REPOST : VDQ Display (FC4 & ViewSonic VG910b)

[Tim]

Tim:
>> Sounds awfully like you're using a generic video driver than one
>> specifically for your video display chipset.

Beartooth SenectoFlatuloid:
> How do I tell? The P2s do in fact seem to do about as well set to
> "Generic LCD 1280x1024" as to the VG910b -- especially when they are
> usable.

You can tell what's being used by looking through the xorg.conf file, or
what's displayed within the "display" settings Gnome configuration
panel.  I'm sure KDE has something similarly named.

VG910b is a monitor identification, all that does is set the display
parameters for the monitor (accepted scan rates, pixel resolution).  A
video driver is the hardware that generates the display in the PC,
that's a different setting, and is very specific to which chipsets are
on your display card (or motherboard if it's built in).


>> You're not forced to use the monitors listed in the display tab.  Those
>> are just the ones it has preset configuration options for (supported
>> resolutions, screen sizes, refresh rates, etc.).  You can hand-configure
>> X to run for all sorts of different values, and there's lots of monitors
>> that use the same ones as each other.

> Well, shortly after I first got FC1 I hit that. My skills weren't and
> aren't up to that level, and I ended up going back to RH9 till the
> previous monitor turned up in the canned list.

You probably would have been fine with the generic LCD display settings
in the configuration panel.  At least, as a starting point.

I've customised mine for a CRT display that's not mentioned in the list.
It'd be a good idea if there was an advertised, and simple to do,
routine for sending additional configuration details to the people who
made the configuration tool.

> Btw, I note that /etc/X11/xorg.conf begins with the line : 
> 
> # Xorg configuration created by system-config-display
> 
> and in fact, I can tell that sometimes (not only when X has to be
> repaired) something overrides my editings. One time yesterday when I
> re-opened the GUI hardware settings, it told me "unknown monitor."

A fairly good indication that you've got the wrong thing selected, and
it's trying to automatically correct it.

If you find your system is repeatedly reconfiguring unchanged, and
working fine, hardware, you probably want to remove whatever's doing the
auto-configuration at start-up.  I disabled the kudzu service on my PCs,
I run it manually if I actually do change some system hardware.

> What's VDU when it's home?

Visual Display Unit.  It's a generic term that covers any technology
that gives you a visual display, whether that be video-based, or not.

> This may tell some of you something : when I get a machine all configured,
> with everything plugged direct, then shut down and put it back on the KVM
> and reboot, it seems to go on using that configuration, even though it
> hadn't found the data before -- so at least it isn't finding *other* data,
> right?

Sounds reasonable.

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