Gentoo Archives: gentoo-amd64

From: DR GM SEDDON <gavin.m.seddon@×××××××××××××.uk>
To: gentoo-amd64@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Re: unknown monitor [fixed]
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 12:11:31
Message-Id: 4381B8E7.5030700@manchester.ac.uk
In Reply to: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Re: unknown monitor by Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>
1 Hello,
2 I have tried Knoppix previously but the cd wouldn't boot. So, I have
3 used Ubuntu and xorg.conf off this, startx works fine.
4
5
6 Duncan wrote:
7
8 >DR GM SEDDON posted <437F2ED9.80303@×××××××××××××.uk>, excerpted below,
9 >on Sat, 19 Nov 2005 13:55:37 +0000:
10 >
11 >
12 >
13 >>Many thanks for this detailed reply, my monitor is a 20" sgi crt. i
14 >>prefer sgi we use them at work in drug design they give good 3d. I have
15 >>the hr and vs rates, where do I put these.Also, is the monitor name
16 >>needed verbatim. Finally, is there a tool for setting up my initial
17 >>monitor type and card? Since I'm apprehensive of my setup.
18 >>
19 >>
20 >
21 >Cool! Now we're gettin' somewhere! <g> 20"+ CRTs I know a bit about as
22 >I'm running two (a Viewsonic and a Dell Trinitron) in dual head mode right
23 >now.
24 >
25 >If you already have the timings, no, you don't need specific model numbers
26 >or whatever.
27 >
28 >As I mentioned, xorg has several tools for initial setup. However, after
29 >trying Linux and then leaving it for a couple years, when I finally got
30 >serious about it (due to the fact that MS was asking me to cross a line
31 >with eXPrivacy I could not and would not cross -- because I believed it
32 >would ultimately legitimize spyware and the like -- exactly as it did --
33 >see where we are today with Sony's rootkit they apparently saw nothing
34 >wrong with, anyway, since I couldn't upgrade to eXPrivacy, I switched to
35 >Linux...)
36 >
37 >... When I finally got serious about Linux, I asked for book
38 >recommendations and after getting repeated recommendations for two books,
39 >bought them both, O'Reilly's Linux in a Nutshell (aka The Arabian, for the
40 >horse on the front), and Running Linux (aka the Rearing Horse... horses
41 >must be their Linux mascot theme). Running Linux is textbook tutorial
42 >style, while Linux in a Nutshell is a reference work. After reading the
43 >600-ish pages of Running Linux nearly cover to cover, I dove right in and
44 >learned how to custom configure and compile my own kernel, did a rather
45 >complicated multiboot LILO setup, and learned how to configure xfree86 for
46 >triple monitors on two video cards, because the automated stuff
47 >couldn't handle that!... All that within the first three months of getting
48 >serious, while I was still dual booting back to MSWormOS to run OE for
49 >mail and news, because I hadn't had time to look into the desktop software
50 >angle yet, so didn't know what I wanted. When I get serious about learning
51 >something, I LEARN it, and there's NO going back. (But note that was after
52 >two years of still being on MSWormOS but figuring I'd eventually end up
53 >switching to Linux, so verifying all my hardware purchases would do Linux
54 >before I spent the money... So by the time I did it, I knew everything I
55 >had would work, and it did!)
56 >
57 >Anyway... back to the topic... As a result of that I haven't had to mess
58 >with xorg's automated detection stuff in years, and then it was only very
59 >briefly, and I don't know much about it, save for what I've read in the
60 >various manpages and the like.
61 >
62 >I'd say take a look at "man X" to start, skim it, get to the bottom, and
63 >go thru the what's related manpages as well. I KNOW there are at least
64 >TWO different methods shipped with xorg that can be used to auto-scan and
65 >generate a basic starting point with at least /some/ of the settings
66 >correct, hopefully. If I'm not mistaken, there's actually four such
67 >utilities, and one of the manpages actually gives you a list of the
68 >recommended order to try them in, the easiest first, the most likely to
69 >work but harder to manage because you end up plugging more into it
70 >manually, last. However, as I've said, I didn't need that info and was
71 >just scanning it looking for other stuff, so it's possible there were two
72 >methods that I counted twice.
73 >
74 >Or... probably the easiest method, if it works, would be to grab and burn
75 >an ISO of Gnoppix/Knoppix and/or of Kubuntu/Ubuntu. A couple years ago,
76 >Knoppix was considered the best at hardware detection (overall, but
77 >certainly including video hardware for X) around, but most distributions
78 >have availed themselves of the open source since then and have in general
79 >caught up. Ubuntu is of course the one everybody's talking about now.
80 >Grab the 64-bit version if you can, it's handy to have around as a liveCD
81 >and emergency boot and repair platform, but the 32-bit version should
82 >detect stuff equally well so will do just fine for our immediate purposes.
83 >
84 >Anyway, if you can get one of those things to work, doesn't matter which
85 >one, you can copy it's xorg.conf from its ramdisk to your drive or a
86 >floppy or something, and you may not have to worry about messing with it
87 >at all if you don't want to. DEFINITELY, NOT ALL DISTRIBUTION INSTALLS
88 >ARE CREATED EQUAL, but if you can find just one that can scan and
89 >recognize your hardware (or just part of it if not all), that should work,
90 >and give you some info on what you have, if nothing else.
91 >
92 >As for where you plug the stuff in if it comes to that... and you may have
93 >to change at least a /few/ settings...
94 >
95 >As I mentioned, man xorg.conf does a fair job, and you should have a
96 >sample to compare with, altho I'd hate to have to start from that without
97 >at least something /partially/ matched to my system. Anyway, I'll give
98 >you a brief overview here, but that's where to look for more, or ask...
99 >
100 >The file is /etc/X11/xorg.conf (note the cap X in X11). It's very
101 >modular, and once you get the hang of the layout, the modularity is a help
102 >because it keeps the complexity down and allows you to worry about just
103 >one thing at a time.
104 >
105 >The different sections or modules can be in any order, but are logically
106 >related to each other this way:
107 >
108 >Section Monitor contains the settings for your monitor. along with an
109 >Identifier "what-you-call-your-monitor" entry. That Identifier entry is
110 >how that section is referred to everywhere else. It's convenient to
111 >identify by brand and model, as in 'Identifier "Dell-2125s"', if you have
112 >it, making it easy if you have more than one to use the same section over
113 >elsewhere, but you can call it 'Identifier "Xyzzy"' for all xorg cares, as
114 >long as you then refer to it as "Xyzzy" everywhere else you need it. If
115 >you have only one, just call it "Monitor1" or whatever, if you like.
116 >
117 >You may have more than one Monitor section, each with it's own identifier,
118 >if you have multiple monitors you are or may be plugging in.
119 >
120 >Likewise, your graphics card has its settings in a Section Device,
121 >likewise with an Identifier entry. Here, as I play with multiple cards
122 >sometimes, I use identifiers like "DevAGP0", "DevPCI1, etc. However,
123 >again, you can call it what you want. You can call it by brand and model
124 >if you like, or just "GraphicsCard1" or whatever. Of course, fancy setups
125 >may have more than one graphics card or a card with multiple outputs.
126 >Depending on the driver and configuration, a card with multiple outputs
127 >may be configured as separate cards (therefore separate Device
128 >sections) for each output, or have additional settings for the second
129 >output in the same Device section.
130 >
131 >A Section Screen combines the Device Section and the Monitor Section(s)
132 >for what's plugged into it. Again, it'll have it's own Identifier, I call
133 >mine "ScrAGP0" and the like, after the Section Device it matches up with,
134 >but you may call yours "Plough" for all xorg cares, as long as you always
135 >refer to it with the right identifier.
136 >
137 >Within the screen section, there's a Monitor "<identifier>" entry and a
138 >Device "<identifier>" entry that match up with the appropriate sections
139 >described above. Again, as long as the identifiers match correctly, it
140 >doesn't matter what they actually are.
141 >
142 >The screen section also has one or more Subsection Display subsections.
143 >These will normally be one for each color bitness level (8-bit color,
144 >15/16-bit color, 24- and 32-bit color), tho I run Xinerama, which wants
145 >you to stick with the same bitness level, so I pick one and stick with it,
146 >and don't bother with the others. The main purpose of these subsections
147 >is to contain the list of desired resolutions, like the long one I posted
148 >earlier, one list for each bitness level. There are of course some less
149 >significant optional entries as well, but the two big ones are the list of
150 >accepted resolutions for that bitness, and the line specifying the color
151 >bitness the list applies to. These are subsections of the screen
152 >sections, so they don't get their own identifiers.
153 >
154 >There are also Section InputDevice sections, one for each input device
155 >(keyboard, mouse, graphics pad, touch-sensitive-screen, whatever) you
156 >have, naturally each with its own identifier entry.
157 >
158 >Combining all these we have Section ServerLayout. You should be able to
159 >predict several of the entries it will have, its own identifier,
160 >naturally, plus one or more Screen and InputDevice entries, referring to
161 >the appropriate sections by their identifier. Again, the identifier is
162 >entirely arbitrary. Call it "SvrLyout1" or "Y2" (get the running joke
163 >yet? <g>), it doesn't matter, as long as it matches the identifier it's
164 >referring to.
165 >
166 >There will be one default Section ServerLayout, the first one listed IIRC
167 >if one isn't specified when the server is invoked, but as with the other
168 >Sections, you may have others as well, if desired.
169 >
170 >There are some other, more global, sections as well. Section Files lists
171 >what else? paths to other related config files (and fonts or the config
172 >to use the font-server if you run one) on your system. Xorg has sane (and
173 >Gentoo normal) defaults built-in, if this section is missing. Similarly,
174 >the ServerFlags section is optional. However, that's where you put
175 >settings such as PM (Power Management) timeouts, and set Xinerama
176 >(multi-screen) mode, if desired.
177 >
178 >Likewise with the Modules and Extensions Sections. You can run xorg in
179 >bare 2D unaccelerated mode without them, in general, or xorg has some
180 >configured to run by default if it finds them and they aren't specifically
181 >turned off, but there are appropriate sections for them if you want to
182 >tweak the settings.
183 >
184 >Back with xfree86 3.x, one had to specify a bunch of quite scary
185 >individual timing mode lines, the setting up of which involved some deep
186 >black arts! <g> Fortunately, starting with xfree86 4.x and now with xorg,
187 >the by far most common of these, the 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x920,
188 >1280x1024, 1600x1200, and even down as low as 400x300 (or lower) and as
189 >high as 2048x1736 entries, often several individual timings for each
190 >resolution, are built-into the binary and tried automatically, so these
191 >are no longer needed. There's a site out there, Colas xmodeline generator
192 >(google it if needed or I have it bookmarked), that has a script that
193 >you just plug in the monitor and card numbers into, and it'll output an
194 >a table of appropriate timing entries in 4-pixel x increments covering the
195 >entire range allowed by your hardware, if you want a mode that's not
196 >builtin. I mentioned that 640x400 special mode for a game I have in the
197 >previous reply. I got the modeline for that by simply plugging the
198 >appropriate numbers into the boxes at Cola's. (Those extra modelines can
199 >either go under individual monitor sections, or, if you have several
200 >monitors sharing a set of modelines, they can go in their own section,
201 >naturally complete with its own identifier entry, by which you refer to it
202 >elsewhere.)
203 >
204 >That's the structural outline of the major sections and how they depend on
205 >each other in words. Here's a brief "pseudoexample", with only a few
206 >"pseudosettings" by way of example. (They are basically real settings,
207 >but I'm deleting some of the complicated meat of the config, since I have
208 >multiple monitors/cards/screens and am not checking that what's left
209 >matches up, so I wouldn't expect this to work anywhere as is, tho it
210 >might. Do note how some are hash-commented out, tho.) Again, section
211 >order normally doesn't matter.
212 >
213 >
214 >Section "Files"
215 > FontPath "unix/:-1"
216 >EndSection
217 >
218 >Section "Module"
219 > Load "type1"
220 >EndSection
221 >
222 >Section "Extensions"
223 ># Option "Composite"
224 >EndSection
225 >
226 >Section "ServerFlags"
227 > # General options
228 > Option "AllowMouseOpenFail"
229 > Option "NoPM"
230 >EndSection
231 >
232 >Section "ServerLayout"
233 > Identifier "MainLayout"
234 > InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
235 > InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
236 > Screen 0 "ScrAgp.0"
237 >EndSection
238 >
239 >Section "InputDevice"
240 > Identifier "Keyboard0"
241 > Driver "kbd"
242 > Option "XkbModel" "microsoftmult"
243 >EndSection
244 >
245 >Section "InputDevice"
246 > Identifier "Mouse0"
247 > Driver "mouse"
248 > Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
249 > Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
250 >EndSection
251 >
252 >Section "Monitor"
253 > Identifier "Dell-M991"
254 > HorizSync 30-96
255 > VertRefresh 50-160
256 > DisplaySize 355 265
257 > Option "DPMS"
258 >EndSection
259 >
260 >Section "Monitor"
261 > Identifier "Dell-2125s"
262 > HorizSync 30-121
263 > VertRefresh 48-160
264 > DisplaySize 400 300
265 > ModeLine "640x400" 63.07 640 672 832 896 400 402 414 440 #160Hz for Orion
266 >EndSection
267 >
268 >Section "Monitor"
269 > Identifier "ViewSonic-P220f"
270 > HorizSync 30-110
271 >EndSection
272 >
273 >Section "Device"
274 > Identifier "DevAgp.0"
275 > Driver "radeon"
276 > BusID "PCI:5:0:0"
277 >EndSection
278 >
279 >Section "Screen"
280 > Identifier "ScrAgp.0"
281 > Device "DevAgp.0"
282 > Monitor "Dell-2125s"
283 > DefaultColorDepth 16
284 >
285 > Subsection "Display"
286 > Depth 16
287 > Modes "2048x1536" "1792x1344" "1600x1200" "1280x960"
288 > EndSubsection
289 >EndSection
290 >
291 >
292 >
293 >
294
295 --
296 gentoo-amd64@g.o mailing list

Replies

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[gentoo-amd64] Re: Re: Re: unknown monitor [fixed] Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@×××.net>