Re: [gentoo-user] Screen resolution problem

[David Relson]

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