Arch Linux

Sirrah

Member

Registered: 2009-05-16

Posts: 22

[SOLVED} Unable to set 1440x900 resolution

I just bought a shiny new monitor (17" Dell SE178WFP) and I finally installed a DE (KDEmod).  My resolution is set automatically to 1400x1050, but my monitor's default should be 1440x900.  Everything looks just slightly distorted as one would expect, so for the sake of my eyes and sanity I'd like to set my resolution to 1440x900.

On a much less important note, I added vga=773 to my kernel line in GRUB when I installed Arch to get a 1024x768 framebuffer.  I've tried changing this to vga=864 (as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_BIOS_ … e_numbers) but the setting doesn't seem to stick, reverting to vga=773 every time I continue to boot.  Any way to fix this permanently?

Thanks in advance.  My xorg.conf, as I'm sure the first reply will ask for it:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
 
Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DontZap" "false"
EndSection
 
Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection
 
Section "Module"
    Load  "extmod"
    Load  "dri2"
    Load  "dbe"
    Load  "record"
    Load  "glx"
    Load  "dri"
EndSection
 
Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
EndSection
 
Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Mouse0"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option        "Protocol" "auto"
    Option        "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection
 
Section "Extensions"
    Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
 
Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "NoAccel"                # [<bool>]
        #Option     "AccelMethod"            # <str>
        #Option     "HWCursor"               # [<bool>]
        #Option     "SWCursor"               # [<bool>]
        #Option     "ShadowFB"               # [<bool>]
        #Option     "Rotate"                 # [<str>]
        #Option     "UseBIOS"                # [<bool>]
        #Option     "LCDClock"               # <freq>
        #Option     "ShadowStatus"           # [<bool>]
        #Option     "CrtOnly"                # [<bool>]
        #Option     "TvOn"                   # [<bool>]
        #Option     "PAL"                    # [<bool>]
        #Option     "ForceInit"              # [<bool>]
        #Option     "Overlay"                # [<str>]
        #Option     "TransparencyKey"        # [<str>]
        #Option     "ForceInit"              # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DisableXVMC"            # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DisableTile"            # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DisableCOB"             # [<bool>]
        #Option     "BCIforXv"               # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DVI"                    # [<bool>]
        #Option     "IgnoreEDID"             # [<bool>]
        #Option     "BusType"                # [<str>]
        #Option     "DmaType"                # [<str>]
        #Option     "DmaMode"                # [<str>]
        #Option     "AGPMode"                # <i>
        #Option     "AGPSize"                # <i>
        #Option     "DRI"                    # [<bool>]
    #Option      "NoDDC"
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "savage"
    VendorName  "S3 Inc."
    BoardName   "VT8375 [ProSavage8 KM266/KL266]"
    BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
 
Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
        Modes "1440x900_60"
    EndSubSection
EndSection
 
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor0"
    VendorName   "Unknown"
    ModelName    "DELL SE178WFP"
    HorizSync    30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh  56.0 - 75.0
EndSection

Last edited by Sirrah (2009-05-25 23:41:55)

Aprz

Member

From: Newark

Registered: 2008-05-28

Posts: 277

Re: [SOLVED} Unable to set 1440x900 resolution

Section "Monitor"
     ...
     Option "PreferredMode" "1440x900"
EndSection

I think that should do the trick if your video driver/card supports.

bones

Member

From: Brisbane

Registered: 2006-03-24

Posts: 322

Website

Re: [SOLVED} Unable to set 1440x900 resolution

Your video seems to be the same as mine. It took me a while to get the same resolution you want but I had to add this.

Section "Monitor"
      ...
      Option      "NoUseBios"
EndSection

As for your other problem I'm running vga=868 and it works without a problem in my menu.lst

---

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED} Unable to set 1440x900 resolution

Maybe you could try enabling DDC.
Do you have the proper video driver installed?
Any errors in the log?

Sirrah

Member

Registered: 2009-05-16

Posts: 22

Re: [SOLVED} Unable to set 1440x900 resolution

I want to enable DDC, but that makes the monitor give an error (something like no mode detected, optimum resolution is 1440x900, etc.).

It's still  not working with these changes tried in various combinations, but I found something that might explain both issues.  Running vbetest as root (trying the solution at http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fra … esolution) results in about 40 options, none of which are 1440x900.  1400x1050 is available.  Could this be why KDE (and Xfce when I tested it) tries to set my resolution to 1400x1050 without offering 1440x900?  How can I fix this?  The monitor is brand new and I know it's made to support 1440x900.

*about ten minutes pass while writing this post and trying a few other things*

Well, nopaste is giving me a 404 error for some reason, but looking through my Xorg log I see a potential issue: "Not using driver mode "1440x900" (no mode of this name)."  A bit further up in the log is a "DDC gathered Modeline" printout with "Modeline "1440x900"x0.0   88.75  1440 1488 1520 1600  900 903 909 926 +hsync -vsync (55.5kHz)" as the first and last.

*tries adding the 1440x900 modeline to xorg.conf*

Still no luck.  But now the error log gives a different clue (sorry, still no luck with nopaste...no idea why).  Got rid of x0.0 from mode line, changed "1440x900" to "1440x900_60"...

Success!  Thanks for the help.  Marked as solved.

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED} Unable to set 1440x900 resolution

Glad you worked it out :-)

Last edited by karol (2009-05-25 23:44:38)