Gnome on a 20" intel iMac, too much resolution and brightness

xnooby2 · 2007-07-22 05:01:09

I'm having a tough time getting my screen to look good. I was trying various light-weight window managers, which was proving very difficult, so I thought I would use Gnome and see if it was any easier to configure. Gnome immediately looked much better than what I was assembling by hand using OpenBox, fonts, icons, menus, etc, but everything is too small. And the screen is BRIGHT. I (re-)installed OSX, rEfit, Arch, then the proprietary ATI driver (fglrx driver). The screen looked great at 1680x1050, at least it was very clear and everything was properly proportioned, but the letters were too small and the screen was too bright. I tried changing screen resolutiosn with the ATI Catalyst program (which never seemed to save the changes), I monkeyed around with my xorg.conf, and I installed various themes that were easier on my eyes. It's certainly usable, but not for extended periods of time. Is there an ideal way to configure my iMacs screen under X/Arch/Gnome? The video card is an X1600 w/256MB ram. In OSX I use 1280x800, but that mode is not available under Linux, even when I create a modeline with just that. I used "hwd -xa" to make my original xorg.conf, and I think the ati driver had its own xorg.conf modifying app. OpenGL works.

The problem with using lower resolutions in xorg.conf, is that everything is stretched left-to-right. The iMac's screen is short but very wide. Every resolution I tried, other than 1680x1050, was stretched enough to annoy me.

I enlarged my fonts in Gnome and in Firefox, but they dont always seem to take effect. Plus icons are small due to the high-resolution (1680x1050). I'd like less resolution, and to be able to turn the brightness down. Brightness is controlled by the brightness buttons on MacBooks, but I don't think I have any on my iMac (I'm new to iMacs too, lol!) Once I get Gnome working well, then I will try the light-weight WM's again, at least knowing it should be possible to do!

Any suggestions?

Last edited by xnooby2 (2007-07-22 05:05:15)

Lone_Wolf · 2007-07-22 09:51:22

Often such font problems have to do with a wrong dpi setting by X.
Look up the dpi settings X uses in your xorg.log and compare them with the dpi settings for your monitor.

xnooby2 · 2007-07-22 17:11:45

In my xorg.log it say DPI is "99,98" and pitch is "1728". On a "Designed in America" website, they say the 20inch iMac is 1680x1050 with 99 dpi, which seems to match what my xorg.log says. So it *appears* correct to me, maybe I am missing something?

http://www.designedinca.com/macs/imac/sep2006/2160-20/

xnooby2 · 2007-07-22 17:35:22

I found how to change the brightness in OSX and X11. In OSX it is underneath the resolution settings, and in X11 its the ATI Catalyst drivers "color settings". If I change the color settings from 1.0 to .5, its nice and dark. it goes up to 3.5, which is super bright. The only problem is I can't save the catalyst color settings between x-sessions, even as root. I'll come back to the font issues once I get the brightness fixed, which is close

Lone_Wolf · 2007-07-22 19:20:39

If square pixels are used the DPI is indeed 99 .
Check the size of the usable part of the display , it should be 17 x 10.6 inches

xnooby2 · 2007-07-23 04:15:57

I decided to use my $500 clone as my workstation, and give the iMac to a family member. Since I'll be running linux from now on, I'll just stick to cheap boxen. As long as my data is backed up in Subversion, I don't need anything fancy.

Phrodo_00 · 2007-07-23 18:03:08

also afaik gnome chose to ignore the dpi reported by the x server (as it's rarely right, unless the user is a geek or the distro does it, and I haven't seen a distro to set it up yet, they just lieave it default). the configuration of the dpi in gnome is done through the fonts pereferences.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-07-22 05:01:09

Gnome on a 20" intel iMac, too much resolution and brightness

#2 2007-07-22 09:51:22

Re: Gnome on a 20" intel iMac, too much resolution and brightness

#3 2007-07-22 17:11:45

Re: Gnome on a 20" intel iMac, too much resolution and brightness

#4 2007-07-22 17:35:22

Re: Gnome on a 20" intel iMac, too much resolution and brightness

#5 2007-07-22 19:20:39

Re: Gnome on a 20" intel iMac, too much resolution and brightness

#6 2007-07-23 04:15:57

Re: Gnome on a 20" intel iMac, too much resolution and brightness

#7 2007-07-23 18:03:08

Re: Gnome on a 20" intel iMac, too much resolution and brightness

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