[CentOS] Video driver questions

Wed Oct 8 20:22:27 UTC 2008
Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com>

I am having serious difficulties with video control on this box....   
See below.

William L. Maltby wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-10-02 at 10:44 -0400, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>   
>> # Xorg configuration created by system-config-display
>> <snip>
>>     
>
>   
>> Section "Monitor"
>>         Identifier   "Monitor0"
>>         ModelName    "LCD Panel 1024x768"
>>  ### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
>>         HorizSync    31.5 - 48.0
>>         VertRefresh  56.0 - 65.0
>>         Option      "dpms"
>> EndSection
>>     
>
> You may not need the monitor section. If anything like DDC (I think
> that's what it's acronym is - Display Data Control?) is in operation, it
> will piuck up the proper rates automatically. I don't have a monitor
> section at all in my xorg.conf. But I'm running a normal "desktop" node
> with conventional monitor.
>
> Regardless, even if needed, try what I show below.
>
>   
>> Section "Device"
>>         Identifier  "Videocard0"
>>         Driver      "vesa"
>> EndSection
>>
>> Section "Screen"
>>         Identifier "Screen0"
>>         Device     "Videocard0"
>>         Monitor    "Monitor0"
>>         DefaultDepth     24
>>         SubSection "Display"
>>                 Viewport   0 0
>>                 Depth     24
>>         EndSubSection
>> EndSection
>>     
>
> My "Screen" section looks like this. Watch out for the line wrap on
> "Modes".
>
> Section "Screen"
>         Identifier "Screen0"
>         Device     "Videocard0"
>         DefaultDepth     24
>         SubSection "Display"
>                 Viewport   0 0
>                 Depth     24
>                 Modes    "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
> "640x480" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1152x768"
>         EndSubSection
> EndSection
>   
Something is really not working....

I have changed inittab to: id:3:initdefault:

I am logged in as root, and run:  system-config-display --reconfig

I go into the Hardware tab.  There I see it lists my video card; when I 
go into configure the video card, it shows VESA (my video card is not a 
listed card).  For the monitor type, I select LCD Monitor 1280x1024.  
Back to the Settings tab, I select 1024x768.  I click on OK to save all 
this, and system-config-display ends.

I then run:  init 5

It comes up in 640x480 mode (according to Preferences>Screen 
Resolution), and no other mode is listed.

I go to Administration>Display, where it lists the current mode as 
640x480, I select 1024x768 and click on OK (can barely see the OK 
button).  I open a terminal window and run init 3 to get me out of X.  I 
run init 5 again.  The login screen is at a higher resolution than 
before, but once I log in as root, it is back to 640x480!

The display subsection in /etc/X11/xorg.conf lists only the modes:  
"1024x768" "800x600" "600x480".

In the standard XP that comes with the units, the default resolution is 
800x480 and you can increase that and use the capacitor scroll bars to 
scroll the screen.

help....