Re: [gentoo-user] Screen resolution problem

[William Kenworthy]

On Mon, 2009-09-14 at 07:36 -0400, 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 ???
>
> Regards,
>
> David
>
I ran into the same problem though with different versions of the
software a couple of days ago.  The only fix that worked was to -hal
xorg-server, and recreate the xorg.conf file that I had previously
deleted, making sure that EDID and DDC were not being used.

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "AtiRadeon"
        Driver          "radeon"
        VendorName      "ATI"
        Option          "DPMS"                  "On"
        Option          "EnablePageFlip"        "1"
        Option          "RenderAccel"           "1"
        Option          "AGPMode"               "4"
        Option          "IgnoreEDID"            "1"
        Option          "NoDDC"                 "1"
EndSection

Not sure all the settings are optimal, but I have a display thats at
least at a usable resolution ...

It might seem all and good that xorg automaticly chooses the best
resolution - but it clearly doesnt.  This is on a system running as
1600x1200 for years on the same hardware, with xorg suddenly deciding it
can only do 1280x1024 (and even then, it first defaulted to 1024x768).
Whatever happened to the idea that in Linux (and esp gentoo-linux) its
the "user" thats in control :)

It certainly seems someone - seemingly xorg - dropped the ball
recently :(

BillK