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Old 04-26-2006, 02:59 PM   #1
tlarkin
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more video issues in 10.0


Okay,

So I upgraded my desktop at work with a new one, 1 gig of ram, and a 120gig SATA drive. Nvidia geforce 5200 FX video card

In windows I can run up to 1280 x 1024 on my HP 1740 17" LCD display. In linux (KDE) the max resolution I can get is 1280 x 768, which just doesn't look as good, and I am kind of wasting this monitor running it at 1024 x 768.

Now, I am familiar with people editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf to allow more resolutions, but there has to be an easier or better way?

Maybe I should just switch distros, I hear great things about unbutu....
 
Old 04-26-2006, 11:00 PM   #2
fragos
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You can try Ubuntu with their live CD -- it's free for download. I don't know about the stable release but I've experimented with with the 6.06 Beta that provides an icon on the Live CD desktop that does an install. Other distro live CD's may not install from the live version.
 
Old 04-27-2006, 02:57 AM   #3
abisko00
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Quote:
Now, I am familiar with people editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf to allow more resolutions, but there has to be an easier or better way?
Yes, in SUSE it is called sax2. It works best if you run it from console (root) in runlevel 3.
 
Old 04-27-2006, 08:41 AM   #4
tlarkin
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thanks for the tips....

I am downloading the live cd of unbuntu as we speak..

I have used other live distros like auditor and knoppix, and even DSL off a usb thumb drive and they can all display higher resolutions than SUSE will.

The only reason I was drawn to suse in the first place is because we run netware here at work, and well since novell owns suse, I thought to myself it would be a good idea.

After the live cd downloads I will reboot into suse (i am in windows now) and see if I can't get it to display better thru sax. However, I ran into this same problem on my HP Compaq NC4200 laptop. The screen has a max resolution of 1280 x 1024 but I could only run at 1024 x 768 natively in suse.

I will give it another shot because I want it to work, but at the same time I don't want to have to jump through hoops to make it work.

thanks for the advice
 
Old 04-27-2006, 10:16 AM   #5
tlarkin
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yeah i booted off the live cd and by default it configured the resolution at 1280 x 1024 and it looked great.

I think I am just going to switch distros all together, now my next question is what problem am I going to run into if I wipe out the suse partition and put unbuntu on it? I have grub right now as my boot loader.
 
Old 04-27-2006, 10:20 AM   #6
abisko00
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I am surprised: It seems like a very redical solution to replace a distro because it didn't detect your resolution properly. Have you ever tried to use sax2?
 
Old 04-27-2006, 10:27 AM   #7
tlarkin
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yes, and i have edited the /etc/x11/xorg.conf file and even ran firmware updates on both my laptops here at work and none of them work. I also have lots of problems getting my intel 2200BG wifi card to work with suse also.

Other distros I have tried that have worked better after a native install are: Fedora, Unbuntu, Knoppix, DSL, and Auditor. Some of those are live CDs but they work better than the install.

It just seems I have to jump through hoops to get suse to run right on my HP business class machines here at work and other distros work just fine after a basic native install of the OS.

I just want it to work with no to less hassle. At home I have SUSE 9.3 running on one of my old desktops and it runs a lot better. I just think it has limited or less hardware support and that is what the problem is.

You can look up my previous threads with video and wifi issues on this forum. I have also found other people with the same wifi card (intel 2200BG) having the same problems. It could be the firmware on the card that HP flashes it with, or it could be the OS.

Either way other distros seem to work a lot better with a lot less fuss, so I think I am going to switch to see how it runs.
 
Old 04-27-2006, 10:37 AM   #8
abisko00
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Okay, okay, no offense intended!
Couldn't guess any of your other troubles. I am using Ubuntu on my laptop as well (out of curiosity, not because I had trouble using SUSE, though). Have fun!
 
Old 04-27-2006, 11:00 AM   #9
tlarkin
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okay, so now I can display 1280 x 960 which is close to what I want and it does in fact look better.

For some reason it took a few reboots to take in.

Just for the record, I was opening up terminal, running sudo sax2, went in and picked out the resolution I wanted, 1280 x 1024 and then rebooted and now get the option for 1280 x 960.

However, I did notice in the sax2 manager that it was identifying my monitor as a 15" when in fact it is 17". It also will not allow me to run anything higher than 24 bit color.

At least i am getting somewhere now, where as before it wouldn't even take anything I was trying.

I think maybe it is possible to run SUSE at a higher level of resolution. The problem is I would like 32bit color @ 1280 x 1024 with a decent refresh rate so text doesn't look like crap.

Thanks for your input and I wasn't trying to snap at you, just a bit frustrated is all
 
Old 04-27-2006, 11:55 AM   #10
tlarkin
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Okay,

I don't understand.....

I rebooted three times and it finally took, now running @ 1280 x 1024 and it looks nice.

I guess it was the magic of the reboot that fixed it. I think I will toss unbuntu on my laptops and run SUSE on my desktop, as long as I can get everything else working.

Thanks for your help
 
Old 04-27-2006, 12:42 PM   #11
abisko00
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One problem could be caused by the strategy you where running sax2. It doesn't seem to like an X server running in the background. For this reason I always change to runlevel 3 to make the changes. Another completely unproven theory of mine is that the framebuffer settings (configured with the vga parameter in the bootloader) interfere with the resolution detection of sax2, meaning that if you've set a low res on bootup, you won't get more in X. But as I said, just a suspicion.

Anyway, nice that it finally works!
 
Old 04-27-2006, 12:47 PM   #12
tlarkin
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hmm okay that makes sense I suppose...


run level 3 is multi user mode with no gui correct? Sorry, I can never remember all the run levels. I think run level 5 is multi user w/ gui and lvl 6 is reboot, and level 1 is single user command line

Correct?
 
Old 04-27-2006, 12:56 PM   #13
abisko00
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Me neither. But I guess you are right. Clearly about 3 and 5. You can change the runlevel with 'init 3' (as root) from any console or by adding a plain '3' to the bootoptions (press F3 at the grub screen)
 
  


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