Arch Linux

kareeser

Member

Registered: 2009-05-29

Posts: 10

[SOLVED] Can't get xf86-video-r128 to work...

Hello! Arch newbie here, so far bumpy, but so far so good. Currently posting from TWM for kicks...

Anyways, my old junker of a computer was where I installed arch, so I could get a hang of it. The graphics card is a ATi RAGE XL AGP 2X... having no luck with xf86-video-ati, I installed xf86-video-r128, and got graphics working for the first time in arch. Hooray!

Unfortunately, I can't seem to get my monitor's native resolution of 1280x1024. If I try, the monitor refuses to display, and errors out with "Out of Range". I know it's definitely possible, since other linux installations have auto-configured it so far. So, I'm wondering what I need to modify in xorg.conf to get 1280x1024 working.

It seems like a refresh rate problem, but when I looked over the file, I noticed that "Driver" was set to "vesa". Changing it to "r128" did nothing, as the X server refused to start because it couldn't find any devices.

I will post my xorg.conf shortly.

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
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  "glx"
    Load  "dbe"
    Load  "dri2"
    Load  "dri"
    Load  "record"
    Load  "extmod"
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 "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor0"
    VendorName   "Jean"
    ModelName    "Unknown"
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     "ShadowFB"               # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DefaultRefresh"         # [<bool>]
        #Option     "ModeSetClearScreen"     # [<bool>]
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "vesa"
    VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
    BoardName   "Rage XL AGP 2X"
    BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DontZap" "False"
EndSection

As you can see, the Modes section under 24-bit depth doesn't have "1280x1024", but if I add it in, the X server will default to it (correctly), but I won't be able to see anything.

Last edited by kareeser (2009-05-30 21:25:23)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get xf86-video-r128 to work...

In the olden days you generated a modeline which specified the resolutions and refreshing frequencies for your monitor. The "out of range" warning means that the frequencies are out out range. You could start by changing "1024x768" to "1280x1024_75" if you are positive your monitor can handle that resolution and you want 75 vertical refresh.
Maybe if you could get your OS to recognize your monitor things would improve.

kareeser

Member

Registered: 2009-05-29

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get xf86-video-r128 to work...

Hi karol, thanks for your reply!

I've tried adding a modeline (running "cvt 1280 1024 60" and adding the line), to no avail, so in the meantime, I've commented it out of my xorg.conf.

My monitor's a cheap knock-off from HK (I swear, I'm done with cheap hardware!), and I'm guessing that the EDID is wrong. I can't find any sort of manual online, either, so I have no clue what the ideal Horizontal and Vertical refresh values are.

How could I get Arch to recognize my monitor? So far, gnome-display-properties reports it as "Unknown", even if I fill in the correct values in xorg.conf.

Thanks for bearing with me

Last edited by kareeser (2009-05-29 18:27:48)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get xf86-video-r128 to work...

You write you've got your graphics working w/ xf86-video-r128, but you have 'vesa' in xorg.conf. If 'r128' doesn't work at all, you can try 'ati'.

You could try entering the values by hand: "1280x1024_60" w/ an underscore "_":
-> Modes "1280x1024_60" "1024x768" "800x600"

BTW: is a CRT or LCD monitor?

In the beginners guide you should find a couple methods of discovering hardware, if one fails, pick another. Please, before proceeding, make backup of any relevant configs, like xorg.conf.

kareeser

Member

Registered: 2009-05-29

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get xf86-video-r128 to work...

Karol, thanks for replying so quickly

I tried your suggestion to replace "vesa" with "ati" in the "Driver" line. X failed to start, but for some reason, there was some leftover code in xf86-video-ati that caused it to look for the mach64 driver... which as I understand, used to be installed with xf86-video-ati, but no longer... hrm! A quick "pacman -S xf86-video-mach64" later, I now have a working 1280x1024 resolution. Excellent! Changed the DefaultDepth to 16, and now my system is nice and zippy.

A similar problem is that I still cannot get 1280x1024 in vc1. In /boot/grub/menu.lst, I have "vga=773" added, but that's as high as I can go, vga=775 won't work with the same reason above.

Small problems in the grand scheme of things. I'm glad the main issue is solved

Last edited by kareeser (2009-05-30 01:34:01)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get xf86-video-r128 to work...

A similar problem is that I still cannot get 1280x1024 in vc1

You mean X or the console? If you need high resolution in the console you could check this out or look for another how-to in the wiki / forums / net.

Glad you have it working.

kareeser

Member

Registered: 2009-05-29

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get xf86-video-r128 to work...

The console

I'll check out the link - thanks

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED] Can't get xf86-video-r128 to work...

I'm not sure, but maybe you could mark this topic as [SOLVED] and open another if you run into some problems w/ high-res console.

Good luck.