Question about screen resolution

JAKK · 12-24-2006, 02:40 AM

Hi. I have an ibm thinkpad 390e. It has a 12 inch display,and I have a question about the screen resolution. I think it's at 640x480 right now,and I want to see if I can make it any higher. However,I'm not sure what settings to put into the xorg.conf file. I'm not sure what the various refresh rates are,or even if the screen can do anything above 640x480. Thanks for your help.

jschiwal · 12-24-2006, 03:09 AM

If you google for your Model, you may find web sites where users detail the configurations that they used.

For LCD monitors, it is best to determine the native resolution of the monitor and use just that one.
You could use the gft program to generate the modeline to use.
gtf <horizontal> <vertical> <refresh-rate> -x

LCD monitors probably use 56 hz or 60 hz for the refresh rate. You might also try configuring the monitor as a generic LCD monitor to start with as well.

JAKK · 12-24-2006, 05:42 PM

Okay,I will try the gtf program. Once I do that, do I just put the modeline in the 'monitor' section? Also,is there a command I can type to see how much hard drive space i have left and how much ram I have? I'm guessing it's in /proc,but I'm not sure what to look for. Thanks for your help.

jschiwal · 12-24-2006, 05:56 PM

xorg.conf has its own man page. Excerpts:

Code:

       UseModes  "modesection-id"
              Include the set of modes listed in the Modes section called mod‐
              esection-id.  This make all of the modes defined in that section
              available for use by this monitor.

       Mode  "name"
              This is an optional multi-line entry that can be used to provide
              definitions for video modes for the monitor.  In most cases this
              isn't necessary because the built-in set of VESA standard  modes
              will  be  sufficient.  The Mode keyword indicates the start of a
              multi-line video mode description.  The mode description is ter‐
              minated with the EndMode keyword.  The mode description consists
              of the following entries:

There are two ways of doing it, but for a single modeline, that would be the place to put it.
You also need to add the modeline identifier to the Screen section for each depth:

Code:

Section "Screen"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "1280x800_60"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "1280x800_60"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "1280x800_60"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    Modes      "1280x800_60"
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection

I would also recommend deleting the ".00" from the modeline name.

Code:

gtf 1280 800 60 -x

change this:
  # 1280x800 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 49.68 kHz; pclk: 83.46 MHz
  Modeline "1280x800_60.00"  83.46  1280 1344 1480 1680  800 801 804 828  -HSync +Vsync

to this:
  # 1280x800 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 49.68 kHz; pclk: 83.46 MHz
  Modeline "1280x800_60"  83.46  1280 1344 1480 1680  800 801 804 828  -HSync +Vsync