Display Resolution DejaVu

[vlinco]

I've looked at a number of postings on resolution solutions, but none that would solve my particular problem. I have an elderly Compaq 5838 with a 17" Compaq MV720 monitor, that I've installed VL 6.0 Gold (Xfce) on. VL won't give me resolutions higher than 1024x768 using that monitor. The graphics card & monitor are capable of up to 1280x1024 resolutions, as they have both been run at the higher resolutions with Windows and other Linux distros. The resolution I want is 1152x864. I can get the higher resolutions (1152x864 & 1280x1024) with a 15" Gateway2000 Vivitron 1572 monitor attached, doing no more than swapping monitors (). I've tweaked xorg.conf a number of times, and reinstalled VL 4 times. The lines below from gtf, xrandr, & xorg.conf are from the most recent install. The 15" & 17" info below was taken by switching monitors and nothing else. Note that the "Modes" lines in the "Screen" section of xorg.conf specify the 1280x1024 resolution, regardless of the attached monitor. I'm sure there's some magic setting somewhere that will allow me to get the resolutions higher than 1024x768 with the 17" monitor.

====================================================================
Monitor Specification:

Compaq MV720 Monitor
Model:         COMPAQ PRESARIO MV720 Multimedia Monitor:
Display Resolutions:
  1280 x 1024 ...................................... 60 Hz (max resolution)
  1152 x 864 ..................................... 75 Hz (max flicker-free)
  1024 x 768: ............................................ 60, 75 and 85 Hz
   800 x 600: ............................................ 60, 75 and 85 Hz
   640 x 480: ............................................ 60, 75 and 85 Hz
  Text Mode: ............................................ 720 x 400 - 70 Hz

Horizontal Frequency .......................................... 30 - 69 kHz

Vertical Frequency ............................................ 50 - 100 Hz


====================================================================
Output from lspci (monitor card only)

root:# lspci -v
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. Voodoo 3 (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. Unknown device 1252
   Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel, IRQ 10
   Memory at ea000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
   Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
   I/O ports at 9000 [size=256]
   Capabilities: [54] AGP version 1.0
   Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 1
   Kernel driver in use: voodoo3_smbus
   Kernel modules: i2c-voodoo3, tdfxfb

====================================================================
Device, Monitor, & Screen sections from xorg.conf (generated with 17" monitor attached)

Section "Monitor"
 DisplaySize 336 269 # 96 DPI @ 1280x1024 (non 4:3 aspect)
  Option "UseEdidFreqs" "1"
#DisplaySize     330   250   # mm
Identifier   "Monitor0"
VendorName   "CPQ"
ModelName    "COMPAQ MV720"
### Comment all HorizSync and VertRefresh values to use DDC:
HorizSync    30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh  50.0 - 100.0
Option       "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: : integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option     "NoAccel"               # [<bool>]
#Option     "SWcursor"              # [<bool>]
#Option     "UsePIO"                # [<bool>]
#Option     "ShowCache"             # [<bool>]
#Option     "VideoKey"              #
#Option     "NoSLI"                 # [<bool>]
#Option     "TexturedVideo"         # [<bool>]
#Option     "DRI"                   # [<bool>]
Identifier  "Card0"
Driver      "tdfx"
VendorName  "3Dfx Interactive, Inc."
BoardName   "Voodoo 3"
BusID       "PCI:1:5:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device     "Card0"
Monitor    "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     1
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     4
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     15
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

====================================================================
gtf & xrandr for 17" Compaq MV720 Monitor

rudy:$ gtf 1152 864 75 (17" Monitor attached)

  # 1152x864 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 67.65 kHz; pclk: 104.99 MHz
  Modeline "1152x864_75.00"  104.99  1152 1224 1352 1552  864 865 868 902  -HSync +Vsync

rudy:$ xrandr (17" Monitor attached)
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       75.0*    70.0     60.0 
   800x600        75.0     72.0     60.0     56.0 
   640x480        75.0     73.0     60.0 
   832x624        75.0 
   700x525        60.0 
   640x512        60.0 
   720x400        70.0 
   576x432        75.0 
   640x350        70.0 
   512x384        75.0     70.0     60.0 
   416x312        75.0 
   400x300        75.0     72.0     60.0     56.0 
   320x240        75.0     73.0     60.0

====================================================================
gtf & xrandr for 15" Gateway2000 Vivitron 1572 Monitor

rudy:$ gtf 1152 864 75 (15" Mointor attached)

  # 1152x864 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 67.65 kHz; pclk: 104.99 MHz
  Modeline "1152x864_75.00"  104.99  1152 1224 1352 1552  864 865 868 902  -HSync +Vsync

rudy:$ xrandr (15" Mointor attached)
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1152 x 864, maximum 1280 x 1024
default connected 1152x864+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1280x1024      60.0 
   1024x768       75.0     70.0     60.0 
   800x600        75.0     72.0     60.0     56.0 
   640x480        75.0     73.0     60.0 
   1280x960       60.0 
   1152x864       75.0*
   832x624        75.0 
   700x525        60.0 
   640x512        60.0 
   576x432        75.0 
   512x384        75.0     70.0     60.0 
   416x312        75.0 
   400x300        75.0     72.0     60.0     56.0 
   320x240        75.0     73.0     60.0

[roarde]

Snitched this from an Ubuntu forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1249439

Code:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Compaq MV720"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 30-68
VertRefresh 50-85
Modeline "1152x864@75" 107.48 1152 1208 1336 1584 864 864 867 904
EndSection

You'll also need to include "1152x864" in Modes further down in xorg.conf. Optionally, you can delete the other modes if you're not using them.

You may need to change any reference to amount of video memory available.

You can read /var/log/Xorg.0.log for a good idea of what the xserver is setting up, if it comes to that.

That exhausts my knowlege of x configs, we now return to your regular program.

[vlinco]

Hello Sixforty,

Thanks for the quick reply.

There was no reference to "memory" in xorg.conf. The only reference to "memory" in my original post was from the output of running a verbose lspci.

I changed the Screen section of xorg.conf to:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device     "Card0"
Monitor    "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     1
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     4
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     8
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     15
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     16
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection

After rebooting, the monitor came up in 640x480 mode (). Display Settings showed that 1024x768 was the highest resolution available, so I selected 1024x768, which X switched to immediately. After a 2nd reboot, the monitor came up in 1024x768 mode, and Display Settings still shows 1024x768 as the highest resolution available.

I then changed the Monitor section to:

Section "Monitor"
 DisplaySize 336 269 # 96 DPI @ 1280x1024 (non 4:3 aspect)
  Option "UseEdidFreqs" "1"
#DisplaySize     330   250   # mm
Identifier   "Monitor0"
VendorName   "CPQ"
ModelName    "COMPAQ MV720"
### Comment all HorizSync and VertRefresh values to use DDC:
#HorizSync    30.0 - 70.0
#VertRefresh  50.0 - 100.0
HorizSync 30-68
VertRefresh 50-85
Modeline "1152x864@75" 107.48 1152 1208 1336 1584 864 864 867 904
Option       "DPMS"
EndSection

Which has the HorizSync, VertRefresh, & Modeline verbatim from the Ubuntu clip. Rebooted twice, and still 1024x768 is the highest resolution that I can get with the 17" monitor.

Just for the heck of it and with your suggested changes in xorg.conf, I swapped in the 15" monitor again. With the 15" monitor attached, VL came up in 1280x1024 mode. Display Settings showed 1152x864 available, so I selected 1152x864, and X immediately switched to that resolution. Swapping back to the 17" monitor resulted in returning to 1024x768 as the highest available resolution.

[GrannyGeek]

Have you tried changing the vertical refresh to this?
VertRefresh 60-75
--GrannyGeek

[vlinco]

Hello GrannyGeek,

OK, I added the new line to the Monitor section of xorg.conf like this:

### Comment all HorizSync and VertRefresh values to use DDC:
#HorizSync    30.0 - 70.0
#VertRefresh  50.0 - 100.0
HorizSync 30-68
#VertRefresh 50-85
VertRefresh 60-75
Modeline "1152x864@75" 107.48 1152 1208 1336 1584 864 864 867 904

Rebooted twice, and still stuck with 1024x768 as the maximum available resolution. A dump from xrandr reveals:

rudy:$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       75.0*    70.0     60.0 
   832x624        75.0 
   800x600        75.0     72.0     60.0 
   700x525        60.0 
   640x512        60.0 
   640x480        75.0     73.0     60.0 
   720x400        70.0 
   576x432        75.0 
   640x350        70.0 
   512x384        75.0     70.0     60.0 
   416x312        75.0 
   400x300        75.0     72.0     60.0 
   320x240        75.0     73.0     60.0



Thanks for the input. vlinco..

[newt]

Do these couple modifications help at all?

Monitor section:

Code:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier   "Monitor0"
VendorName   "CPQ"
ModelName    "COMPAQ MV720"
HorizSync 30-68
VertRefresh 60-75
Modeline "1152x864_75.00"  104.99  1152 1224 1352 1552  864 865 868 902  -HSync +Vsync
Option "PreferredMode" "1152x864_75.00"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "DRI" "false"
EndSection

Screen section:

Code:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device     "Card0"
Monitor    "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     1
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     4
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     8
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     15
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     16
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

[vlinco]

Hello newt,

I replaced the Monitor and Screen sections in xorg.conf completely with the Monitor and Screen sections that you provided, shutdown and rebooted twice, and still no changes. First couple of lines from xrandr dump reveals:

rudy:$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm

Thanks for input. vlinco..

[newt]

How do the xorg.conf 'Monitor' sections vary from when you have the 17" compaq connected versus the 15" sony?  It seems to be primarily a monitor issue and not a graphics driver issue so perhaps comparing the two will help illustrate the culprit.

[vlinco]

newt,

With no other changes, I swapped in the 15" Gateway monitor, and the PC came up with 1280x1024 resolution. Using Display Settings, I changed the current resolution to 1152x864, so I could see what I was doing. After changing resolution, the Monitor section of xorg.conf is:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier   "Monitor0"
VendorName   "CPQ"
ModelName    "COMPAQ MV720"
HorizSync 30-68
VertRefresh 60-75
Modeline "1152x864_75.00"  104.99  1152 1224 1352 1552  864 865 868 902  -HSync +Vsync
Option "PreferredMode" "1152x864_75.00"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "DRI" "false"
EndSection

Dump from xrandr reveals:

rudy:$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1152 x 864, maximum 1280 x 1024
default connected 1152x864+0+0 0mm x 0mm

I then saved the xorg.conf to a temporary file.

Swapping back to the 17" Compaq monitor, the PC came up with 800x600 resolution (). Display Settings indicated that resolutions up to 1024x768 were available, so I selected the Default setting (1024x768 75). After changing resolution, the monitor section of xorg.conf is:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier   "Monitor0"
VendorName   "CPQ"
ModelName    "COMPAQ MV720"
HorizSync 30-68
VertRefresh 60-75
Modeline "1152x864_75.00"  104.99  1152 1224 1352 1552  864 865 868 902  -HSync +Vsync
Option "PreferredMode" "1152x864_75.00"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "DRI" "false"
EndSection

Exactly the same as with the 15" monitor.

Dump from xrandr reveals:

rudy:$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm

Comparing the saved 15" xorg.conf with the current 17" xorg.conf using "diff":

rudy:$ diff XorgWith15.txt /etc/X11/xorg.conf
vector:/~
rudy:$

The 2 xorg.conf files are completely identical.

I totally agree that it has something to do with the monitor, but this card & monitor have been used together with both Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS at 1152x864 resolution.

vlinco..

[newt]

I'm stumped 

All I can guess is that the Xserver in VL is less than the Xserver in Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS, and that the newer xserver has better support/identification for your compaq monitor - but that's a complete guess.  I seems like no matter what you try X will not allow a resolution higher than what xrandr can identify as the highest supported resolution, which is mostly likely a security measure so that the user doesn't break their hardware.  However, in this case it sure seems that the monitor can support higher resolutions and that you are being stiffled by xserver/xrandr.  Maybe I'm on the wrong track here, I really don't know.

Hopefully someone else can pop-in with a fresh perspective.  I'll certainly keep thinking on it and let you know if I come up with anything.

edit:
Is there any difference if you bump the screen default depth up to 24:
Screen section:

Code:

DefaultDepth 24

[vlinco]

newt,

OK, Made the change to DefaultDepth as you suggested:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device     "Card0"
Monitor    "Monitor0"
#DefaultDepth 16
DefaultDepth 24

After reboot, the result is exactly the same, 1024x768 resolution. xrandr still indicates that 1024x768 is the highest available resolution:

rudy:$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm

Thank you very much for all your input on this. vlinco..

[vlinco]

Eureka!!!

I've got 1152x864 at last!

I decided to start over on the sections that pertain to the monitor. I took out everything except what was absolutely necessary to express 1152x864 resolution.

I removed the last 2 sections:

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
             
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "on"
EndSection

I found something unclear about the "DRI" section in the xorg.conf man pages, and absolutely nothing about the "Extensions" section there, so I just removed them.

I got the HorizSync and VertRefresh from the MV720 spec, and I regenerated the Modeline using "gtf 1152 864 75" in a terminal session. After doing that and removing anything that didn't pertain to 1152x864, I was left with:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier   "Monitor0"
VendorName   "CPQ"
ModelName    "COMPAQ MV720"
HorizSync 30-69
VertRefresh 50-100
Modeline "1152x864_75.00"  104.99  1152 1224 1352 1552  864 865 868 902  -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: : integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option     "NoAccel"               # [<bool>]
#Option     "SWcursor"              # [<bool>]
#Option     "UsePIO"                # [<bool>]
#Option     "ShowCache"             # [<bool>]
#Option     "VideoKey"              #
#Option     "NoSLI"                 # [<bool>]
#Option     "TexturedVideo"         # [<bool>]
#Option     "DRI"                   # [<bool>]
Identifier  "Card0"
Driver      "tdfx"
VendorName  "3Dfx Interactive, Inc."
BoardName   "Voodoo 3"
BusID       "PCI:1:5:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device     "Card0"
Monitor    "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Viewport   0 0
Depth     16
Modes "1152x864"
EndSubSection
EndSection


That got the resolution up to 1152x768. Better, but not what I wanted. Just on a hunch, using "gtf 1152 864 60" from a terminal session, I regenerated the "Modeline" for a refresh rate of 60 instead of 75 resulting in:

Modeline "1152x864_60.00"  81.62  1152 1216 1336 1520  864 865 868 895  -HSync +Vsync

After plugging that into the Monitor section and rebooting, Voila!!!, I've got 1152x864 resolution.

A dump from xrandr reveals:

rudy:$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 175, current 1152 x 864, maximum 1152 x 864
default connected 1152x864+0+0 0mm x 0mm

Many thanks to sixforty, GrannyGeek, and newt for your inputs on helping solve this bugger of a problem.

vlinco..

[GrannyGeek]

Congrats! And thanks for letting us know how you solved the problem.
--GrannyGeek