[aclug-L] Re: Monitor settings for X

[Bob_Deep <bobd@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

bert,

Thanks for the help..  

For all who are interasted, I figured out the problem..  Those dang
probe programs where locking up my video card, which was very bad, very
bad...  But this was ONLY during Red Hat's "kickstart" procedure..  What
was throwing me was that I could manually run Xconfigurator and it would
work great.. I'd get things working at 1024x768 every time..  But when I
translated this into a kickstart file, the machine would lock up, or the
probe programs would fail and I'd be running 640x480...

The proper way to setup the monitor is to put the proper --hsync and
--vsync on Xconfigurator's command line.  Which in my case turned out to
be --hsync "31.5,48.5" and --vsync "50-70" (being very consertive).

I have not investigated what XF86Config would need, as I'm trying to
keep this as simple for the installers as possible...  They are in
another state, and I don't want to spend too much time on the phone with
them explaining hwo to install X on 50 machines.

Of course... I'd still love to know how to convert my montior specs to
valid video timings, but I think it's simply a function of resolutions
and horz frequencies...

bert wrote:
> 
> Bob_Deep wrote:
> 
> > translate my monitor's specs into valid information for the config
> > process for X...
> >
> > It's a NobleView 1770A made by Nobilis, and the user's guide tells me
> > this:
> >         Max Resolution:  1280dots X 1024 Lines
> >         Sync Horz:  30 to 70 Khz
> >         Sync Vert:  55 to 160 Hz
> >         Bandwidth:  86 Mhz
> >
> > I've tried the custom monitor settings that represent this, but when I
> > start X the monitor tells me "out of range" or is just black.
> >
> > Hey.. This is my mail and I charge for SPAM I receive...
> 
> this spam is free . . .
> and replacing a fried monitor costs big bucks . . . .
> but i won't be replacing any monitors
> 
> has this monitor ever worked? on what kind of chipset/video card or
> whatever?
> 
> a video chipset, card, whatever, is translating for your monitor,
> so you can't configure for a monitor only when trying to use the
> Xconfiguator
> in other words, a configuration with one boxes board or a specific video
> card
> won't necessarily work the same for the monitor on a different
> box/card/chipset . . . .
> 
> XF86Config is the place to be, as kai and steven pointed out, but they
> found they could
> change the resolution only to lose the mouse/pointer.  peter, paul,
> anyone . . . .
> 
> you probably already know all this, but i like to hear myself type, so .
> . . .
> 
> VideoModes.doc is a good read for this type of adventure -- it'll say
> stuff like
>    modeline is a card(chipset)/montior combo -- the chipset allows the
> memory map.
>    XF86setup limits itself to 1280X1024 ( your monitor fits right in!)
>     and you don't have to abide by the 4:3 aspect ratio, so though it
> limits itself
>     you can configure beyond its limits.
>    horizontal pulse syncs have to be divisible by 8 -- vertical pulses
> don't
> 
> the maximum resolution, the frequency pairs, and the maximum bandwidth
> given
> allow you to point close to the VESA standard of 72Hz,  though some
> experimentation
> is required.
> 
> you could use SuperProbe to determine what chipset you're using . . .
> when i run it from the cmd line here, with these switches,
> >SuperProbe-verbose-no16 -no_bios
> this system returns --
> Super-VGA
>   Chipset: S3 Virge (PCI Probed)
>   Memory: 4096K
>   RAMDAC: Generic 8-bit pseudo-color DAC
>                       (with 6 bit wide lookup tables (or in 6 bit mode))
> 
> once the chipset stuff is figured into your calculations you might get
> some video
> 
> there's also a utility i've only heard of -- xvidtune
> you have to know the monitor's every spec to use it , i guess., but i
> never have used
> it
> 
> somebody with an ear for aclug can probably help more -- wasn't the last
> meeting
> on X?
> 
> so, you get X started -- but nothing shows up.
> what window manager are you using?
> are you using the startx script?
> 
> anyone got any ideas?

-- 
      -=  Bob =-
Hey.. This is my mail and I charge for SPAM I receive...

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