Setting up a widescreen LCD monitor with X.org - help!
 

Hi, I need a little help getting my new computer going with X.org.

I got Linux installed and everything works great, except for the lousy graphics in X. :tisk:

The fonts look blotchy and worn out in places, and they're too tiny, and Firefox looks terrible! I think regular graphics aren't as good as they should be, either.

I have an onboard graphics controller, GeForce 6150 so I'm using the free Nvidia driver (nv server).
I have a 20-inch wide screen HP monitor.

I tried to enter all the values according to the manual that came with the monitor, and here's what I got in my xorg.conf:


Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia Corporation C51PV [GeForce 6150]"
Driver "nv"
BusID "PCI:0:5:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "HP wide"
Option "DPMS"
DisplaySize 427 305
HorizSync 30-94
VertRefresh 48-85
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nVidia Corporation C51PV [GeForce 6150]"
Monitor "HP wide"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x854" "1280x800" "1280x768" "1200x800" "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"




Ok heres the problem. I start X, and first of all there's about two inches on either side of the screen that are empty. Second of all the fonts are HORRIBLE. Third, I switch to a different mode and the monitor yells at me to get back at 1680x1050 at 60hz! Does this mean I can't have other modes? Actually the graphics and fonts in these other modes don't look too bad, but the screen's way too huge and there's a message from the monitor on it the whole time.

So now I'm squinting and reading through man pages!

:study: :confused: :study: :rolleyes:

I hope this is an easy one to fix! I appreciate your help everyone!

:)

Install the drivers corresponding to your video card, after that, in modes, try to remove all but the one you want / know is the maximum kickass screen resolution for you.

Edit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html, those are the ones that solved my problems, I also have (used to use, switched to PCI-E GeForce 7600) the same GeForce 6150. And could you tell us what distribution you are using?

LCD screens work better with ClearType Fonts, these are patent under some stupid license by microsoft or somebody like that and can not be included in all distributions. check out this post http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ad.php?t=82101

Perhaps posting the file from /etc/X11/xorg.conf as well as the output from the command 'lspci' entered into a console as root-user, would definitely help.
Also, if you're not using the appropriate driver from www.nvidia.com, that would be a definite improvement; I see you have the 'nv' driver, which is not as good.
:)
Also, please indicate what Linux you are using, and the make/model of the monitor.
Also, your default depth says 24, but your resolutions are all in Depth 1, leaving the system rather confused.

It's an onboard piece (and I don't like it, [/personal experience]). The official nVIDIA drivers and your favourite mode selected should solve your problems. And if you happen to be using a 19" widescreen monitor, I would advise the 1440x900 mode. For Firefox, you're gonna need Core Web Fonts (Which requires CABExtract) to browse the web decently. And again, the distribution you're using would help, since there are some very useful sites for specific distributions. And, cindyhot, would you define, 'hot'? :D (It's probably gonna be like your last name or something, that stuff always happens to me :D )

Oh, Ricardo, you are the man!!!

:)

The Nvidia driver works beautifully, I can see what I'm typing!!!

I'll check if Ubuntu has core web fonts in but wow this looks pretty slick!

As for how I define things, lets just say its a looong story ;)

BTW, Cleartype is actually inferior to the subpixel rendering already available in Linux. Cleartype is sort of a bastard hybrid between traditional jagged fonts and true anti-aliasing. It uses a technique known as "sub-pixel rendering", which uses the RGB subpixel structure of LCD screens for improved horizontal resolution, but it ONLY antialiases horizontally. To see this, open up a text editor in Windows and type something in a huge font (like 96 point). If you change the rendering to "Cleartype", then the near-horizontal lines will ironically look jagged! Change the rendering to "Standard", and the near-horizontal lines are smoothed out. But with "Standard" rendering, all smaller font sizes look jagged.

In Linux, you can use sub-pixel rendering just fine, and you can have true anti-aliasing in both dimensions at the same time. The result is superior to Cleartype.