I pulled out the old notebook computer - formatted the drive and commited myself fully to putting linux on it. i grabbed up a red-hat 7.0 (figured why not red-hat this time...) installed like a charm - i was a bit suprised - but i like these kind of suprises!

but I then tried to configure the X windows with Xconfigurator.....

knowing the problems associated with notebooks - i figured this would be a nice challenge... didn't know how much of a challenge....

I have an HP Pavilion model n3270

Monitor specs (from HP's tech notes site):
http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/cposupport...Tfile=bpi04008
14.1-inch XGA active matrix (TFT) display
(1024 x 768 x 64 K colors)

I can get the Xconfigurator set up to show the X windows system page (can you see me page: YES/NO) but the dimensions are way off... it's like i'm in ZOOM mode. which - well it works - but i'd like to be able to see the entire displayed image 8)

any ideas on what i can do to find the proper settings for this notebook PC?

TIA

First try Ctrl+Alt+Keypad-Minus. Can you change the resolution by doing so?

Then open your /etc/X11/XF86Config and scroll down. What is in the SCREEN section?

Thanks for the information and the response!


I have tried the crtl-alt-(keypad -) and ctrl-alt-(keypad
+) and neither do anything.

I went into the config file you asked about - it has 3 screen "sections" in the screen section:
colour svga
16-color vga
mono

colour-svga:
driver "svga"
device "trident microsystems|cyberblade/i7d
monitor customconfiguration
colordepth 8
sub:
depth 8
modes 640x640
viewport 0 0

16-color vga:
driver vga16
device generic vga
monitor customconfiguration
sub:
modes 640x640 000x600
viewport 0 0

mono:
driver vga2
device generic vga
monitor customconfiguration
sub:
modes 640x640 000x600
viewport 0 0


when i enter xinit it dumps quiet a bit into stderr - which I redirected into a file and went through.
(xinit 2> x)

I'm running version 3.3.6 of XFree86
(do i need an updated version - this one is dated
january 8 2000) and my notebook came out about that
time - perhaps a bit after?(not too sure when it was
started in production...)

At the end of the error-output:
(---) SVGA: PCI : Triden CyberBalde/i7/DSTN.....
(---) SVGA: chipset: generic
(---) svga: videoram: 64k
(---) svga: clocks: 25.10
(***) svga: using 8 bpp, depth 8, color weight 666
(---) svga: using builtin driver modes
(---) svga: builtin mode: 320x320
(---) svga: virtual resolution set to 320x204
(---) svga: speedup code selection modified because virtulX != 1024

Well, i haven't done this with a TFT-display before, but let's try it:

Open your XF86config file again and change the following part to

colour-svga:
driver "svga"
device "trident microsystems|cyberblade/i7d
monitor customconfiguration
colordepth 24 <------
sub:
depth 24 <------
modes "1024x768" <-------
viewport 0 0

Now startx again and see what happens!

Thanks for the idea.

I tried to use your suggestion - it seems that the depth of 24 is not supported - it bombs right out with that option selected.

(***) SVGA: 24bpp not supported for this chipset

If I put the depth to 8 and leave the display setting like you suggested 1024x768 I get the same result as before (as with the 640x640 setting)

It seems intent on keeping use of a Builtin mode of 320x200 and a virtual resolution set to 320x204

Do you know where the buit in mode is coming from?

If you have any other ideas I'll be happy to follow those paths.


thanks again!

Sorry, 24bpp was bullsh..
8bpp is off course the right choice!

But one last question for today :
Is it really XFree86 3.3.6? Or do you have XFree 4.0...installed. You wrote that you've installed RH7. I am running also that version and use XFree86-4.0.1-1.
If there is a file named XFree86-4 in your /etc/X11 directory? If so, you have to make the changes there!

cu

it seems that I do have the version 4 configuration file on my system (/etc/X11/XF86Config-4)

In the "screen section" reads:
section "screen"
identifier "screen0"
device "trident microsystems|cyberblade/i7d"
monitor "customconfiguraiton"
defaultdepth 8
subsection "display"
depth 8
modes "640x400"
end subsection
end section

The reason i suggeted that i was running version 3 is this:
When I run (xinit) as a normal user, the begining of the std-error output states i am using 3.3.6

Perhaps I have set it up to run the incorrect version - or have not yet set it to run version 4. ? (yes I have installed RH7 - perhaps I need to get some of the version 7 updates? - my rh7 was burned on cd when it was first released way back)

I have the file "X" in /etc/X11/X soft-linked to /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_SVGA (there is a /usr/X11R6bin/XFree86 that I could link to instead... ) I run this one and get a different set of errors... (I can post them if this is a direction that you think might be a good one to go in....)

Cheers.

remove the softlink, edit the /etc/X11/XF86config-4 as you did it with the XF86config, then type startx as a user on the console. What happens then? Use the startx-command first. As far as i know you have to add some parameters to the xinit command if you want to start it that way.

I removed the softlink X and nothing works - so i linked X to the other file ( /usr/X11R6bin/XFree86 ) and it reads in the version 4 configuration file

And xinit/startx are running version 4 (per the std-err output).

This time it produces error output as follows:

(EE) TRIDENT(0): No Display subsection in Screen section "Screen0" for depth/fbb pp 8/8
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

fatal sever error:
no screens found


(i had choosen 24 to start with - high hopes! 8 had the same result though... odd. )



I re-ran the Xconfigurator and set up to run default LCD for 1024x768 (back to depth of 8) - then ran a startx - it loads up the xwindow manager with a screen dimension of 320x200 - with no errors though

Is there a way once running gnome to change the dimensions?

thanks for the suggestions - maybe you've got some more tricks to try out?

Cheers.

Hmmmmm, it looks like your Trident-Card doesn't like the X-Configtools. Lets try it with the vesa-framebuffer. Hope this works.....

Okay, so please install the XFree86_FBDev-3.3.6-33.i386.rpm from the RH7 disks.
Then remove the X-link and create a new softlink for X in the /etc/X11 directory to the XF86_FBDev server (ln -s /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_FBDev X).

And now, well now i have to guess the rest, because i dont know your complete XFconfig file. You may try this version i wrote but please backup your original file! ;-)
Here we go.....

-----------------------------------------------------
Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
# FontPath "unix/:-1"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection

Section "Keyboard"
Protocol "Standard"
AutoRepeat 500 30
XkbKeymap "xfree86(us)"
EndSection

Section "Pointer"
Protocol "PS/2"
Device "/dev/psaux"
Emulate3Buttons
Emulate3Timeout 50
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "notebookTFT"
VendorName "HP"
ModelName "notebookTFT"
HorizSync 31.5-90.0
VertRefresh 55-90
Modeline "1024x768" 75 1024 1048 1184 1328 768 771 777 806 -hsync -vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Trident CyberBlade (generic)"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"
VideoRam 8192
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Driver "FBDev"
Device "Trident CyberBlade (generic)"
Monitor "notebookTFT"
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
Modes "default"
EndSubsection
EndSection
-----------------------------------------------------

You might change the keyboard part. I've changed it from my layout to "us" assuming you want to use that.


The last step is changing your /etc/lilo.conf.

Insert the following line after "default=linux" (?):
vga=788

Now execute /sbin/lilo to reinstall lilo and reboot.

Hope this works!

bye