Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sun, 9 Dec 2012 05:24:27 +0100
From:      Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To:        Gary Kline <kline@thought.org>
Cc:        FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: question about my new Dell 3010
Message-ID:  <20121209052427.13ec8c89.freebsd@edvax.de>
In-Reply-To: <20121209002330.GA8528@ethic.thought.org>
References:  <20121209002330.GA8528@ethic.thought.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sat, 8 Dec 2012 16:23:31 -0800, Gary Kline wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 	one of the remaining problems --hopefuully the Last-- with my 
> 	Dell 3010 quad i5 is that the resolution stops at 5:4.  it's
> 	something like 1280x1014 whereas my widescreen Dell needs
> 	1920x1280 or close to that.  do I need to go out and find a
> 	videocard?  or is there a way of taking my 6GB of RAM and giving 
> 	it to the video?

There are two factors involved:

The question of video memory is usually selectable in the
CMOS setup of the BIOS. Defaults will allocate several (and
sufficient) MB for common resolutions. However, this is a
usually automated process that does not involve user action.
It should "just work"(TM)(R)(C). :-)

The question of the support for the current display is handled
by the GPU driver (usually brought by X itself or an additional
package, like for nVidia drivers). You can easily obtain what
resolution your display _natively_ has (in case it's a LCD,
which I assume), and the driver should automatically initialize
the display for _that_ display size (because physically, there
is only that one, in contrast to CRTs that can support different
display characteristics).

In case it does _not_ work automatically, you can always setup
things using xorg.conf (which you normally do _not_ need). For
example,

	Section "Screen"
		Identifier	"Screen0"
		Device		"Card0"
		Monitor		"Monitor0"
		DefaultDepth	24
		SubSection "Display"
			Viewport	0 0
			Depth		24
			Visual		"TrueColor"
			Modes		"1920x1280"
		EndSubSection
	EndSection

would require 1920x1280 to be initialized regardless of what
the integrated magician might think.



For dynamic testing, you can use the xrandr command. Issue those
commands from an X terminal:

	xrandr --fb 1920x1280
	xrandr --size 1920x1280

You can use xvidtune (usually _not_ used for LCDs, only for CRTs
and tuning) to verify.

In worst case, put those two commands in your X initialization
file (usually ~/.xinitrc, sometimes ~/.xsession, if not cascaded).
It's a dirty hack, but it should work. :-)




-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20121209052427.13ec8c89.freebsd>