Re: X

[Sam Simpson <nospam [at] freenet.co.uk>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Al Hudson <eah106 [at] york.ac.uk>
To: Sheffield LUG <sheflug [at] listbot.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 1999 9:57 PM
Subject: Re: X

> sheflug - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
>
> On Thu, 2 Dec 1999 will [at] south-of-heaven.demon.co.uk wrote:
>
> > > I have an S3 Virge 4mb PCI card Xconfigurator refuses to set my
video res
> > > at 24 bit 1024x768. I can have 16 or 8 bit if I want. It recommends 16
bit
> > > 1280x1024, which looks daft on a 15 monitor. I can't alt + in KDE to
toggle
> > > the resolution either. I've only had this problem since I changed from
RH
> > > 5.2 to 6.1. Any thoughts?
> >
> > I am now convinced RH6.1 is evil. Try checking your monitor specs are
right in
> > /etc/X11/XF86Config
> > (Vert and Horiz rates)
>
> In defence of RedHat (without it I would have no Mandrake! ;)..
>
> X server configuration is complex, requiring experience ( not black magic
> as some think), but there are a lot of common mistakes people make, and
> common fallacies.
>
> Firstly, vert horiz rates ( the associated xvidtune, which *is* the
> spawn of the devil), dot clock rates, etc. are all about resolution as
> opposed to colour depth. Colour depth has no affect on the output
> resolution, although this is a remark I shall contradict in a minute ;),
> the timing stuff is all to do with the video signal. Basically, TVs (
> therefore monitors) are big oscillating things at the end of the day, and
> resolution refresh rate is a virtue of the frequency of the video signal
> you give it: higher frequencies equal greater resolution, greater refresh
> rate or some combination of the two, depending on what you speed up. It is
> these values which you can blow monitors up with, because if you oscillate
> it too hard it burns out, like overclocking chips somewhat.
>
> I would advise most people to setup the monitor rates once, from the
> manual, and then leave them. You shouldn't need to fiddle with them,
> unless you know what you're doing, until you get a new monitor.
>
> The other rates you can set are to do with how fast you work the graphics
> card in terms of bus speed. This *is* to do with colour depth, since
> greater depth means more data passing down the bus between graphics RAM
> and processor. This is why colour depth often drops at high resolutions:
> the monitor is perfectly capable of showing the full colour range, but the
> graphics card can't clock the data out of the RAM quickly enough.
>
> After all that my point is.... well, if it runs in 1280x1024 (or, at
> least, says it can) the horiz vert are set fine, and fiddling them won't
> harm anything. I'm also perplexed as to why you're having this problem
> after upgrading: you did upgrade, rather than reinstall? If so, RH
> shouldn't have touched your configuration files, and everything should
> still work. Reasons why it may not: updated X server (although a loss in
> functionality would be hard to explain), updated XFree (different config
> files? hmm, hard to believe too), etc. Did the installer say anything when
> you upgraded, or did you not upgrade?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alex.

Thanx Alex,

In fact I installed RH6.1 on a fresh resized partition, (Win is having the
size of its partiton reduced as I find Linux alternatives to the software I
use. I plan its eventual anihilation)

Don't recall having to set the 5.2 refresh rates by hand in
/etc/X11/XF86Config, though this is what I'll do with 6.1 now I have the
figures for my monitor.

Sam
>
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