Re: [gentoo-user] Error message in Xorg.log for intel xorg driver

[Paul Hartman]

On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 2:20 AM, Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote:
> Paul Hartman wrote:
>> On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 1:58 AM, Paul Hartman
>> <paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 1:36 AM, Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Paul Hartman wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 12:59 AM, Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Wolfgang Liebich wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 09:35:11AM -0600, Paul Hartman wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 2:58 AM, Wolfgang Liebich
>>>>>>>> <Wolfgang.Liebich@×××××××.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Furthermore yesterday I had a total lockup when I came to work at the
>>>>>>>>> morning --- could not login at kdm, kdm would ignore all keyboard
>>>>>>>>> input etc. I had to do a hard restart with the "Magic SysRQ" key
>>>>>>>>> (remount ro, hard reboot).
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Do you have evdev installed? Without it, you probably won't have any
>>>>>>>> keyboard or mouse. Recent xorg made dramatic changes to the way
>>>>>>>> hardware is detected/configured by using HAL and evdev. xorg.conf is
>>>>>>>> basically unused now when it comes to configuring hardware. I don't
>>>>>>>> even have keyboard or mouse, or video modelines or anything like that
>>>>>>>> in mine. Search the list archives or the gentoo web forums, there are
>>>>>>>> many many people who had the same issues (assuming it's the cause of
>>>>>>>> yours).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Evdev is installed, but I configured the kbd driver (I have a MS
>>>>>>> Natural Keyboard, btw --- what's the best driver for that keyboard?).
>>>>>>> I still have an xorg.conf (and I'm not very inclined to change it as
>>>>>>> long as it works :-).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Furthermore -- after the reboot everything worked again as before. It
>>>>>>> seems to have been some fluke, but I want to know where it comes from.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> TIA,
>>>>>>> Wolfgang
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> Someone else like me.  I still have my xorg.conf and want to keep it
>>>>>> too.  I don't have evdev installed but from the way it sounds, me and
>>>>>> you may have to change in the future, maybe near future.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm sort of wondering what pulls in evdev anyway?  I got a fully running
>>>>>> KDE and this is my new install.  Nothing pulled it in here.  I may be
>>>>>> missing a USE flag or something.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Let's hope this works for a while longer yet.  ;-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Dale
>>>>>>
>>>>>> :-)  :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> You need "evdev" in your INPUT_DEVICES variable (mine lives in
>>>>> make.conf). In my case I have:
>>>>>
>>>>> INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse joystick evdev"
>>>>>
>>>>> and portage automagically built those packages.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> So if evdev failed for some reason, it would fall back to the keyboard
>>>> and mouse drivers you think?  That I would be willing to try if that is
>>>> the case.
>>>>
>>>> Dale
>>>>
>>>> :-)  :-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> I don't know, for me it simply works as intended so... maybe I'll try
>>> to remove the keyboard and mouse and see what happens  :) but in my
>>> case my xorg.conf is virtually empty aside from some fonts and nvidia
>>> card options. My display and input devices "just work" without being
>>> specified in xorg.conf with drivers, modelines or any of that stuff. I
>>> changed monitors yesterday and simply killed X and it restarted in the
>>> optimal resolution for the new monitor. I've plugged different
>>> mouse/keyboard and it just works automatically.
>>>
>>> The HAL policies in /etc/hal/fdi/policy contain the same exact
>>> settings as xorg.conf only formatted a little differently... you can
>>> give device-specific custom settings if you need and I think
>>> everything you have done in xorg.conf can be done the new way.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I should say they CAN contain the same exact settings. It is up to you
>> to put them there :)
>>
>>
>>
>
> I'm curious about this now.  I run my monitor at 1280x1024 but it can
> run 1600x something.  Thing is, everything is so small, I can't really
> see anything.  Even the mouse pointer is really small, about the size of
> a pencil lead.  If I know where it is I can find it otherwise I have to
> push to a corner, then find it and go from there.  I need new glasses
> but can't afford it right now.
>
> If I can still run at 1280x1024, this may be worth trying out.  I would
> rather try it while the old way still works rather than wait until it
> doesn't and run into . . . issues.

Surely you can, the exact instructions depend on your video drivers
and desktop environment. I'm using  KDE 3.5 and it gives me an
exhaustive list of screen resolutions I can choose to use as the
default.

As far as the size of things, I have a 2042x1152 monitor and my mouse
cursor is "normal" sized, not as small as yours sounds. (no, I'm not
bragging about who has the bigger mouse cursor :P)

As far as everything being too small at the higher resolution, it
sounds like your DPI setting may not be correct. If it's set, things
should be roughly the same physical size on any monitor in any
resolution, a 12-point font on a 15inch monitor running 1024x768
should be the same physical size as a 12-point font on a 20-inch
monitor running 1600x1200. Window decorations etc should be the same
size on any system if the WM/DE respects DPI. 1024x768 vs 1280x960 vs
1600x1200 should look the same from afar, the higher resolutions will
just look better because they are better. :)

A simple test to see if your system DPI is correct is to create a
blank text document in OpenOffice, set it to Print View which should
show a "sheet of paper" on the screen. Make sure the zoom is set to
100%. It should be exactly the same size as a real-life sheet of
paper. Hold a sheet of paper up to the screen and see if it's right.
If you type text into the document and then print it and hold it up to
the screen, again the text should be exactly the same size printed as
it is on the screen. (same test could be done on Windows using
Microsoft Word)

There is an exception: Bitmaps (pictures on web pages) and
fixed-pixel-size fonts. On websites, that's where the web browser zoom
function comes in handy.  Most photo editing/viewing software allows
you to zoom so that's not usually a problem. Again, a photo zoomed to
fit the screen will just look better the higher the resolution you're
using despite being the same size on the screen.

Alternatively, you can use an incorrect DPI value on purpose to "zoom"
or "shrink" your desktop environment artificially instead of changing
all of the font sizes in KDE (or whatever you use).

All that being said, use whatever you're comfortable with, it's your
computer.  :)