Re: [gentoo-desktop] MacBook Intel GMA950 w/ Dell 2407WFP monitor - display problems

[Donnie Berkholz]

On 19:42 Sat 01 Dec     , Joe wrote:
> I'm experiencing some display problems when using the latest version of
> X.org on Gentoo with my MacBook. I've followed the Gentoo-MacBook Wiki Talk
> page on how to get DRM working by compiling the kernel without DRM support,
> and then installing x11-drm with portage. I've also installed the
> xf86-video-i810 driver, and I must have done something right, because
> glxinfo reports direct rendering as on. But that's one of the few things
> that /is/ working correctly. Here are the relevant sections of my xorg.conf
> file:
>
> Section "Device"
>         Identifier      "Built-in Device"
>         Driver          "i810"
>         Screen          0
>         Option          "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LFP"
>         BusID           "PCI:0:2:0"
> EndSection
>
> Section "Device"
>         Identifier      "External Device"
>         Driver          "i810"
>         Screen          1
>         Option          "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LFP"
>         #BusID           "PCI:0:2:0"
>         BusID           "PCI:0:2:1"
> EndSection

With the new randr-1.2 that's in all of the 2.x intel drivers, multiple 
monitors are handled a bit differently. You just have a single device 
section that refers to both of them. Take a look at 
http://www.intellinuxgraphics.org/dualhead.html for details.

> X displays on both monitors in clone mode, with my built-in screen at
> 1280x800, while my external monitor is at some really low resolution (I'm
> not exactly sure, but it's probably somewhere around 1024x768). And that's
> my main problem: no matter what resolutions I enter into my xorg.conf file,
> my monitors don't change their resolutions (even if I put 640x480 as the
> only option). In fact, I get the same result if I don't use any xorg.conf
> file at all.

Probably because it's ignoring those obsolete settings and using the 
defaults, just as it would without an xorg.conf.

> Using xrandr is bit more promising. Running it without any arguments
> produces the following output:
> Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 864, maximum 1920 x 1920
> VGA disconnected (normal left inverted right)
> LVDS connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 286mm x 178mm
>    1280x800       59.9*+
>    1024x768       60.0
>    800x600        60.3
>    640x480        59.9
> TMDS-1 connected 1152x864+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 0mm x 0mm
>    1920x1200      60.0 +
>    1600x1200      59.9
>    1680x1050      60.0
>    1280x1024      75.0     59.9
>    1152x864       74.8*
>    1024x768       75.1     60.0
>    800x600        75.0     60.3
>    640x480        75.0     60.0     59.9
>    720x400        70.1
>
> I can successfully change my resolution on the Dell monitor to 1680x1050 --
> definitely an improvement. But when I try to change to 1920x1200 or
> 1600x1200, my monitor goes blank, and then displays the following:
> "Out of range signal.
> Cannot display this video mode,
> change computer display input to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz"
>
> Those display modes work fine on OS X and Windows XP, so there's nothing
> wrong with the monitor or graphics card. I'm really a newbie in this stuff,
> so yeah... I would appreciate any help on this. Thanks in advance.

You might need to explicitly note that the high-resolution mode requires 
reduced blanking by adding 'Option "ReducedBlanking"' in your Monitor 
section. I couldn't find any documentation for this option, so if you 
didn't already know what reduced blanking was, the postinstallation 
notice for xorg-server probably wouldn't help.

The 'cvt' tool installed with xorg-server can help you generate a 
reduced-blanking modeline by hand, if you need to do that. You can then 
add that modeline to xorg.conf or dynamically add it for that X session 
only using xrandr.

Thanks,
Donnie
-- 
gentoo-desktop@g.o mailing list