[Sussex] Resolutions

[Steve Williams]

Ronan Chilvers wrote:
> Thanks Steve
> 
> I think I'll grab the latest kernel and fire it up to see what
> happens...  Watch this space !!! :)
> 
> Shoulder sounds nasty!!!  Get well soon!!
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Ronan
> 
> On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 19:40:44 +0100
> "Steve Williams" <sdp.williams at btinternet.com> wrote:
> 
> 
-----%<-----

Ronan,

I've reviewed my previous posts in response to your original. They were 
written under the influence of post-op discomfort on my O2 XDA pda, so 
apologies for any errors and omissions.

I used to run an Iiyama 21 inch CRT monitor off a VGA connector on my 
desktop PC's graphics card quite happily at 1600x1200 resolution. When I 
got my new Iiyama 21.3 inch TFT monitor, naturally I wanted to use the 
DVI connector on my desktop PC's graphics card. I was very disappointed 
on booting Gentoo that the text console framebuffer display was only 
1024x768. Investigation revealed that connecting the TFT via the VGA 
connector (as opposed to DVI) let the console run at 1600x1200. It 
appears that (pre 2.6.12 kernel) the max resolution for standard VESA 
framebuffer displays on DVI connections is 1024x768.

Also, booting Knoppix or Ubuntu Live CD the display (text console, Gnome 
or KDE) was restricted to 1024x768 - I think these use the standard 
framebuffer for display across a wide variety of hardware.

So if you've installed Ubuntu on your work PC and it's not playing with 
1280x1024 properly, this suggests that the PC is still using the 
standard framebuffer as a display driver rather than an Intel 82865g 
driver. Now it's possible that the relevant driver may be available as a 
  module or available through synaptic or apt-get, and this will mean 
you can avoid compiling a custom kernel. I'd recommend using this method 
if you can.

My desktop uses an nVidia card, so I use the proprietary nvidia module 
for X, Gnome and KDE. However, for a text console the standard VESA 
frame buffer is used. The good thing is that since I compiled a 2.6.12 
kernel the standard framebuffer does appear to support 1600x1200 on DVI, 
so I guess that's part of the kernel update.

I'll investigate further and let you know.

Shoulder is on the mend, but I've been told 4-6 weeks before reasonable 
function is restored.

Regards,
Steve W.