Re: [gentoo-user] Screen resolution problem

[Alan McKinnon]

On Monday 14 September 2009 13:36:39 David Relson wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:23:38 +0200
>
> Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > On Monday 14 September 2009 02:59:28 David Relson wrote:
> > > G'day,
> > >
> > > I'm running Xorg with a minimal config file (only 15 lines - which
> > > provide font paths and set the AllowMouseOpenFail option).
> > >
> > > When I last restarted my computer (about 3 months ago), X came up in
> > > 1280x1024 mode.  Today I restarted X (because the shift and control
> > > keys were non-responsive) and my computer is in 1024x768 mode.  I
> > > much prefer the higher resolution.
> > >
> > > I have the Xorg.0.log files from the reboot 3 months ago and
> > > today's X restart.  What should I be looking at in them to diagnose
> > > what has happened differently?
> > >
> > > Several obvious questions arise:
> > >
> > >    _Why_ did X select a different resolution today?
> > >    _How_ can I get to the higher resolution?
> > >    _What_ can I do to prevent a recurrence of this problem?
> > >
> > > I'm running a 2.6.28-gentoo-r5 kernel with the following packages:
> > >
> > >     x11-base/xorg-x11-7.2
> > >     x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.552-r2
> > >     x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-6.12.1-r1
> >
> > Recent Xorg interrogates the hardware to find what resolutions it
> > supports and can pick one of those to use. The user can also specify
> > their preference, so I reckon you likely didn't specify a preference;
> > and what Xorg thinks you want isn't what you want.
> >
> > Look for the string "EDID" in both logs and make comparisons in that
> > area.
> >
> > Before you do that, run "genlop -l" or examine emerge.log to find
> > what upgrades and merges were done in the last three months that
> > affect resolution.
>
> H'lo Alan,
>
> Here's what genlop found for "x11.*" since June 1:
>
> Mon Jun 15 00:20:36 2009 >>> x11-libs/openmotif-2.3.2
> Sun Jun 21 11:58:51 2009 >>> x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.552-r2
> Sun Jun 21 17:59:39 2009 >>> x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.552-r2
> Sun Jun 21 19:48:37 2009 >>> x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.552-r2
>
> *** GOOD REBOOT
>
> Fri Jul 10 23:28:06 2009 >>> x11-libs/qt-test-4.5.1
> Sat Jul 11 07:12:12 2009 >>>
> x11-themes/gtk-engines-ubuntulooks-0.9.12-r3 Sat Jul 25 13:02:56 2009
>
> >>> x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.552-r2 Sun Jul 26 08:24:12 2009 >>>
> >>> x11-libs/libgksu-2.0.9
>
> Sun Jul 26 08:30:31 2009 >>> x11-libs/gksu-2.0.2
> Tue Jul 28 07:24:07 2009 >>> x11-drivers/ati-drivers-8.552-r2
> Fri Aug  7 18:25:05 2009 >>> x11-libs/fltk-2.0_pre6786-r1
>
> ati-drivers-8.552-r2 package was present at the reboot and has been
> reinstalled since.  None of these x11 packages seem relevant.
>
> Grepping for EDID finds no hits in the old log and multiple occurrences
> of RADEON in the new log. Comparing the logs shows VESA in old, but
> not new. Here are grep counts:
>
> root@osage log # grep -c VESA Xorg.0.old.log Xorg.0.new.log
> Xorg.0.old.log:79
> Xorg.0.new.log:4
> root@osage log # grep -c RADEON Xorg.0.old.log Xorg.0.new.log
> Xorg.0.old.log:0
> Xorg.0.new.log:385
>
> Perhaps I need to specify VESA in xorg.conf somehow ???

It's been a while since I looked into the X logs on my spare machine (which 
has an ati card). Obviously my memories of what I used to do are now obsolete 
:-) There's also this new quirk called hal ...

I recommend you post the current and previous logs as attachments, together 
with the output of eix for xorg-server and your drivers. Many eyeballs might 
get to the bottom of it.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com