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Linux - Laptop and Netbook Having a problem installing or configuring Linux on your laptop? Need help running Linux on your netbook? This forum is for you. This forum is for any topics relating to Linux and either traditional laptops or netbooks (such as the Asus EEE PC, Everex CloudBook or MSI Wind).

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Old 01-19-2004, 01:32 AM   #1
Amy
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Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Paradise CA
Distribution: Slackware 9.1
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How to get higher rez on Inspiron 5000 w/ Slackware 9.1?


I'd really really love to get my screen rez up past 1024x768, but can't seem to. It's become clear to me I need a driver for it.

I should say I'm totally new to linux, and just jumped in yesterday. I'm pretty lost, and have never installed a driver, and don't really know where to get one. The laptop was doing much higher rez under Windows, so I know the hardware will do it, but how to get Slackware to do it?

<scratching head>

Amy
 
Old 01-19-2004, 03:07 PM   #2
Tino27
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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Akron, OH
Distribution: Slackware 14.2-stable, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
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Have you checked the video card manufacturer's website for an updated Linux driver? That might be a good place to start. You might also try googling to see if someone else has released a driver.

That being said, most, if not all resolution issues can be traced to the file /etc/X11/XF86Config. Even if the current driver for you video card supported a resolution higher than 1024x768, if those additional resolutions aren't also listed in the XF86Config file, I don't believe you could switch to them.

I've got Slack 9.1 running on my laptop and I know that to get "optimal" video resolution, 3D acceleration and all, I had to really play around with the XF86Config file, tweaking here and there.
 
Old 01-20-2004, 03:48 PM   #3
Amy
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Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Paradise CA
Distribution: Slackware 9.1
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Original Poster
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Quote:
Originally posted by Tino27
Have you checked the video card manufacturer's website for an updated Linux driver? That might be a good place to start. You might also try googling to see if someone else has released a driver.

That being said, most, if not all resolution issues can be traced to the file /etc/X11/XF86Config. Even if the current driver for you video card supported a resolution higher than 1024x768, if those additional resolutions aren't also listed in the XF86Config file, I don't believe you could switch to them.

I've got Slack 9.1 running on my laptop and I know that to get "optimal" video resolution, 3D acceleration and all, I had to really play around with the XF86Config file, tweaking here and there.

Well, I have indeed tweaked XF86Config till my fingers are raw, and nothing seem to help. There's no such thing as a refresh rate for an LCD screen, so that's irrelevant.

I *put* the additional resolutions in the config file, and x wouldn't start.

The manufacturer (ATI) doesn't support the card anymore as this is an older card. I think I might just be out of luck getting this Inspiron to do decent rez, and will end up loading slack on a desktop machine.

I'm *so* very happy for you with your fabulous resolution...
a.

Last edited by Amy; 01-20-2004 at 03:53 PM.
 
Old 01-20-2004, 04:29 PM   #4
Tino27
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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Akron, OH
Distribution: Slackware 14.2-stable, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Posts: 401

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Quote:
Originally posted by Amy
I'm *so* very happy for you with your fabulous resolution...
Sorry, just trying to help.
 
Old 04-15-2004, 05:51 PM   #5
Labyrinth
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Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 27

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I'm on a mission to inform fellow insp8000 users on how to use their 1400x1500 resolution (at least). There are about 10 threads on this forum with people agonizing over how to get linux to utilize the potential of their resolution. I hope this helps.

First off, I'm using Slack 9.1, but the complaints seem to span all the distros. The problem also seems more common on the ati rage mobility 128 agp M4, but some other cards, too. There are some suggestions that people mess around with the XF86Config, but no one posted results. Here's my experience for a start:

1. Getting the acceleration to work was easy. I just compiled the kernel with DRI, or moduled it, don't remember which, but that sped it up much faster. Also, the default Ram for my card was commented out and said 4MB. I just uncommented that line and changed it to 32meg (exact figure below in the copy of the graphics section of my XF86Config file), and these two steps increased my graphics speed by about 4x. I still don't know if I've got full accel, but it feels about what it was with win2k.

2. I knew my res was much lower, and this bothered me more than the accel. About all people said on here was, "get the ati drivers for the card." Well, those are not open source and come in a RPM package, and worse than that, it just wouldn't install anyway. It turned out that my distro came with r128 drivers anyway, I just had to kernel/module them in. This doesn't seem to be a critical step, though, and your XF86Config file probably has a "VESA framebuffer" as the default card, and I haven't noticed any difference with using this driver. The important thing is to change video ram value so its uncommented and is bumped from 4meg to 32meg.

3. Others on this forum recommended monkeying around with the Screens. My XF86config defaulted to some crummy "My Monitor" that had safe values. I'm not a hardware buff, but someone mentioned that horizontal/vertical refresh won't destroy an LCD screen, and that made sense to me. However, the values do matter. I tried high values, small ranges, large ranges; some allowed me higher res, some wouldn't let me into X at all, but I realized that guesswork was to hard for my lazy nature.

4. I used the Control Center in KDE (the wrench icon on the taskbar) to try changing the screens there. Various sources mentioned their insp8k having a TFT 15.1 screen, but that wasn't listed, so I just tried out some screens. Some Dell monitors worked ok, but still no 1400x1050 like I was looking for. I tried a few ViewSonics out, and stumbled on one that allowed the 1400x1050 res. Unfortunately, when X just started up, the screen had a bunch of white spots running vertically kind of like wicker or jail bars. (I've seen this before doing stuff with other screens when I tried installing linux when I was younger... suprised I didn't destroy some monitors!) Also, I wasn't able to start X up at all once-- the screen melted away with the look you get when you push an LCD screen with your finger--that rainbow-in-oil look that probably isn't a good thing. A reconfig and config back again fixed it. Now this hack just can't be good...

5. I went to http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/dell.html. This is the linux-on-laptops site, and it deals with-- do I have to explain it?-- linux on laptopx. This dell section has pages by people with all sorts of configurations for each model of Insp. There are about 10 for the Insp 8000 alone, and other models may apply if those pages run out their usefullness.

6. One of these pages had some values that the page author had gotten from somewhere else... Who knows what voodoo that person had to perform to summon these figures. Anyway, everything works great now, I'm using the r128 drivers, I've got 1400x1500 res (only--I'll have to find out about putting in other lines for times when I need lower res, and I don't know about 1600x1200 since that was virtual in win2k anyway). So here's the graphics section (sans comments)of my XF86Config:

============
# **********************************************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************************************
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 28-90
VertRefresh 40-110
Option "DPMS"
Modeline "1400x1050" 107.85 1400 1450 1500 1999 1050 1058 1070 1150
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************
Section "Device"
Identifier "r128"
Driver "r128"
VideoRam 32768
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
vendorname "Generic"
boardname "r128"
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "r128"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050"
EndSubsection
EndSection

Remember, if you're not able to startx anymore and it says "no screen found", you can grab the old values from the XF86Config.old, XF86Config.Vesa, XF86Config.kbackup or whatever works. You'll have to use a commandline text editor, but hopefully you'll get it working.
 
Old 07-25-2004, 02:01 PM   #6
perry
Member
 
Registered: Sep 2003
Location: USA & Canada
Distribution: Slackware 12.0
Posts: 978

Rep: Reputation: 30
Thank you!

Quote:
Originally posted by Labyrinth
I'm on a mission to inform fellow insp8000 users on how to use their 1400x1500 resolution (at least). There are about 10 threads on this forum with people agonizing over how to get linux to utilize the potential of their resolution. I hope this helps.

First off, I'm using Slack 9.1, but the complaints seem to span all the distros. The problem also seems more common on the ati rage mobility 128 agp M4, but some other cards, too. There are some suggestions that people mess around with the XF86Config, but no one posted results. Here's my experience for a start:

1. Getting the acceleration to work was easy. I just compiled the kernel with DRI, or moduled it, don't remember which, but that sped it up much faster. Also, the default Ram for my card was commented out and said 4MB. I just uncommented that line and changed it to 32meg (exact figure below in the copy of the graphics section of my XF86Config file), and these two steps increased my graphics speed by about 4x. I still don't know if I've got full accel, but it feels about what it was with win2k.

2. I knew my res was much lower, and this bothered me more than the accel. About all people said on here was, "get the ati drivers for the card." Well, those are not open source and come in a RPM package, and worse than that, it just wouldn't install anyway. It turned out that my distro came with r128 drivers anyway, I just had to kernel/module them in. This doesn't seem to be a critical step, though, and your XF86Config file probably has a "VESA framebuffer" as the default card, and I haven't noticed any difference with using this driver. The important thing is to change video ram value so its uncommented and is bumped from 4meg to 32meg.

3. Others on this forum recommended monkeying around with the Screens. My XF86config defaulted to some crummy "My Monitor" that had safe values. I'm not a hardware buff, but someone mentioned that horizontal/vertical refresh won't destroy an LCD screen, and that made sense to me. However, the values do matter. I tried high values, small ranges, large ranges; some allowed me higher res, some wouldn't let me into X at all, but I realized that guesswork was to hard for my lazy nature.

4. I used the Control Center in KDE (the wrench icon on the taskbar) to try changing the screens there. Various sources mentioned their insp8k having a TFT 15.1 screen, but that wasn't listed, so I just tried out some screens. Some Dell monitors worked ok, but still no 1400x1050 like I was looking for. I tried a few ViewSonics out, and stumbled on one that allowed the 1400x1050 res. Unfortunately, when X just started up, the screen had a bunch of white spots running vertically kind of like wicker or jail bars. (I've seen this before doing stuff with other screens when I tried installing linux when I was younger... suprised I didn't destroy some monitors!) Also, I wasn't able to start X up at all once-- the screen melted away with the look you get when you push an LCD screen with your finger--that rainbow-in-oil look that probably isn't a good thing. A reconfig and config back again fixed it. Now this hack just can't be good...

5. I went to http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/dell.html. This is the linux-on-laptops site, and it deals with-- do I have to explain it?-- linux on laptopx. This dell section has pages by people with all sorts of configurations for each model of Insp. There are about 10 for the Insp 8000 alone, and other models may apply if those pages run out their usefullness.

6. One of these pages had some values that the page author had gotten from somewhere else... Who knows what voodoo that person had to perform to summon these figures. Anyway, everything works great now, I'm using the r128 drivers, I've got 1400x1500 res (only--I'll have to find out about putting in other lines for times when I need lower res, and I don't know about 1600x1200 since that was virtual in win2k anyway). So here's the graphics section (sans comments)of my XF86Config:

============
# **********************************************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************************************
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 28-90
VertRefresh 40-110
Option "DPMS"
Modeline "1400x1050" 107.85 1400 1450 1500 1999 1050 1058 1070 1150
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************
Section "Device"
Identifier "r128"
Driver "r128"
VideoRam 32768
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
vendorname "Generic"
boardname "r128"
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "r128"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050"
EndSubsection
EndSection

Remember, if you're not able to startx anymore and it says "no screen found", you can grab the old values from the XF86Config.old, XF86Config.Vesa, XF86Config.kbackup or whatever works. You'll have to use a commandline text editor, but hopefully you'll get it working.
oddly enough, recompiling the kernal for the very first time ever is something i was thinking of doing today given that i have to make sure the iptables are hooked up correctly (using slackware 10). but to come across this and find out that just maybe, i can increase my ati cards' output is bit of a bonus. while my card will do 1400x1050 (thats why i forked out so much for it) the card is only 8mb so i'm not expecting much. however the documentation says that it does have hardware acceleration so we'll see. it would be nice to be able to play doom and wine a bit better (i'm assuming that the cpu is being eaten up by the video and not the game as doom/quake can be played in win98 without the fan kicking in)

i'll let you know how i made out and thanks again for helping linux breath even more life into this 5 year old machine that's not getting older, but getting better, thanks to Linux!

L^3 -> Love Live Linux

- perry

"She's alive!" - Wierd Science
 
Old 07-26-2004, 05:55 AM   #7
siawash
Member
 
Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Ireland
Distribution: Zorin 6
Posts: 589

Rep: Reputation: 32
Dell Latitude Cpx 650

Hello, my video card is the smaller 8 mb. The monitor was not recognized during installation.
It is seen as UNKNOWN MONITOR. Consequently, the rez is 800 x 600 or less. I am not able to raise the rez.
Is the solution for this the same as above.???

I am thinking of scrapping my win2k dual boot due constant spyware infections. but cannot live with the low rez.
 
Old 07-27-2004, 02:18 PM   #8
perry
Member
 
Registered: Sep 2003
Location: USA & Canada
Distribution: Slackware 12.0
Posts: 978

Rep: Reputation: 30
Re: Dell Latitude Cpx 650

Quote:
Originally posted by siawash
Hello, my video card is the smaller 8 mb. The monitor was not recognized during installation.
It is seen as UNKNOWN MONITOR. Consequently, the rez is 800 x 600 or less. I am not able to raise the rez.
Is the solution for this the same as above.???

I am thinking of scrapping my win2k dual boot due constant spyware infections. but cannot live with the low rez.
get the correct horizontal & veritcial frequencies for your monitor, xfree will ignore your requests for higher resolution until that happens

- perry
 
  


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