Display Problem

Forum: Laptops
Topic: Display Problem
started by: WeZ

Posted by WeZ on Mar. 04 2005,00:04

Hi All,

please can you help me...

i've installed dsl (latest release) to hard drive. all is well however i cannot get the screen resolution acceptalbe.

the best i can get it is using vesa 800x600 16bit. virtually any other settings from within xsetup.sh renders it unreadble on reboot.

i tried doing this process on a Sony Vaio PCG-R505AFT and although it's resolution wasn't very good (at least it wasnt green like the Acer), it was rectified after an xsetup run...

please can someone help me as i think any distro other than dsl will run too slowly on the box...

FYI - here is the machine < specs >

Your Help is greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Wesley.

Posted by AwPhuch on Mar. 04 2005,00:57

That is because thats all it will support

8.4" TFT
800x600x64K (SVGA)

Not a bad little rig...those guys are quite rugged..they dont build laptops like they used to...how much ram you got in it?

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by WeZ on Mar. 04 2005,06:31

Yes, i love the little thing and it works like a dream... however it's too slow under windows... even although i got 64mb ram in it (seems like nothing sompared to my dell servers which run SQL :;):

)

However i know that is all it supports but it has a "green layer" over the display... i know it sounds strange but it really hurts your eyes to focus on whats underneath... i know the display card works as it was fine under win2kpro...

Does anybody have anything to suggest?

Posted by arbalest on Mar. 22 2005,21:03

I have a similar problem with a Dell Latitude 233 (with 64Mb).

Boots OK, but screen is barely readable under a pale
green layer. Can open some menu's with a right click
but cannot see the text well enough to read it.
Knoppix works OK on this laptop just very slooooowwwwly.

As a double check - I ran CD on my desktop machine and
it works beautifully.

Any suggestions?

Posted by arbalest on Mar. 22 2005,21:33

Nevermind. Entering fb800x600 and boot time causes a
configuration menu to be brought up. Choosing FRAME
BUFFER (among other options) make everything works fine.

Posted by cjgau on Mar. 27 2005,03:36

Hi Wez,

Try "fb800x600 nodma" at boot for your Acer notebook's green screen.
My Acer NUOVO CPU133, 32MB ram， display TFT 800x600 has beautiful screen.

DSL rocks!

Posted by drewland on April 03 2005,19:10

hi, arbaest

I too have a dell latitude and amd having screen related issued getting dsl going. you posted this.

Nevermind. Entering fb800x600 and boot time causes a
configuration menu to be brought up. Choosing FRAME
BUFFER (among other options) make everything works fine.

but you didnt list what exact options you have entered to get it going. could you possibly let me know what they are.

thanks loads drewland

Posted by arbalest on April 03 2005,23:08

Just the obvious choices....

boot: fb800x600
next screen: xfbdev xserver
mouse screen 1: no
mouse screen 2: no
mouse screen 3: ps2 port (actually using laptop's scroll pad)
mouse type: 2 buttons
keyboard: US

Works fine.

Posted by barrowsg on April 04 2005,19:20

I'm a bit confused by the sequence of commands you give, arbalest. I too am having problems getting the proper colors on my dsl laptop. I have a full hard drive install and at the boot up screen I only have "Linux" as a boot option. Entering "Linux fb640x480" and logging in will bring me all the way to X with all it's wacky colors. There is no other prompt to enter "xfbdev xserver" at. I am currently using vesa at 640x480 because 800x600 makes a screen too large for my laptop to display it all.

The X setup aside, this distribution works really well on old hardware.

Posted by cbagger01 on April 04 2005,22:26

Dont type

linux fb640x480

Instead, type:

fb800x600

with no "linux" or "dsl" at the beginning.

Posted by barrowsg on April 04 2005,23:36

I may need to clarify what I see at boot up. First off, I'm using the LILO boot loader and the only boot image I can select is "Linux". I tried to enter "fb800x600" and then "fb640x480" at the "boot:" prompt, but they both result in "No such image. [Tab] shows a list."

One of your other posts, cbagger01, lead me to an acceptable work around though. I ran "Xvesa -listmodes" to display what my hardware could handle...basically 8 bit color is the max. For some reason 8 bit still has odd colors. Running with 4 bit color, while a bit less appealing, makes it so I can at least read the windows and see some of the pictures.

The only catch now is that dillo, flwriter, and many other applications don't open under 4 bit color. I am however able to ssh to my Linux desktop and run firefox and openoffice remotely without any problems...better than nothing.