REPOST : VDQ Display (FC4 & ViewSonic VG910b)

[Beartooth SenectoFlatuloid]

On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 11:16:45 +1030, Tim wrote:

> On Mon, 2006-01-02 at 15:49 -0500, Beartooth SenectoFlatuloid wrote:
> 
>> I had to put a new  monitor into a home LAN containing three FC4 machines
>> which I run behind a KVM switch : an ASUS with a Maxtor 6E040L0 hard drive
>> (which has never been a problem), and two old P2s which serve as backups.
[....]
>> By "doesn't take" I mean the entries in the file are changed, but the
>> display isn't right, and the GUI for setting the display (Main Menu >
>> Desktop > System Settings > Display) fails to reflect them. It seems
>> addicted to 800x600 a/o 640x480 and 256 colors. This persists whether
>> DefaultDepth under "Section Screen" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf is set to 8, 16,
>> or 24.
> 
> Sounds awfully like you're using a generic video driver than one
> specifically for your video display chipset.

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.

>> But the ViewSonic VG910b is 1280x1024 with millions of colors.
>> 
>> (It's actually a rich man's monitor, out of my class: a 19" flat panel;
>> but it was the only one the store had that was listed under the hardware
>> tab in the GUI for the display.
> 
> 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.

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."

Of course I tried "cat system-config-display" -- but it looked like it
must just be a list of settings for other things to find and apply; it
certainly required more savvy than mine to squeeze a meaning out of.

> You probably want to say what particular KVM you're using, some are
> quite crap, and people using them can tell you more about that. 

Well, the guru who had told me KVM switches existed advised for one brand
and strongly against another; my store had the one he panned, and a
generic called Vastech; so I bought that. If there's a model number, it's
where I can't get to it without shutting down four machines, my router,
and my ethernet switch.

> While I understand, quite obviously, why you need to directly connect a VDU for
> the system to automatically configure itself (it's common enough for the
> VDU identification data to not get passed through other things), I don't
> see why that problem exists with keyboard and mouse.  You want the
> computer set up to work as the KVM box works, some don't directly pass
> keyboard and mouse through, but act as an interface with its own
> characteristics (as if they were a keyboard and mouse, for the PC,
> remotely controlled by yours).

Hmmm .... I think I understand most of that. What's VDU when it's home?
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?

I found a very curious thing just now. After a lot of trial & error
yesterday -- change one thing, log out & in, change one thing, etc., till
it looks better; reboot; repeat -- I had it usable. Then just now I called
up the GUI display settings, changed *nothing*, but inadvertently clicked
OK instead of Cancel. So I logged out & in -- and sure enough, it's loused
up again.

-- 
Beartooth Oldfart, Double Retiree, Neo-Redneck, Linux Convert
Remember, I have precious little idea what I am talking about.