Re: [aclug-L] video problems?

[Nate Bargmann <ka0rny@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Jesse Kaufman wrote:
> 
> ok, as i mentioned b4, i'm a newbie, so i don't completely have the
> hang of linux, yet...  i'm on my 4th install of Caldera OpenLinux, and
> i have had problems with video display.  for one, everything is
> INCREDIBLY tiny... i would like a nice 1024x768 display w/ a desktop
> size of the same.  how do i do this?

Hi Jesse.

I'll take a stab, even though my machine is based on a two year old
distro of Slackware '96 and you have OpenLinux.

First, since everything is quite tiny, perhaps you are running a
resolution larger than 1024x768?  Try this key stroke sequence:

Ctl+Alt+<Gray Minus> (the - on your keypad to the far right)

That should drop the resolution by one setting.  Do things get larger,
windows, fonts, icons, etc.?

Conversey, Ctl+Alt+<Gray +> increases the resolution.

Do you have the Midnight Commander file manager installed?  If not, get
it, this program was a life saver for me and I still use it.  Now, you
may need to do some checking to see that the right server is being
called for your hardware (referencing your earlier message).  Look in
/var/X11R6/lib/doc/Devices (it may be compressed with gzip, you can use
gunzip to uncompress it, also there are a number of other text files in
that directory that can help).  In this file may be a listing of your
hardware and what server supports it, or look at
http://www.xfree86.org/.  Next look in /var/X11R6/bin and there should
be a symbolic link of X which should point to the X server for your
hardware (on my machine it points to /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_Mach64  If it
is not linked to the correct server, then you'll have to log in as root
and do the following:

cd /var/X11R6/bin
rm X
ln -s /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_Mach64 X    # replace with your server

Caution!  Being root is power to munge any part of the machine (but you
knew that :) )

Finally, your video settings are kept in a text file of /etc/XF86Config
and it is there you can manually edit the various config lines and even
set the prefered resolution when X starts.  You'll need to be root to
edit files in /etc  If you like, I can send a copy of my XF86Config,
which may help, or confuse you more...


> also, i've been getting errors about this or that cannot display
> Gray<number> or Blue<number>...what is the cause of this?  often when
> i run GIMP, i get these errors...

OK, I think that is due to only having an 8 bit color map.  The
following command will start X in 16 bit (True Color mode with 65536
colors):

startx -- -bpp 16

However, I use the following shell script to start my server which I
call x16:

# This script is used to start Xwindows in 16 bit per pixel
# mode.

/usr/X11R6/bin/startx -- -bpp 16


Save this text as a file and then make it an executable:

chmod -x x16

You can do the same for 24 and 32 bits if your server supports those
color depths (using the full path name is considered a security
measure...).  You are likely seeing color errors because Gimp  wants
more colors (at least 16 bit probably) and the X server can't provide
that many in 8 bit mode.

Around here I run in 16 bit mode 99.9% of the time.  If I didn't, I'd
have problems with Netscape.

> 
> thanks,
> jesse

Hope this drivel helps.

- Nate >>

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