usable 800x600 ?
Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: usable 800x600 ?
started by: muddywaters
Posted by muddywaters on Dec. 25 2006,15:48
Firstly, thank you to all involved in the dsl project. It's breathed new life into this obsolete lappy. 
Specs are
Dell latitude xpi 133Mhz
no cdrom
40MB ram
NeoMagic magicgraph NM2070 VGA
screen 11 inchs diagonal (as measured with a ruler)
'Xvesa -listmodes' lists only one 800x600 resolution
0x0103 800x600x8 PseudoColor
My understanding is this translates to VGA=771. Unfortunately this setting is very funky looking.
Is it worth trying xfree(sp?) with this machine or have I hit this laptops video wall? At this moment it's very usable with VGA=785.
btw: JBHoren
If you are reading this, thankyou so very much for the net-install howto. Brilliant!
And Happy Holidays to all.
Posted by roberts on Dec. 25 2006,18:52
Many older lappys will work with framebuffer instead of Xvesa.My old 10" Neomagic lappy gives a nice 800x600 using Xfbdev
Posted by muddywaters on Dec. 26 2006,14:28
When I run xsetup.sh no resolution options popup. Just the vesa or fb options. I chose fb.Trying to boot grub with "DSL fb800x600" results in "you have passed an undefined mode number". If return is hit at this point "fatal error 104"
Maybe I'm missing something obvious to the rest of you?
Posted by beakmyn on Dec. 26 2006,15:15
Just fb800x600 not dsl fb800x600I run xfbdev on a 166mhz at 800x600 just fine
Posted by muddywaters on Dec. 26 2006,16:32
Sorry, I should have been more clear, or possibly I'm just not getting it.DSL is on the harddrive. The boot options are passed by grub afaik.
title DSL
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=785 noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal
If this item is chosen at boot all goes well at 640x480. Editing vga= to 771 results in 800x600 but looks horrible.
title DSL fb800x600
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=788 noacpi noapm nodma noscsi frugal
Choosing this item causes the problems mentioned in the previous
post. Tried replacing vga=788 with fb800x600 but the result was the same.
No big deal. 640x480 suits my limited vision with some apps.
Edit/ The ps command shows /usr/bin/X11/Xfbd running. Suppose this means framebuffer is being used? Not a complete newb, just out of my comfort zone. ;)
Posted by -MK- on Jan. 13 2007,04:59
muddywaters, did you ever find a solution to this problem? I'm new to Linux and have been learning/installing DSL for the past several hours. I finally got an install where everything looks good for the most part, I'm now just getting the same error you alluded to earlier when GRUB loads DSL.Now I haven't messed around with menu.lst at all, but no matter what I choose on the GRUB DSL menu, my boot craps out.
When I load from the CD, I use the fb1024x768 option and things look smashing but something's just not happening now that it's on the HD.
I'm loaded up on an old Dell Inspiron 3200 PII 266Mhz.
/dev/hda1 = 128 MB Swap
/dev/hda2 = 3.7 GB Linux (bootable, where DSL is)
Any hints would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by roberts on Jan. 13 2007,05:22
The default grub menu.lst is for frugal installations.You need to adjust it for a traditional hard drive installation.
See the Wiki on using and installing grub
< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki....st_time >
Posted by -MK- on Jan. 13 2007,13:47
Roberts, thanks for the response. I try to follow the Wiki. Loading GRUB from an iso image wasn't difficult, yet when I attempt to start DSL from the prompt, I get the same issue as I did when booting off the HD:I typed/ran:
| Quote |
root (hd0,1) kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda1 makeactive boot |
Finds ethernet card OK.
Configures mouse, floppy cdrom...
then:
"cloop: Initializing cloop v2.01
INIT: Entering runlevel : 5
Using X resolution from previously selected or default settings.
If you want to change the resolution, run xsetup.sh
XIO: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0" after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.
Posted by roberts on Jan. 13 2007,16:04
At the end of the kernel line you are missing the extra parameters, e.g., vga=791 noacpi noscsi or whatever your system might require.
Posted by -MK- on Jan. 13 2007,16:18
| Quote (roberts @ Jan. 13 2007,11:04) |
| At the end of the kernel line you are missing the extra parameters, e.g., vga=791 noacpi noscsi or whatever your system might require. |
Ahhh, so what would I need to put there in order to boot it up the same way it boots from the CD, just with fb1024x768 activated? That's all I've been doing for it to work from the LiveCD.
Posted by roberts on Jan. 13 2007,16:28
You can see for yourself by booting from cd and then..cat /cdrom/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
Looks like to me like the following:
lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 xmodule=fbdev nomce noapic
Anyway start from these.
Posted by -MK- on Jan. 13 2007,17:44
| Quote (roberts @ Jan. 13 2007,11:28) |
| You can see for yourself by booting from cd and then.. cat /cdrom/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg Looks like to me like the following: lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 xmodule=fbdev nomce noapic Anyway start from these. |
Those suggestions worked like a charm. Was able to boot up then added those settings as my default entry (0) in /boot/grub/menu.lst.
Thanks much!
Posted by muddywaters on Dec. 23 2007,17:20
Well, it's been a year now at 640x480. Honestly this resolution doesn't bother me with exception of ugly fonts. Is there a way to experiment with fonts in a universal way or is this specific to each application?Mostly I need clear fonts in Dillo and Aterm.
Posted by andrewb on Dec. 23 2007,22:43
I think the pseudocolor modes don't work with the framebuffer for some reason. I have tried DSL on an old IBM 755c that only had the pseudo color modes listed & ended up goinfg for the xfree server method (which was just too much for the old 755c!). The xfree method is referenced at the end of the page about setting the vga modes:< http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Vga%3Dxxx >
Posted by muddywaters on Dec. 24 2007,14:07
| Quote |
I think the pseudocolor modes don't work with the framebuffer for some reason. |
Aha! Where were you a year ago?
| Quote |
I have tried DSL on an old IBM 755c that only had the pseudo color modes listed & ended up goinfg for the xfree server method (which was just too much for the old 755c!). |
One of the reasons I've shyed from an xserver is this machines low specs. The video memory is 896 kB. Can this thing manage more than framebuffer?
Possible relevant fact. Hitting the "font" key improves the situation. Unfortunately the screen shrinks leaving the top and bottom areas unused. This is my first and only laptop. In fact I rescued it from a scrap heap last December.
Posted by curaga on Dec. 24 2007,15:28
Video ram only limits the resolution.. 800x600x16bits = 614kb of video ram needed, which I guess is what the laptop is designed for.. But according to thinkwiki, the only X server to support the chip better than 640x480x16 colors was 3.3.6 svga.< http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:755C >
A link to the exact server (3.3.6 svga): < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....l=3.3.6 >
Posted by muddywaters on Dec. 25 2007,21:20
curagaMy machine is a Dell Latitude. It matters not, I finally got the courage to go for the xserver. Finally 800x600 !!
There are a few errors popping up in the log file but nothing fatal. 2 things going on now. The ram usage is up slightly. To be expected? Also the bottom 3/8" of the screen is not being used.
Anyway, merry Xmas, you guys are the best.
Posted by curaga on Dec. 27 2007,16:06
Yeah, that's what you get with full X compared to tiny X: more ram usage, more speed.
Posted by jpeters on Dec. 28 2007,03:10
I've got two Dell latitudes that run different resolutions. One only runs with 1280x1026 (VGA=795), and trying lower resolutions results in a border around the window. The other runs 1074X768 and lower (VGA=792); trying a higher resolution, even with VGA at 775 and fbdev, gets an "undefined number" error...weird (I got the laptops cheap & rebuilt.)