Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Radeon driver update

[Mark Haney]

Duncan wrote:
> "Mark Haney" <mhaney@××××××××××××.org> posted
> 495B5F9B.2000902@××××××××××××.org, excerpted below, on  Wed, 31 Dec 2008
> 07:03:39 -0500:
>
>> I updated the xf86-ati-driver package late yesterday and now my fonts
>> are all screwed up.  My text is really big compared to what it was
>> before.  I thought maybe xorg.conf was re-written but it looks fine to
>> me.  As it is, my system is usable but not comfortably so.  So what the
>> devil have I done to it?
>
> Knowing the version now... and in cases like this, the version before...
> often helps...

I was running 6.6.3 and then updated to 6.8.0-r1.  I'm not running 
~amd64.  I'm not running any Xorg overlays, just plain jane Xorg.  This 
system is a laptop, so the config has been set (and working) for well 
over 2 years now.
>
> FWIW, xf86-video-ati-6.9.0 here, on ~amd64, tho I've not updated in a few
> days so it's possible there's an update I've not seen yet if you're
> running ~amd64.  Of course, if you're running the xorg overlay, who
> knows, tho Beso mentioned running it at one point if I'm not mistaken.
>
> As to the problem, what sort of monitor(s) are you running and do you
> have its dimensions set?  In xorg log (Xorg.0.log), does the monitor
> detection list the dimensions and are they accurate?

The dimensions look like they are set correctly (1280x800):

(II) RADEON(0): Supported additional Video Mode:
(II) RADEON(0): clock: 68.9 MHz   Image Size:  331 x 207 mm
(II) RADEON(0): h_active: 1280  h_sync: 1296  h_sync_end 1344 
h_blank_end 1408 h_border: 0
(II) RADEON(0): v_active: 800  v_sync: 801  v_sync_end 804 v_blanking: 
816 v_border: 0


I had to setup a 'Modeline' that corresponded to the correct dimension 
of my monitor back when I first setup gentoo on this laptop.
>
> The reason I ask is that over the years, I've discovered that various X
> component updates (I never pinned down which ones) can have radically
> different ways of calculating the defaults, and that the only way to
> reliably keep it the same was to put the screen measurements in
> xorg.conf.  Since then, the drivers have supposedly gotten better at
> detecting it correctly from ddc, but at least with dual monitors and the
> video-ati driver mentioned above, xorg can still get it wrong (and does
> here, trying to apply the dimensions from just one to the combination of
> both, so the size is wildly distorted in one direction).
>
> One of the problems recently seems to be the RandR support, which is
> supposed to be better at "Plug-n-pray" live detection and adjustment, but
> which at least with the video-ati radeon driver on reasonably stable
> multi-monitor desktop system configs is still lacking features and
> version to version stability compared to the previous merged-framebuffer
> solution.
>
> So anyway, if you've not configured, either thru your desktop environment
> or xorg.conf, a standard dpi or display size (in mm not pixels), do so.
> It should go a long way to ending font size changes based on changeable
> xorg defaults.  If your display config is static enough to configure it
> in xorg, the setting to configure is DisplaySize, in the Monitor section
> in newer RandR style configs (they put it there so you could specify them
> per monitor, since monitors are supposed to be plug-n-pray with RandR,
> now), I forgot where in old configs, but see the xorg.conf manpage.  Or
> in KDE 3.5.10, you can set DPI in the main font config dialog.  YMMV in
> other KDE versions or other DEs.
>

I don't think I've setup a standard DPI or display size in my xorg.conf 
file.  I don't recall doing so and I"ve not touched that config file in 
over a year.  How/where do I do that in xorg.conf?



-- 
Frustra laborant quotquot se calculationibus fatigant pro inventione 
quadraturae circuli

Mark Haney
Sr. Systems Administrator
ERC Broadband
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Call (866) ERC-7110 for after hours support