Hi,

I'm in the middle of installing SuSE 10 64bit on 3 dual opterons for my University Research group. The essential problem is that despite having some lovely NEC 21" TFT's with a native res of 1600x1200 and having used SaX2 to config the monitor right and the correct resolution, both Gnome and KDE are refusing to display anything higher than 1024x768.

I have tried playing with xorg.conf, but that hasn't achieved anything!

I haven't really got a clue what to try next,

Suggestions?

The ultimate resolution possible depends on the display adapter (graphics card) more than the monitor. It appears your graphics card (or at least the drivers that are available for it in your distribution for now) are only capable of achieving 1024 x 768. Still, if this is a new install, you can check YOU (YaST Online Update) and see if a better driver for your video card is available.

Hi, and welcome to LQ.

When having problems with the screen resolution you need to know the specs of your monitor and what type of graphic card you are using. If you want to enjoy the full capacity of your graphic card you may need to install the appropiate driver. As Cogar pointed you can do this by using YOU.
If you want to modify the screen resolution and the graphic card driver, you have to run YaST, and launch SaX2 and it's here where you choose the resolution, the driver, and many other useful things like 3D Acceleration. When you test appropiately the right configuration for your needs, YaST will update the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf automatically for you. So you don't have to do it manually. Did you follow this procedure?

It will be helpful if you can post the specs of the graphic card that you are using.

The monitor is a NEC Multisync LCD2170NX (native res 1600x1200 at 60hz) and the Gfx card is a geforce 6600GT, should also be capable of driving the monitor.

I tried with YaST and SaX2 and the monitor/card and res is correct in there.

I also tried with FC4 and it didn't work there either.

Interestingly, if I lower the res in SaX2 to, say, 800x600 the res in Gnome/KDE goes down.

I have read elsewhere that this is a bug in Xorg, anyone know of a good distro that uses XFree?

As far as I know all major distros are using Xorg.

Two things that comes to my mind.

1. Have you installed the nvidia driver correctly? Do you have 3D acceleration enabled?

2. Is there any useful information in the xorg log located in /var/log/Xorg.0.log? That will give us more clues what's is going wrong.

I am also using a 6600GT on one of my boxes with SUSE 10.0 and the sky is the limit as far as resolution is concerned. I am using a CRT (NEC/MITSUBISHI DP930SB-BK) rather than an LCD monitor. Perhaps that may make a difference. Hard to say.

I still suspect that your video driver has not been updated in Linux. Did you use YOU to update the NVIDIA drivers? I recall an update came along not too long ago that worked very well. 3D acceleration works great too.

I am having the very same problem. I installed on a DeLL Latitude D810. I have an ATI Radeon Mobility x600. SuSE says the monitor is LPL G592 154WU1. The settings will not keep. I did YOU and then rebooted and still settings would not keep. The test looks fine, so I save. When I reboot, it looks like its trying to keep the setting, but then it reverts back to 800x600. The laptop is capable of 1920x1200.

This is pretty rare that X will have set really the best settings for specific monitor. It is also incorrect that refresh rate depends at any point on graphic card. Max resolution depends on both video card and monitor. Sax2 is also not capable to set max values.
For example for my monitor Sax2 was able to go to 70Hz at 1600x1200. While I know that refresh rate for this monitor at set resolution can go higher.

1) calculate modeline. You can use this site:
http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl
remember to enter actual values! Othervise you will screw up your monitor

for example: I have got for Samsung 950p at 1600x1200 the following result (which is max for this monitor at this resolution):
Modeline "1600x1200@75" 245.66 1600 1632 2560 2592 1200 1223 1238 1261

2) edit
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
and enter your values as first in specific resolution. So mine is first at 1600x1200

For example this is mine:
Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
Modeline "1600x1200@75" 245.66 1600 1632 2560 2592 1200 1223 1238 1261 <- added
Modeline "1600x1200" 184.66 1600 1680 1856 2080 1200 1201 1204 1232
Modeline "1600x1024" 207.75 1600 1720 1896 2192 1024 1025 1028 1077
..................................................

So first line is the result calculated by modeline calculator
3) restart X

this should work if you really entered manufacturer's values for your monitor at specific resolution

This may not help you any, but Suse did use XFree86 on a previous distro. I think the last one was 9.2, I'm sure you can still download it off a mirror.

Hey broch, will this work for laptops as well? DeLL says that my Display is:
G5982 LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, 15.4WUXGA, NO-SPWG, LENGTH/LONG

In /var/log/Xorg.0.log my Modeline's have the following settings:


(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1280x800" 162.00 1280 2016 2072 2160 800 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "1280x768": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1280x768" 162.00 1280 2016 2072 2160 768 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "1024x768": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1024x768" 162.00 1024 2016 2072 2160 768 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "800x600": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "800x600" 162.00 800 2016 2072 2160 600 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "768x576": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "768x576" 162.00 768 2016 2072 2160 576 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "640x480": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "640x480" 162.00 640 2016 2072 2160 480 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "320x175": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "320x175" 162.00 320 2016 2072 2160 175 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "320x200": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "320x200" 162.00 320 2016 2072 2160 200 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "360x200": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "360x200" 162.00 360 2016 2072 2160 200 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "320x240": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "320x240" 162.00 320 2016 2072 2160 240 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "400x300": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "400x300" 162.00 400 2016 2072 2160 300 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "1152x864": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1152x864" 162.00 1152 2016 2072 2160 864 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "1280x960": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1280x960" 162.00 1280 2016 2072 2160 960 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "1280x1024": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1280x1024" 162.00 1280 2016 2072 2160 1024 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "1600x1200": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1600x1200" 162.00 1600 2016 2072 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "896x672": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "896x672" 162.00 896 2016 2072 2160 672 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "928x696": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "928x696" 162.00 928 2016 2072 2160 696 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "960x720": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "960x720" 162.00 960 2016 2072 2160 720 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "416x312": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "416x312" 162.00 416 2016 2072 2160 312 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "576x384": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "576x384" 162.00 576 2016 2072 2160 384 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "700x525": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "700x525" 162.00 700 2016 2072 2160 525 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Default mode "800x512": 162.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 75.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "800x512" 162.00 800 2016 2072 2160 512 1201 1204 1250
(**) RADEON(0): Display dimensions: (330, 210) mm
(**) RADEON(0): DPI set to (98, 96)

I don't know your card and monitor. What you need to know is:
- your card support this resolution and color depth
if so then from manufacturer's Monitor manual enter in the modeline calculator:
- min and max horizontal Sync
- min max refresh rate
- visible resolution

You may also enter Constrain Aspect Ratio (not required but may help if unusual)

Press "Calculate modeline" button
enter results as described above

Two other issues than may be corrected manually:
color depth and resolution.

For example: you know from the manual that your card support 1900x1200 and 24-bit colors
you also know that your monitor support max 1280x1024 and 24-bit colors
however sax2 does not have this option available.

do the following)
- calculate modeline
- edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

values below are thoretical only. Actual values (max depth and resolution you will find in the monitor's manual.
1) modify "Display" section (in this exapmle set depth 24 and default resolution 1280x1024)
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24 <- check if you have this color depth (and from manual you know that 24-bit color is supported at this resolution)
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" (added first missing entry: 1280x1024)
EndSubSection

2) "Screen" section
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24 <- check if this is set correwctly

3) modify Section "Modes" and add generated Modeline on the top of the section


Remember that all the values MUST be supported by your monitor.
If something is not properly set you may damage the monitor. I can't be held responsible for your mistake. However this is very old method used since times where X config could be done only in the text mode so it should work for you.

I have a Samsung 213T (21.3" LCD) and I had the SAME problem. The ultimate solution is perhaps not so obvious, but quite easy once you've done it once. Essentially, X is not using your desired resolution because it can't figure out a graphics mode that will meet it. If you looked in /var/log/Xorg.0.log, and plowed through it, you would likely find messages to this effect.

The solution is oddball, but it works really well. What you need is a set of one or more mode lines for your desired 1600x1200 resolution that will be acceptable to X. To get these, boot up a copy of the Knoppix live CD. Knoppix is brilliant at figuring out mode lines (and all nature of hardware detection, driving stuff - never be without a copy of Knoppix!). The basic idea here will be to get Knoppix to generated the needed mode lines into its copy of Xorg.conf, and then copy those into your SuSE Xorg.conf. When you reboot SuSE after this, you will be running at the desired resolution.

If you don't have a copy of Knoppix, you can download any version up to 3.9 quite easily and burn it onto a CD (from 4.0 on, they went to DVD, and it is PAIN to find the full image, and then an equal PAIN to get it to download properly). Then boot up the Knoppix CD.

When the CD boots, it presents you with a boot line. Normally folks just hit enter, and Knoppix takes off. In your case, instead enter the following:

knoppix screen=1600x1200 vsync=60

and then enter. Knoppix will boot and drive your screen at the desired 1600x1200@60Hz. Now, cd to /etc/X11, and copy Xorg.conf (or XF86Config, if you have an older version of Knoppix) to somewhere on your hard drive, or a floppy, or a pen drive, or someplace where you can get at it from SuSE. Now, reboot to SuSE and edit its Xorg.conf - add in the mode lines that Knoppix had in the saved version you have, and set the default to one of those. Reboot and you should be running at your desired resolution. This is fiddly and annoying to do - you can't just replace your Xorg.conf - instead you have to add into it stuff from the Knoppix one. However, once done, you have what you need.

Now, VERY IMPORTANT! Save off a copy of your now working Xorg.conf. SuSE is no respecter of the changes you have made. The next time you run Sax2, it will overwrite Xorg.conf with its own stuff, which will eliminate your changes and plunge you back to where you are right now. This is why there are loud noisy comments at the top of Xorg.conf asking you not to edit it yourself. So, save off a copy of your now working Xorg.conf someplace safe, so that you can resinstate it if Sax overwrites.

Thats it! You are "good to go"!

Knoppix didn't manage it either!!!

This is such a pain!

I think I've narrowed it down to a problem with the crappy opensource nVidia drivers, just trying to solve now