oS 11.3 : monitor settings ?

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I’ve upgraded from 11.2 to 11.3 yesterday, doing a fresh new install this time.

The default Gnome desktop now has a 1600x1200 @ 75 Hz which fit my monitor but is a little too big (or at least the font sizes are too small). I would like to switch to a lower resolution.

I don’t find anywhere in Yast how to configure the monitor settings.
No more sax2, no more /etc/X11/xorg.conf ? What does replace them ?

I mean, where can I set which monitor I"m using (Targa TM4896-1), what are the screen resolutions supported, if I want hardware 3D acceleration (or not), if I want to use dualhead (Matrox G400 DH) ?

2

The should be a monitor icon in the rh side of the taskbar. Click that and you can change the settings.
if you use gnome, you can set the fornt sizes in the control center.

BTW, xorg.conf is still used (Look at your /etc/X11 directory and you will find it. If you have a copy of your old 11.2 xorg.conf you can still use it.

3

Yes, but from there, I can see that my display is “unknown”, and I can only select some predefined resolutions.
What I would like to do is to fine-tune those resolutions to the ones supported by my monitor.
(And where can I check that 3D acceleration is enable for my gfx board ? Under 11.2, it was disable because of a missing mga.dri.)

Ha yes. I can see that the X.org settings are now split into several files in xorg.conf.d

I’ll look at those files…

No new GUI to configure the gfx board/monitor ?

4

Font sizes can be adjusted as per whych’s advice in Gnome.

I mean, where can I set which monitor I"m using (Targa TM4896-1), what are the screen resolutions supported, if I want hardware 3D acceleration (or not), if I want to use dualhead (Matrox G400 DH) ?

Xorg has increasingly automated this process, and typically uses the EDID info from any connected display devices to determine their capability, so to a large extent tweaking is not necessary. However, the xrandr CLI utility can be used to determine what your system detected:

xrandr

You can type ‘xrandr --help’ or ‘man xrandr’ for more information.

A Newbie’s Guide To RandR 1.2

5

Ok, thanks. I’ll take times to learn that.

6

Yesterday, I changed the resolution to 1200x1080 (IIRC) using the display gadget from Gnome taskbar, and it was ok.
Today, after switching on my computer, the resolution is now 800x600 @ 60Hz, and the only other resolution available is 640x480 ???

How can I get back at least the resolutions I had after the 11.3 install, until I learn and know more about how to tweak the new X.org config and use xrandr ?

7

Just had to re-boot. Now I have back my previously set 1280x1024 resolution.
I guess I really need to edit those files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d …

8

@deano_ferrari

Xorg has increasingly automated this process, and typically uses the EDID info from any connected display devices to determine their capability, so to a large extent tweaking is not necessary. However, the xrandr CLI utility can be used to determine what your system detected:

That’s where the problem comes - when it can’t read the EDID the monitor and you end up having to do things manually.

9

hmm, xrandr is not easy at all to use…

I tried to first edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf and add the following from my old xorg.conf file (Section “Monitor”) :


 DisplaySize 340 255
 HorizSync 30-96
 ModelName "TM4896-1"
 Option "DPMS"
 Option "PreferredMode" "1280x1024"
 VendorName "TARGA"
 VertRefresh 50-150

reboot… No visible changes. The display gadget still show the display name as “unknown”, and “xrandr -d” does not show, eg., my monitor size.
So it seems the files in xorg.conf.d are unrelated to xrandr (?)

Can someone with experience tell me how I can “inject” my monitor details with xrandr ?

10

That’s where the problem comes - when it can’t read the EDID the monitor and you end up having to do things manually.

Yes, I understand that (after helping a few with EDID issues already). Most times it is not an EDID issue as such, just the wrong resolution is picked from those available. Thats why xrandr is a good first call - it will show you what was picked up (as will trawling through Xorg.0.log). If required, one can manually edit xorg.conf or the segregated files found in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

So it seems the files in xorg.conf.d are unrelated to xrandr

Thats largely correct. Xorg gets its configuration data primarily via monitor and graphics chipset probing upon starting. The /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/*.conf files are essentially the same as the various sections contained within the legacy xorg.conf files. However, if the configuration files contain an additional display mode for example, it must be supported by the graphics card, and obviously the monitor attached. Then this mode will also be reported by xrandr.

Can someone with experience tell me how I can “inject” my monitor details with xrandr ?

AFAIK, the monitor name is determined by the driver, not what is referenced by 50-monitor.conf. You could add an identifier to your 50-monitor-conf file

Identifier      "Monitor0"

In the past, in addition to the preferred mode listed in the monitor section, the default display mode needed to be listed first in the screen section as well. Do you have a **-screen.conf file present? Maybe something like this

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device     "Card0"
Monitor    "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
    Depth     24
    Modes     "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
EndSection
11

@AmigaPhil

It can take a bit of getting used to the xrandr commands, but they’re reasonably easy to use with practise. As an alternative to editing clumsy .conf files, there is a way to use xrandr to set your preferred display mode at login. Have a read of this thread.

12

I haven’t tried to tweak with xrandr because afterall, I’m satisfied with the actual display setting. I changed the default 1600x1200 to 1280x1024, and it fine (I don’t know why I suddenly had once a 800x600 screen).
I had a look at xorg.0.log and I’m impressed. The “automagic EDID thing” is doing a good job. The right board is detected, the right driver used, right resolutions defined.

BUT…

Like under openSUSE 11.2, hardware acceleration is disable because of the missing mga_dri.so (direct rendering for Matrox G series). X fall back to saoftware rendering, and it’s a PITA for web videos. Even some screen blankers are eating almost all the CPU cycles.
I used to have hardware acceleration under 11.1 (or was it under 11.0 ?), and it made a BIG difference !

Where should I suggest to add again the DRI for mga in Mesa ? Even if it has bug, it was worth having it than not.

13

I re-opened bug #466635 …
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=466635

14

Good news for Matrox G series owners: thanks to Stefan Dirsch, the mga_dri.so is back again in Mesa (for openSUSE 11.3 and up); allowing 2D/3D hardware acceleration again. :slight_smile: Search for the latest Mesa package from the Factory.

15

Hi
What type of graphic GPU are you useing ?
Add the the appropriate repository. and update. For eg nvidia the settings gui will appear
cheers otto

16

It’s a Matrox gfx board, so has nothing to do with nvidia or ati.

Go to openSUSE Download, select “openSUSE Factory”, enter the name of the package you are looking for (eg.: Mesa), and pick the one for your architecture.

? What do you mean ? Are you looking for something like Sax2 ? SaX2 is no more included (11.3) since the way to configure X has changed : almost all automatic detection (all this is explained in this thread).
Display problem ? Have a look at /var/log/xorg.0.log . If you see something like “Unable to read EDID for display …”, then it’s a reason of config problem for you and you’ll need to tweak with xrandr from cli.

Have also a look at this thread (nvidia related):
11.3 and Monitor Detection