Display issues: Whose problem are they?

[neiby]

I had display issues when I installed 8.10 yesterday because the system was not detecting my monitor properly and had no simple way for me to tell it what sort of monitor I had. This stopped me from being able to use the modes that should have been available to me. A quick look over the first couple of pages in this subforum show me that several other people have the same issue and at least one found a similar solution, to manually add the monitor-specific entries to xorg.conf.

So, whose problem is it that 8.10 has no place to enter in monitor type? Would we "complain" about that to the Kubuntu developers? Or is it a KDE 4.1 problem? Or is it a problem with the version of X we're using?

There are at least three or four people on this subforum alone who could have benefited from the ability to simply select a monitor type. Who do we suggest that to? I'm new to Kubuntu (or the Ubuntu world, in general), so I don't know how it works over here.

[lotech]

Re: Display issues: Whose problem are they?

I think the developers are reading, and will fix that problem on the next release in six months >
What I 'gain' in this release is more eyes candy and better GPRS support, but well offset by the display problem >

[toad]

Re: Display issues: Whose problem are they?

I wish I knew the answer. xorg.conf is not the be all and all to X any more - it has been superseded by HAL. So I suppose we either have to wait until more documentation comes our way or write our own...

[TimmyMac]

Re: Display issues: Whose problem are they?

I wish I knew the answer, too, because right now, after 3 solid years of using *buntu for all my computer needs, Intrepid Kubuntu's display issues have made my machine all but useless.

[lotech]

Re: Display issues: Whose problem are they?

After a whole week of searching and trial and error, I finally able to make my legacy ATI and nvidia to display more than 800x600, Envy NOT necessary helps even it installs the correct driver, start in recovery mode may not fix too, manual edit the xorg.conf is still the key to success.

Here is my sample config for ATI Rage 128, the most important part is the HorizSync & VertRefresh which limits what your monitor can display, hope that can save your day too

===============================================
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Rage 128 TF"
Driver "r128"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Philips"
HorizSync 30-81
VertRefresh 56-76
Modeline "1024x768_75.00" 81.80 1024 1080 1192 1360 768 769 772 802 -HSync +$
#Modeline "1024x768_70.00" 76.16 1024 1080 1192 1360 768 769 772 800 -HSync $
#Modeline "1024x768_65.00" 69.71 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 798 -HSync $
#Modeline "1024x768_60.00" 64.11 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 795 -HSync $
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Philips"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection
=====================================

But I still blame K/Ubuntu folks to obsolete the very useful display config tools and put us back to the stone age >

[dibl]

Re: Display issues: Whose problem are they?

So, whose problem is it that 8.10 has no place to enter in monitor type? Would we "complain" about that to the Kubuntu developers? Or is it a KDE 4.1 problem? Or is it a problem with the version of X we're using?

The correct answer is:

X "None of the above."

Most GNU/Linux developers will view this as a problem caused by the graphics chip OEMs, due to their failure to provide the design specs needed to write a driver, or, in the alternative to write an open source driver themselves. With a proprietary graphics chip in your system, and no design specs, how are the Kubuntu devs, or the X.org devs supposed to make it work?