Persistently odd display.

Forum: Laptops
Topic: Persistently odd display.
started by: carpaldiem

Posted by carpaldiem on Dec. 09 2007,15:44

I have a SONY VAIO PCG-992L that won't display the full screen, with icons, on any of the pre-4.x family of dsl. It will show about three-quarters of the screen--complete with icons-on a resolution up to 800x600. Beyond that--at full screen--the display gets fuzzy and the icons disappear. This behavior is the same running embedded or with live-cd. The only way I can get a clear, full screen display with icons is running the 3.x.iso out of qemu. Any help appreciated. I suppose using 4.x.iso would be the simplest answer. But even that isn't sharp--it just shows icons. Running "Xvesa" doesn't give you a resolution beyond 800x600 to choose from.

Posted by lucky13 on Dec. 09 2007,16:45

fb1280x1024 / fb1024x768 / fb800x600 Framebuffer mode (for notebooks)

< http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Cheat_Codes >

Posted by carpaldiem on Dec. 10 2007,19:24

I've tried using frame buffer mode several times on this laptop and have never gotten a sharp, clear display. If I boot with the "dsl 2" code through qemu I get different results for "Xvesa -listmodes" than I do from the live cd. There are several more options with true colors. I get better results with a virtually set display than when going straight off the computer. And as I said before I get a less sharp display using dsl-embedded, too.

Posted by curaga on Dec. 10 2007,19:59

The different resolutions in qemu come from the video card that qemu emulates - not your real hw..

Posted by Alrasch on Dec. 13 2007,23:15

Hi, I am just now installind DSL 4.1 to an old Laptop. I did have the same display problem... although I do not remeber the exact way how I got by.
I have to go through the X setup process (asking for USB mouse etc). When I picked the line underneath XVESA it worked just fine.

Is that any help to your problem?

Sorry - I had that many boot attempts that I do not remember what I have done... ;)

Posted by roberts on Dec. 14 2007,00:44

If you can boot your machine with runlevel 2 then look at the contents of /etc/sysconfig/knoppix

boot: dsl 2 vga=normal

# cat /etc/sysconfig/knoppix

This will show what hardware was identified.
What is displayed, may help us help you.

Posted by carpaldiem on Dec. 14 2007,13:17

I booted with "dsl 2 vga=normal" and got the following results:
XSERVER= "XFree86"
XDESC= "Intel Corporation :82815 CGC"

Along with this I noticed that under System Stats it said:
XMODULE="i810"

Since posting previously I've booted with :
"dsl ide=0x180,0x386"
and
"dsl vga=791"

and managed to get, with 4.x.iso, a full screen and better behaved display--complete with icons. Image just a little grainy, but no over-shading that left drop down text hard to read.

Posted by andrewb on Dec. 16 2007,22:47

Did you follow the link from the cheat codes page to the one specifically about VGA codes?:

< http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Vga%3Dxxx >

If you follow the instructions about 'Additional' modes you should be able to get the best value to use instead of '791' for your system. I managed to get even the Libretto with it's 800*480 screen running at 24 bit resolution full screen with no problems using the method described.