setting LCD 800x600 or 640x480 resolution on compaq nx9005
 

Hi. I just configured Slackware 10 on my nx9005 laptop. Video card is ATI IGP 320M.
Everything went well, including 3D acceleration.
The only problem is that resolutions other than 1024x768 (LCD native) aren't working properly. I had the same problem with earlier versions of slackware too.
When I switch to these resolutions (ctrl alt +) images appear confused, with a lot of vertical lines. This looks to me like a problem related to LCD rather than video card.
Do I need any particular modeline?
I also tried xvidtune but it forbids to change any value, I don't understand why...

Any suggestion?
This is an extract of my xorg.conf:

[...]
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI IGP 320/M"
Driver "radeon"
VideoRam 65536
Option "AGPMode" "4"
Option "AGPFastWrite" "on"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "on"
EndSection
[...]

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "LCD"
HorizSync 31.5 - 48.5
# VertRefresh 50-90
VertRefresh 40-70
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

[...]

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "ATI IGP 320/M"
Monitor "LCD"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection

If your running kde, there's a nice utility called "krandrtray". Open a console and run:

$ krandrtray

It will put a little blue icon in your panel. Clicking on the icon will display all the available screen resolutions and refresh rates. Selecting any one of them will allow you to switch resolution on the fly with a properly sized screen. Try different resolutions/refresh rates and see if you can get something that works.

I think the problem is at a lower level.
with krandrtray I can only switch resolution (like I did before pressing ctrl alt +), but It doesn't allow to change the default 60Hz refresh rate. It seems to me that radeon driver gets refresh rate parameters directly from LCD panel and ignores any other setting...
Is there a way to override these values?
Is there anyone using 800x600 with a radeon IGP 320?
In my Xorg.0.log I found these lines:

(II) RADEON(0):
(II) RADEON(0): Primary Display == Type 2
(II) RADEON(0): Panel ID string: LGP
(II) RADEON(0): Panel Size from BIOS: 1024x768
(II) RADEON(0): BIOS provided dividers will be used.
(WW) RADEON(0): Failed to detect secondary monitor, MergedFB/Clone mode disabled
(==) RADEON(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(II) RADEON(0): Validating modes on Primary head ---------
(II) RADEON(0): Total number of valid DDC mode(s) found: 0
(II) RADEON(0): Valid mode using on-chip RMX: 1024x768
(II) RADEON(0): Valid mode using on-chip RMX: 800x600
(II) RADEON(0): Valid mode using on-chip RMX: 640x480
(II) RADEON(0): Total number of valid FP mode(s) found: 3
(--) RADEON(0): Virtual size is 1024x768 (pitch 1024)
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "1024x768": 65.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1024x768" 65.00 1024 1040 1688 1344 768 771 777 806
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "800x600": 65.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "800x600" 65.00 800 1040 1688 1344 600 771 777 806
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "640x480": 65.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "640x480" 65.00 640 1040 1688 1344 480 771 777 806
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "640x350": 65.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "640x350" 65.00 640 1040 1688 1344 350 771 777 806
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "640x400": 65.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "640x400" 65.00 640 1040 1688 1344 400 771 777 806
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "720x400": 65.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "720x400" 65.00 720 1040 1688 1344 400 771 777 806
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "832x624": 65.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "832x624" 65.00 832 1040 1688 1344 624 771 777 806
(==) RADEON(0): DPI set to (75, 75)

Thanks for any help.
Marco

Those modelines are a function of your Vertical Refresh rate IIRC. I notice you commented that line out in your config file and inserted a different rate. If you know the specs for your LCD you can enter them on that line. However, putting the VertRefresh out of your monitor's range can damage it, so I'd be very careful. LCD's have a native resolution at a given refresh rate and don't like to run at anything else. Some just won't function well at anything but the native resolution.

I found a partial solution to my problem.
If I start X directly in 800x600 (omitting 1024x768 in xorg.conf) LCD works fine, as expected.
If I switch later the display resolution (for example to 640x480) then images become confused, also if I restore back resolution to 800x600.
In this case I have to restart X to get a nice 800x600 display again. The only resolution that can always be restored properly without restarting X is 1024x768.
This is a very strange behavior.
Furthermore, I know it's dangerous to specify improper vertfresh ranges, but in my case I can't see any difference ( I tried also 30-50, 30-70 ...) I think they're ignored.

At least now I have one way to play fullscreen some games which would have been too slow in 1024...
Regards, Marco

hmm... I hope someone can get a solution to this that doesn't involve restarting X just to do stuff in 800x600... It's really bugging me. I was thinking it could just be a problem with the radeon driver. maybe one of us should try to file a bug report about this...

bug?
 

Hey

I also have a problem with my resolution which I have not been able to fix. i am a newbie so this may take some time. But the strange thing is that knoppix finds the right resolution but recognizes the wrong monitor, but i cannot change it in knoppix either. When installing, Anaconda finds my monitor but after installing Fedora, the ddcprobe command does not find the monitor. The resolution is also wrong when using the graphical installation. Everything worked fine with mandrake and an older CRT monitor. I also have a Radeon 7000 card. Maybe the radeon driver do not work well with LCD monitors? Any ideas would be appreciated.

More info about my problem can be found here:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=205045

T.S


I tried an ol CRT monitor and then suddenly everything was allright. Maybe this is a bug or just some monitors are affected by it. At least my Eizo L550 does not work well with fedora and Radeon7000.

FIXED!
 

I've fixed the problem (for me at least). Just upgrading to the latest dri snapshot of the radeon driver. you can get these at http://http://www.freedesktop.org/~dri/snapshots. (note that you need to have your kernel source and config in its original directory. this caused some problems for me, but eventually i worked it out)