[SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

s26c.sayan · 2007-11-21 07:21:02

I have upgraded xorg-server to 1.4-5 in order to use the new intel drivers for my card.
After upgrade, the overall font size looked too small, so I figured it had something to do with DPI. Here's what xdpyinfo gave:

 resolution:    26010x76 dots per inc
 dimensions:    1024x768 pixels (1x257 millimeters)

The DPI settings are very odd! The screen resolution is ok (1024x768) but the data in mm looks odd (1x257!!!)

So, I did a bit of online search and added the option "NoDDC" to the device section for my card in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
On a restart, the font sizes looked good, but now the display was strangely 'elongated' vertically! This looks as bizarre as anything!

Here's what xdpyinfo says now:

  resolution:    96x96 dots per inch
  dimensions:    1360x768 pixels (359x203 millimeters)

The DPI settings is at 96x96, but the dimensions are incorrect! I'm supposed to be using 1024x768!

So, it seems that I can either get correct font size but vertically 'elongated' display, OR small font size and good display!

Can anyone help me? Thanx in advance.

1. I'm using onboard Intel 82845G/GL card with the new 'intel' drivers from 'extra'.
2. My monitor is a bit old. Maybe that's why these display problems?

Last edited by s26c.sayan (2007-11-22 10:56:42)

s26c.sayan · 2007-11-21 18:36:05

I have observed something worse!

I reverted back to the i810 drivers, which gave me back my settings (sigh of relief!), but now I've just turned on Conky.
To my dismay I observe that now my system is taking up double the memory size at boot as it used to take with older xorg!

Is such severe memory leakage a known problem with the new xorg-server?

Last edited by s26c.sayan (2007-11-21 18:36:46)

zodmaner · 2007-11-21 19:00:51

Try following byte suggestion from this post: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 65#p299465

Basically, new X.org 7.3 made the following options obsolete:

HorizSync from the Monitor section
VertRefresh from the Monitor section
Modes from Display subsection in Screen section

And relies on RandR to detect your monitor resolution & dpi.

It seems that the problem you have now is because RandR detects the wrong resolution for your monitor, To override RandR auto detection, try putting

Option "PreferredMode" "1024x768"

In your xorg.conf Monitor section. Having a ModeLine option might also be useful.

More info from this link: http://wiki.debian.org/XStrikeForce/HowToRandR12

Hope this help!

PS. A big thanks to byte for posting the original solution.

Last edited by zodmaner (2007-11-21 19:21:20)

s26c.sayan · 2007-11-21 20:21:34

Thank You!!!

I copied over the xorg.conf from Ubuntu Gutsy in another partition (which works well), added a DisplaySize line to it, and now following ur suggestion added PreferredMode as well!
Now eveything in the display looks perfect!

However, there still seems to be a heavy memory leak!
Has anyone else faced this problem with the new xorg-server?

byte · 2007-11-22 08:08:10

I think that's because the new Xorg enables Composite by default:

Xorg.0.log wrote:

(II) Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE

Even if I disable the extension in xorg.conf, Xorg will acknowledge it in the log, but a few hundred lines down it will repeat the quoted line and nothing has changed at all.
Really sucks when Xorg takes more than twice the ram it used to before and one of my machines only has 256MB.

s26c.sayan · 2007-11-22 10:12:19

byte wrote:

I think that's because the new Xorg enables Composite by default:
Xorg.0.log wrote:
(II) Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE
Even if I disable the extension in xorg.conf, Xorg will acknowledge it in the log, but a few hundred lines down it will repeat the quoted line and nothing has changed at all.
Really sucks when Xorg takes more than twice the ram it used to before and one of my machines only has 256MB.

Thank God that at least someone else is facing this problem!

The guys at IRC almost made me believe that everything is ok, and /me (or conky) is raising false alarms on mem consumption!

What you say makes perfect sense. It does seem that enabling/disabling extensions in Section Modules has not effect anymore! I saw the xorg.conf from Ubuntu Gutsy , and it doesn't even have that section!!

What's going on here!! Must be something which I could do to take full control of my system!

And what's worse, in order to get the dpi & display correct, I have to add option "NoDDC", which in itself seems to eat up yet more RAM!
Now I have a consumption of almost THRICE the amount of RAM that it used to use before upgrading xserver and that sucks BIG TIME!

I'm thinking of falling back to the older xserver, if it is possible. I just can't afford to use 140 mb of my meager 256 mb just for running X!!

zodmaner · 2007-11-22 10:42:16

s26c.sayan wrote:

And what's worse, in order to get the dpi & display correct, I have to add option "NoDDC",

You shouldn't need this option in the new Xorg (as it doesn't do anything - try looking at your Xorg log). The PreferredMode + ModelLine option should be enough to set the correct display size & dpi for you.

It seems that the new Xorg is trying to 'automate' a lot of setting, too much I'm afraid. Hope we can find a way to override these setting.

s26c.sayan · 2007-11-22 10:47:12

zodmaner wrote:

s26c.sayan wrote:
And what's worse, in order to get the dpi & display correct, I have to add option "NoDDC",
You shouldn't need this option in the new Xorg (as it doesn't do anything - try looking at your Xorg log). The PreferredMode + ModelLine option should be enough to set the correct display size & dpi for you.
It seems that the new Xorg is trying to 'automate' a lot of setting, too much I'm afraid. Hope we can find a way to override these setting.

I might not need NoDDC for the PreferedMode part, but I do seem to need it if I use DisplaySize. I need to use DisplaySize cos without it my dpi settings are screwed and the fonts look too small!

BTW, someone at the IRC said something about how to disable the automated loading of extensions like DRI:
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/x … 28326.html

I'll be trying it soon.

***********
EDIT: It works!! My RAM consumption is back to what it was before (around 50 mb)!! What's more, even the NoDDC option seems to affect RAM consumption!
Thanx a lot to everybody!!

Last edited by s26c.sayan (2007-11-22 10:56:05)

byte · 2007-11-22 19:31:12

What exactly did you change in xorg.conf?

s26c.sayan · 2007-11-22 19:40:10

Well, actually to stop a particular extension from autoloading, it is NOT enough just to comment out the relevant line as it was before. You have to explicitly mention to disable it in the 'Section Modules' of xorg.conf

E.g. to disable DRI module,

Section "Module"
....................
#       Load  "dri"
         Disable "dri"
...................
EndSection

However, I still have to use the 'NoDDC' option to get the dpi right, which is taking a few extra megs of RAM (7-8 mb, not much!)

Last edited by s26c.sayan (2007-11-22 19:48:27)

byte · 2007-11-22 21:28:12

Well, ok.

I need DRI and disabling the Composite Extension didn't work, so no luck for me.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-11-21 07:21:02

[SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#2 2007-11-21 18:36:05

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#3 2007-11-21 19:00:51

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#4 2007-11-21 20:21:34

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#5 2007-11-22 08:08:10

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#6 2007-11-22 10:12:19

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#7 2007-11-22 10:42:16

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#8 2007-11-22 10:47:12

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#9 2007-11-22 19:31:12

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#10 2007-11-22 19:40:10

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

#11 2007-11-22 21:28:12

Re: [SOLVED] Bizarre display size problem in Xorg after upgrade

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