native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

rasnik · 2008-09-09 01:57:46

hello,

following on the response to an earlier post I submitted, I recently received a lenovo T61 laptop, the 14" widescreen model w/nvidia 140 graphics. I'm not sure whether they shipped the correct setup or not (I ordered wxga+ but am not sure if it's that or just wxga.) Anyway looking on the web, the native resolution of that setup seems to be 1440x900, but I only seem to be able to select 1280x768 during the text-only Arch install phase. (Can't get X working properly yet, which was the topic of my original post.)

Does anyone know what the native resolution is for that machine, for both the WXGA and WXGA+ versions? If you've managed to get it working at said resolution, where did you make the selection/definition?

thanks,
david

kett · 2008-09-09 02:12:33

I've got a dell with wxga+ and it's 1440x900, so I presume its the same for lenovo.

As far as setting it up, download the nvidia and xorg packages once you have arch installed. Then the easiest way to get it set up is run "nvidia-xconfig" as root. That automatically creates the Xorg config file for you.

rasnik · 2008-09-09 02:23:42

Kett,

Thanks for the reply. What you suggest about running nvidia-xconfig was one of the things I already tried though:

(working from memory here since the machine is not with me now) ... I first tried "Xorg -configure," which made a conf file that didn't work at all. Then I tried xorg-config and nvidia-xconfig, neither of which worked either. Then I edited the forst conf file (the one made by Xorg -configure) and on the second try managed to get xterms running in an x environment. The resolution was terrible though (meaning very fuzzy, not very large,) and upon killing X I saw a ton of errors about nvidia modules not being loaded, or not being found, etc. Now the modules are there, and are written into the config file, and things seem to be in order generally, only they're not...

david

kett · 2008-09-09 02:31:02

I'm not sure then. Here's my config file. As I said I've got a dell, but it is wxga+ and nvidia, so the config file shouldn't be that much different, if at all. The nvidia config puts the config in /etc/X11/XF86Config. You can make that /etc/X11/xorg.conf if you want. Just make sure that there is only one or the other.

Hope this helps.

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    RgbPath         "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"
    FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/local"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "keyboard"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 110.0
    VertRefresh     50.0 - 150.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

.:B:. · 2008-09-09 02:50:21

You know what you ordered right? If not, just dump X on it, start a preliminary X server and run xrandr, that will tell what resolutions are possible. We can't tell for you, nor can we find out, you're the one with the box, not us.

Lots of hardware manufacturers provide a lot of potential configs within one chassis. I had a HP laptop that could do 1280x800 and 1440x900 on a 14.1" screen, so all we can do is make wild guesses. Show some initiative...

Last edited by B (2008-09-09 02:58:49)

rasnik · 2008-09-09 03:04:47

gee b, how helpful in the new users forum. thanks so much. since you seem to suggest a level of obviousness which really isn't there: The order was placed through 2 people, back in May. The first laptop from Lenovo never showed up. While I was out of the country, a secretary tried to deal with the issue, eventually got UPS to admit they really lost it, and get another one shipped. In the mean time, two other people in my group ordered more or less the same machine, but not exactly. Two days ago one finally came in and they gave it to me. The box and accompanying documentation do not in fact state clearly what screen was used in the build. So no, I don't know exactly what the hardware is, and if you've ever tried dealing with one of these companies, you would know that there is little hope of figuring it out except by making it work, which is what I'm trying to do. What do you mean "just dump X on it, and start a preliminary X server"? If that is so obvious and easy why does Arch linux not provide that capability out of the box instead of making me go through this nonsense? Why don't you start asking physics questions so I can rip you a new one, that would be more fun for me.

david

Allan · 2008-09-09 04:30:53

So..... we are going to calm down here and try to be productive in this thread. The above response is far too aggravated for this forum.

Things that might actually help us to get your xorg working:
1. Give details of your screen graphics card. To get the current dimensions use "xdpyinfo". To see all possible dimensions use "xrandr" (as suggested above). To get your graphics card details use "lspci".
2. Run "xorg -configure" or whatever way you want to try configuring (as you have done above).
3. If it does not work, post the error (found in /var/log/Xorg.0.log)
4. If it does work but is not a good resolution, post the xorg.conf file and ask what could be changed.

We need details to help. So far you have given none.

byte · 2008-09-09 09:10:48

Let me just throw in a general advice to 'pacman -Syu', for good measure.

rasnik · 2008-09-09 13:13:10

thanks byte, unfortunately i used pacman -Syu a few times during the process yesterday, and that did not help. i might add though that the process did make it clear that the arch package manager is indeed far superior to yum.

rasnik · 2008-09-09 13:29:09

allan,

thanks very much, your msg will probably be very helpful. really what i was hoping was that only someone who uses a new t61 and had gone through these issues already would actually respond. you may think that getting upset at people who simply say rtfm is not appropriate, but, as a scientist, i respectfully disagree. if you read other posts by b you will find they are often kurt and somewhat rude, and arguably don't help nearly enough to be worth posting. i'll give everything another go today, and in the future will never post without including an exhaustive list of log entries + things already tried.

.:B:. · 2008-09-09 15:21:23

rasnik wrote:

gee b, how helpful in the new users forum. thanks so much. since you seem to suggest a level of obviousness which really isn't there: The order was placed through 2 people, back in May. The first laptop from Lenovo never showed up. While I was out of the country, a secretary tried to deal with the issue, eventually got UPS to admit they really lost it, and get another one shipped. In the mean time, two other people in my group ordered more or less the same machine, but not exactly. Two days ago one finally came in and they gave it to me. The box and accompanying documentation do not in fact state clearly what screen was used in the build.

Excellent! Now we have things in perspective. So you don't know what you got exactly, and it's not your fault. That clears things up, doesn't it?

What do you mean "just dump X on it, and start a preliminary X server"?

I mean what I mean - install X on it, run 'startx', and see how far you get, then read the log. That will help you tremendously, trust me.

If that is so obvious and easy why does Arch linux not provide that capability out of the box instead of making me go through this nonsense?

Okay. I could give the obvious answer here - why are you trying Arch? - and the obvious rant - go use a distro that does it all for you - but of course that won't help you eh? But what did you expect when you grabbed that Arch iso and burnt it? Have you read the beginners' guide?

Why don't you start asking physics questions so I can rip you a new one, that would be more fun for me.

I'm pointing you in the right direction. Don't blame me for your witholding information. I can't help with stuff I don't know, can I? One would expect one knows what one orders, well, in your particular case, that is not the case. We cleared that up, so we know we have to work around that now.

rasnik wrote:

allan,
thanks very much, your msg will probably be very helpful.

Allow me to say my responses to both your topics largely cover the same thing allan said, yet seem to get ignored by you - worse: they only get rewarded with an insult.

you may think that getting upset at people who simply say rtfm is not appropriate, but, as a scientist, i respectfully disagree.

The fact you're a scientist should - and does - not play here. It is entirely unrelated to the matter. Worse even, as a scientist you should know you don't dive in unprepared, which you seem to have done. Furthermore, from someone with 'Linux experience' (direct quote from your other thread), one would expect moderate debugging capabilities.

If you read other posts by b you will find they are often kurt and somewhat rude, and arguably don't help nearly enough to be worth posting.

Nice to see you've done your research on me. How about doing it on your topic subject?

i'll give everything another go today, and in the future will never post without including an exhaustive list of log entries + things already tried.

Funny - that's how I do my topic starts.

Last edited by B (2008-09-09 15:32:49)

Misfit138 · 2008-09-09 15:56:25

The Beginners' Guide is a good place to start, and provides much information that effectively addresses a wide variety of hardware combinations....but not all. It can't, and no guide can be exhaustive nor 100% complete.

rasnik, is sounds to me like you just need to be a bit more tenacious in your hacking. Sometimes, getting a working X relies on persistence and experience. Don't give up, and provide detail as was recommended.

This is a helpful community; I'm sure you will pick up on how to more effectively receive that help very quickly.
Please realize, though, that Arch is very much a do-it-yourself distro. There are forums and a wiki which provide excellent resources, but at the end of the day, I'm confident it is you and your own initiative that will go a long way toward solving this (in conjunction with 'guidance' from the community.)

Welcome to Arch.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-09-09 01:57:46

native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#2 2008-09-09 02:12:33

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#3 2008-09-09 02:23:42

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#4 2008-09-09 02:31:02

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#5 2008-09-09 02:50:21

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#6 2008-09-09 03:04:47

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#7 2008-09-09 04:30:53

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#8 2008-09-09 09:10:48

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#9 2008-09-09 13:13:10

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#10 2008-09-09 13:29:09

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#11 2008-09-09 15:21:23

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

#12 2008-09-09 15:56:25

Re: native resolution of lenovo T61 (14" screen)

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