooy · 08-07-2010, 05:41 AM

Monitor is not slow, that is for sure. Your ATI gfx card seem to be pretty new and i guess there are no drivers installed for that card.

Also try issuing "top" command to see processes and cpu usage,memory,etc.. but you are saying that video is slow.

wilson47 · 08-07-2010, 11:38 PM

So I installed the drivers for the card, and followed all the directions, but that did nothing for me. If it wasn't clear in the original post, I'll try to articulate more precisely that this is not an X windows problem. The issue is when I am using the console / terminal / tty / whatever-else-they-are-called.

I thought it could be a monitor issue, or maybe a digital input issue since (from what I can gather) the console doesn't require any fancy graphics cards or video what-cha-ma-hoozits. I'll keep playing around with it, and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestion though.

wilson47 · 11-28-2011, 08:18 AM

It's taken me a while, but I think I more or less figured out what is wrong. The framebuffer refresh rate is slow if you use some VGA=791 setting in grub/lilo. Sticking with the normal framebuffer settings is faster, but you don't get as many lines on the screen. Does anybody know of a way to get a faster refresh rate on a framebuffer device?

BoraxMan · 12-02-2011, 10:17 PM

This adding this as a kernel parameter in grub.conf or lilo.conf.
If you are using grub, add this after the kernel name. This helped speed things up for me using the console.

video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr:3