Laptop related issues

[Rick Stevens]

Guy Rouillier wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 13:40:02 -0800
> Rick Stevens <rstevens at vitalstream.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>> 2)Are there any issues w/ RH9 and/or FC-1 and XFree86 on WUXGA displays?
>>>   Is this really a function of XFree86 and/or graphics drivers? 
>>
>>Depends on the graphics card on the laptop.  I generally try to stay
>>with ATI video cards, not nVidia.  ATI has a better reputation as to
>>putting their API into open source.  There's an open source nVidia
>>driver, but it often doesn't work real well with their newer chipsets.
>>My current Fujitsu C220 laptop has an ATI chipset running at 1400x1050.
>>Works fine, lasts a long time under FC1, kernel 2.4.22-1.2174.nptl.
> 
> 
> Rick, I got an eMachines M6805 with an AMD64 chip and ATI Radeon 9600 Mobility chip in it.  The only way I could get native 1280x800 was by installing 4.4.0 from XFree86.org, as 4.3 does not support the 9600 Mobility  Do you have any experience with that version?  While I have the native resolution (and a simultaneous CRT with independent resolution and refresh rate), I have issues with it (e.g., Gnome will only put the panel on the top of the laptop LCD; I can force it on the bottom by turning off Xinerama, but that corrupts %gconf.xml, and turning Xinerama back on yields no panel at all.)  This is using the binary from XFree86.org, which is for glib 2.2, while I have glib 2.3.  Do you think recompiling would help?

My laptop us using an ATI Radeon IGP 340m and is using the standard
vesa driver (I'm not sure which driver actuall works with the IGP and
I don't need the acceleration, so I haven't toyed with any tweaked
Radeon-specific drivers).  The systems at home have ATI Rage 128 and
Radeon 7500 cards.

As to the dual-desktop, the library may make a difference, but I can't
speak to it for certain.  To be honest, I don't really play with the X
stuff too much...I've got enough on my hands dealing with a ton of
servers running in text mode.  :-/  (crooked grin)
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-   The light at the end of the tunnel is really an oncoming train.  -
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