black borders

[Gagle]

I just finished successfully installing VLinux on an older laptop and I am more than satisfied with this great OS but I have one major issue at hand: The screen doesn't fit.

By that I mean that I have black borders all around my screen, even when I boot lilo.
The resolution seems ok (1024X768) but it is not scaled to fit/fill up my entire screen .

Editing the xorg.conf file was useless and I don't think anyways this is the solution for I experience this problem before loading the file.

My bios' configurations are pointless too.

I have a Toshiba Satellite 1800, if it might help.

Thanks for your consideration,

Gagle

[M0E-lnx]

What kind of video hardware?
Manufacturer? Model?
what kind of resolution do you usually get or expect to get out of it?

[Gagle]

I am supposed to have a 1024x768 resolution.  In fact, that is what I had on windows and another linux distro.

The reason I think the resolution is loaded correctly is that when I change the resolution while in a graphical session, I see the changes.
Also, the lilo bootloader image changes to when I reconfigure lilo to show a 1024X768 or 800x600 image.

Also, this wierd behaviour startles me:

If I let the lilo bootloader start "linux" after the two minute time-out, the progress screen fills up my screen but when  I am aksed to log in, the black borders reappear.  When logged in, the sessions are not filling the whole screen and I still have black borders.


I will give the more technical specs of my video card in my next post.

regards,

Gagle

[Gagle]

My video card is a Trident, from a company of the same name and a CyberBlade XPail board/chipset.
I know it musn't help, but this card i s so wierd, it is hard to get the full specs.  If you have any suggestions...

I now can boot, until the login screen where I am prompted to enter my username/password, with a full screen.
But, after that I get back to the old black borders....

[JohnB316]

If you can also find out the horizontal and vertical refresh specs for your monitor, you can use one of the text-mode X configuration tools to help you get rid of the black border. Here is a link to a forum how-to for using the text-mode tools: http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1016.0

Hope this helps you - post again if you still can't get things to work correctly.

Thanks,
John

[Gagle]

If you can also find out the horizontal and vertical refresh specs for your monitor

The text-mode X configuration tools asks for the
quote : " horizontal and vertical sync range "
of my monitor. This will change the following variables in the xorg.conf file :
HorizSync  and VertRefresh respectively.

Wich brings up :
Why in the xorg.conf file is it called VertRefresh and Vertical Sync in the configuration utility ?
Is there a difference between the two or it's just X that discards willingly the VertSync variable ?
Is it the same thing as what you suggested me in the above quote ?

Do yo think this command will output the needed info :

Code:

ddcprobe

Or that it will just give me back the configurations I did on the X server ?

[JohnB316]

ddcprobe, which needs to be run as root, will give you information about your monitor. Here is the output for the monitor I am using on one of my VL boxes:

Code:

root:# ddcprobe
VESA 2.0 detected.
OEM Name: ATI RADEON 9200
Memory installed = 256 * 64k blocks = 16384kb
Supported standard modes:
        800x600x16
        1024x768x16
        320x200x32k
        320x200x64k
        320x200x16m
        1600x1200x256
        640x400x256
        640x480x256
        640x480x32k
        640x480x64k
        640x480x16m
        1600x1200x32k
        800x600x256
        800x600x32k
        800x600x64k
        800x600x16m
        1600x1200x64k
        1024x768x256
        1024x768x32k
        1024x768x64k
        1024x768x16m
        1280x1024x256
        1280x1024x32k
        1280x1024x64k
        1280x1024x16m
        132x25 (text)
        132x43 (text)
EDID ver. 1 rev. 1.
Manufacturer: XXX
ID: 6550
EISA ID: XXX6550
Serial number: 031a8695.
Manufactured in week 35 of 2004.
Input signal type: analog signal.
Screen size max 32 cm horizontal, 25 cm vertical.
Gamma: 2.600000.
DPMS flags: RGB, active off, suspend, standby.
Established timings:
        640x480 @ 60 Hz (VGA)
        640x480 @ 75 Hz (VESA)
        800x600 @ 60 Hz (VESA)
        800x600 @ 72 Hz (VESA)
        800x600 @ 75 Hz (VESA)
        1024x768 @ 75 Hz (VESA)
Standard timing 0: 85 Hz, 640x480
Standard timing 1: 85 Hz, 800x600
Standard timing 2: 85 Hz, 1024x768
Standard timing 3: 85 Hz, 1280x1024
Standard timing 4: 60 Hz, 1600x1200
Standard timing 5: 75 Hz, 1600x1200
Monitor details 0:
        Timing ranges: horizontal = 30 - 96, vertical = 50 - 150
Monitor details 1:
        Name: 1996F
Monitor details 2:
        Serial number: 0434452070037
Detailed timing 3:
        Pixel clock: 2570000
        Horizontal active time (pixel width): 257
        Horizontal blank time (pixel width): 1
        Vertical active time (pixel height): 257
        Vertical blank time (pixel height): 1
        Horizontal sync offset: 257
        Horizontal sync pulse width: 1
        Vertical sync offset: 1
        Vertical sync pulse width: 0
        Dimensions: 257x1

With the information given to me by ddcprobe, when I run one of the text-mode X configuration tools, I'll use the following for the horizontal and the vertical sync ranges:

Code:

Monitor details 0:
        Timing ranges: horizontal = 30 - 96, vertical = 50 - 150

Here is the corresponding section of my xorg.conf file with that information:

Code:

Section "Monitor"

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY.  REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.
#    HorizSync 30-64         # multisync
#    HorizSync 31.5, 35.2    # multiple fixed sync frequencies
#    HorizSync 15-25, 30-50  # multiple ranges of sync frequencies
# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY.  REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.
Identifier   "My Monitor"
HorizSync    30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh  50.0 - 150.0
EndSection

I chose to go a bit more conservative in my horizontal sync number, but things work well for me.

HTH a bit,
John

[Gagle]

I finally got it working.  As you told me, the Horizontal and Vertical refresh rates were the problem.
I found the Xorg.0.log file of someone with a similar computer (same video card though...) that had other problems and used the default values used by the driver.

Thx a lot for the info though.  It re-assured me in what to do. 

This forum's support was great and I will contribute as much as I can. 

regards,

Gagle

Edit : Even after everything is OK , the ddcprobe command still won't output the timing range.

[lagagnon]

Even after everything is OK , the ddcprobe command still won't output the timing range.

Yeah, same for me. Is your monitor an LCD monitor? - mine is and I get this output from ddcprobe:

Code:

EDID read failed. (No DDC-capable monitor attached)?

[Gagle]

Well my monitor is the LCD screen of the laptop.  The ddcprobe command outputs good results, not just the particular info I needed....
Maybe why you don't get interesting output is that X won't use ddc in eery circumstances.  I remember reading this in some official documentation.
I don't remember where or what exactly is was about because I've been browsing for a couple days straight online documentation.
Gotta love computers   

regards,

Gagle