Screen Resolution on Widescreen Laptop

coal-fire-ice · 04-13-2007, 12:03 PM

i have a sony vaio pcg-tr5mp with a WXGA (1280x768) screen

it uses the intel 855GM graphics accelerator (or something v similar)

i am having trouble getting ubuntu to display anything except 800x600 or 1024x768

i have tried using 915resolution but couldnt get any difference from it
also have tried dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg - with no joy.

therefore i would be very gratefull to anyone who can tell me what i can do to resolve this problem as i do really want to use linux on my laptop (the only reason i seem to have gone headfirst into as my desktop os it is because i erased windows accidentally (not that this is a bad thing (and i have a complete backup) would just rather get linux to work - the only things not currently working are the proper screen resolution and the soundcard (which im not worrying about right now)

tubatodd · 04-13-2007, 01:10 PM

Please forgive my ignorance, but are you sure your resolution is not 1280X800?? My Toshiba laptop is a widescreen and 1280X800 is a standard. Perhaps you are asking your machine to use the wrong resolution. Please forgive me if I am totally off base. The resolution you mentioned caught my eye immediately.

coal-fire-ice · 04-13-2007, 01:23 PM

yep - definitely certain - its a ultraportable thing with just a 10 inch screen - but it has always been 1280 x 768 - as it is currently on the 1024 x 768 res there are only black bars of wasted space at either side - it fills the screen from top to bottom - so i am sure it is 1280 x 768. but thanks for checking anyway.

i have tried a couple of things since and googled a little more - only to be rereading the same things over but - the output from

915resolution -l

now includes 3 settings at 1280x768 with varying colour depths - which it didnt do before - however in the screen resolution preference there still isnt any extra options.

therefore any further help will be much appreciated.

jschiwal · 04-13-2007, 01:54 PM

Your screen size is a bit unstandard, so I think you will need to produce your own modelines for xorg.conf.

Use the gtf program. For example:

Code:

gtf 1280 768 60 -x

  # 1280x768 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 47.70 kHz; pclk: 80.14 MHz
  Modeline "1280x768_60.00"  80.14  1280 1344 1480 1680  768 769 772 795  -HSync +Vsync

I would recommend deleting the ".00" from the modeline title before using it:

Code:

gtf 1280 768 60 -x

  # 1280x768 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 47.70 kHz; pclk: 80.14 MHz
  Modeline "1280x768_60"  80.14  1280 1344 1480 1680  768 769 772 795  -HSync +Vsync

If your current xorg.conf file doesn't use a "Modelines" section, the insert the modeline into the "Monitor" section.

Here is a fragment from my xorg.conf file. I deleted some modeline and resolution entries to make it more similar to yours:

Code:

  HorizSync    32-48
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "ZV5000"
  Option       "DPMS"
  VendorName   "HP"
  VertRefresh  40-70
  UseModes     "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
  Modeline      "1024x768" 64.11 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 795
  Modeline      "1024x768" 55.00 1024 1072 1104 1184 768 771 775 790 +HSync -Vsync
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "1280x768"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "1024x768"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "1024x768"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      32
    Modes      "1024x768"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    Modes      "1280x768"
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection

Here I inserted the modeline to the "Modes[0]" section and added the resolution entries to the "Display" subsections of the "Screen" section:

Code:

Section "Monitor"
  DisplaySize  332 207
  HorizSync    32-48
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "ZV5000"
  Option       "DPMS"
  VendorName   "HP"
  VertRefresh  40-70
  UseModes     "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
  # 1280x768 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 47.70 kHz; pclk: 80.14 MHz
  Modeline      "1280x768_60"  80.14  1280 1344 1480 1680  768 769 772 795  -HSync +Vsync
  Modeline      "1024x768" 64.11 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 795
  Modeline      "1024x768" 55.00 1024 1072 1104 1184 768 771 775 790 +HSync -Vsync
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "1280x768_60" "1024x768"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "1280x768_60" "1024x768" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "1280x768_60" "1024x768"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      32
    Modes      "1280x768_60" "1024x768"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    Modes      "1280x768_60" "1024x768"
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection

Given that I have a 1280x800 screen on my laptop, my "display size" entries may be different than yours.

Code:

echo 'scale=1; 207*768/800' | bc
198.7

Maybe in your case 200 would be better for the Y size:

Code:

Section "Monitor"
  DisplaySize  332 200
...

And by the way, there is also a "man 5 xorg.conf" manpage that you can reference for the syntax of the xorg.conf file.

coal-fire-ice · 04-13-2007, 02:40 PM

still not doing so very well - thought i'd post the relevent section of my xorg.conf so u can tell me if there are problems with it. so here goes:-

Quote:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
VideoRam 64000
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
DisplaySize 332 200
Identifier "WidescreenLCD"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-64
VertRefresh 43-60
UseModes "Modes[0]"
EndSection

Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
Modeline "1024x768" 64.11 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 795
Modeline "1024x768" 55.00 1024 1072 1104 1184 768 771 775 790 +HSync -Vsync
Modeline "1280x768_60" 80.14 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 795 -HSync +Vsync

EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "LCDScreen"
Device "Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device"
Monitor "WidescreenLCD"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x768_60" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x768_60" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x768_60" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x768_60" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x768_60" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "LCDScreen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

jschiwal · 04-13-2007, 02:58 PM

Read through your /var/log/messages/Xorg.0.conf file, or the Xorg log file with the most recent timestamp. Look for (EE) entries.

coal-fire-ice · 04-13-2007, 03:21 PM

it occurs about 8 times in the file each time the same thing:

Error opening /dev/wacom : Invalid argument
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/wacom
No such file or directory.

which i presume is because Xorg thinks i have a wacom tablet which i dont have.

------

any other suggestions?

jschiwal · 04-14-2007, 02:10 AM

Look for an Input Device section, in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf corresponding to a Wacom Input device. If there is one, comment it out or delete the section. Remember to backup the original before making changes. E.G "cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.bu".

Code:

    Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "name"
        Driver     "inputdriver"
        options
        ...
    EndSection

Comment out or delete these lines as well:

Code:

InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"

coal-fire-ice · 04-15-2007, 01:21 PM

i thought maybe the new ubuntu would make a difference so i downloaded and installed that - but it hasnt - although i havent tried what you suggested a few posts ago on the new system - i will do that now and post the result.

coal-fire-ice · 04-15-2007, 01:56 PM

nope - no joy

reconfigured the xorg.conf file - no difference - tried the 915resolution again and no difference - if other people can get their systems working with widescreens i must be doing something wrong - can somebody help please? i really really want this to work i dont want to go back to windows again.

Wim Sturkenboom · 04-17-2007, 11:07 AM

OOPS, wrote something stupid as I did not know what the 915 resolution does

coal-fire-ice · 04-17-2007, 01:50 PM

well - thanks everyone for trying to help me - i am going to give up temporarily as installing windows again is only gonna take an evening - and i could really do with - and i shall be replacing the laptop within a month or so later - so i shall try to replace it with one slightly more compatible with linux. - i shall persevere with learning linux on servers for now as anything learned must be something good to learn.

EvilOverlord · 04-28-2007, 12:58 PM

I have been battling with the same problem on and off for a few months and I finally have a solution.

This is working on kubuntu 7.04, but should work on 6.10 and ubuntu as there's no difference between the xserver between kubuntu and ubuntu.

The 915resolution package doesn't seem to work, but the older patch written with the vaios in mind does.

I worked this out from a page about the TR3AP.
http://www.damia.net/vaio/

All you need to do is:

Download, compile and install

# wget http://www.damia.net/vaio/xpatch/1280patch.c (1)
# gcc 1280patch.c -o 1280patch (2)
# cp 1280patch /usr/local/sbin (3)
# echo /usr/local/sbin/1280patch > /etc/rc2.d/S98xpatch (4)
# chmod +x /etc/rc2.d/S98xpatch (5)

1. Download the source file
2. Compile it
3. Copy to right directory
4. Exec on start up
5. Make the start up script executable

If you get a load of build errors like I did, you probably need to install the "libc6-dev" package first.

In my /etc/X11/xorg.conf I changed nothing, it had already detected the correct graphics card and had only modelines for 1280x768 resolutions at several bitdepths. Just reboot and it should just work...

For reference my working xorf.conf is here (http://imux.net/resources/sony-vaio-...u704-xorg.conf)

Hope it works for you too.