MONKEY LINUX
current version 06 @(õ õ)@
released 9/5/1997 (Y) [ X DISPLAY TUTORIAL ]
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Have you tried running X Window with the 'startx' command yet? Did
the default screen resolution look all wacky? It's possible to toggle
back and forth between three display settings (640x480, 800x600, and
1024x768) with the 'Ctrl+Alt+Keypad +' and 'Ctrl+Alt+Keypad -' commands.
To set the display size to a fixed value you'll have to modify the
/etc/XF86Config file.
You may recall editing the X Window configuration file,
/etc/XF86Config, when you configured the mouse for use in X. You really
should configure the mouse before dabbling with X (review mouse
tutorial). Trust me, it'll make life so much easier. The purpose of
this file is to prepare the computer's input and output devices (mouse,
keyboard, video card, and monitor) for use in X Window. Take a look at
Monkey's default /etc/XF86Config file. The sections of concern in this
tutorial are the Monitor Section, Graphics Device Section, and Screen
Section.
Here's the pain in the butt preliminary. First of all, for the X
Window desktop to display properly you'll have to know which graphics
card chipset (X server) is in you're box. For example:
/usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_Mono GENERIC MONOCHROME
/usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_SVGA GENERIC SUPER VGA
/usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_VGA16 GENERIC VGA
/usr/X11R6/bin/Xf86_s3 S3 CHIPSET GRAPHICS CARD
/usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_Mach64 Mach32 CHIPSET GRAPHICS CARD
Monkey uses the generic SVGA chipset as its default. Those of us with
Neomagic chipsets need not fret, you can download the neomagic.tgz
unaccelerated X server with support for 8 bpp and 16 bpp at a resolution
of 800x600 (read the neomagic.txt file for configuration instructions).
To find the graphics chipset of your computer(s), read the documentation
that came with it, use the DOS/Windows system diagnostic tools, or open
up the case and take a look at the graphics card. In Monkey, you can run
the 'SuperProbe' utility to list the video card chipset. If there's no
hope in finding it, then just stick with the Monkey Linux default. If
you have an S3, Mach64, or Neomagic chipset then visit the download page,
download the appropriate .tgz file, and install the package (review
software packages tutorial).
Now I'll demonstrate how I set up my Compaq Presario 1210 laptop for
X Window. Just follow these steps as a guideline to specify the chipset
and adjust the display size. Here's what I did after downloading and
installing the neomagic.tgz file:
cd /usr/X11/bin CHANGE DIRECTORY WITH X SERVER
chmod u+s XF86_SVGA CHANGED NEOMAGIC X SERVER TO suid root
The next thing I did was modify the /etc/XF86Config file. Below I
list the changes I made in the Monitor Section, Graphics Device Section,
and Screen Section.
1. Open /etc/XF86Config file in joe text editor.
cd /etc
joe XF86Config
2. Change Identifier, VendorName, and ModelName in Monitor
Section. These changes are not required.
Identifier "Presario 1210 LCD"
VendorName "Compaq"
ModelName "Presario 1210"
3. Add these lines to the Monitor Section:
# 800x600 @ 60 Hz, 37.8 kHz hsync
Modeline "800x600" 40 800 856 1040 1056 600 600
626 628 +hsync +vsync
4. Comment out the entire Graphics Device Section and added:
Section "Device"
Identifier "NeoMagic"
Chipset "neomagic"
VideoRam 1024
Clocks 25.2 28.3 40.0
EndSection
5. Comment out the entire Screen Section and added:
Section "Screen"
Driver "svga"
Device "NeoMagic"
Monitor "Presario 1210 LCD"
Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection
6. Press Crtl+K then X to save changes and exit joe.
There are two settings in the Monitor Section of the /etc/XF86Config
file that should not be ignored. They are the HorizSync (default is
30-100) and VertRefresh (default is 40-150) settings. You really should
find the vertical and horizontal refresh rates of your monitor(s) and
replace the default values. These values are often difficult to come by.
As was the case with my laptop monitor. Fortunately, Monkey comes with a
utility called 'xvidtune' (must be run in X Window) that will approximate
these values along with the video card clock speed. After starting X and
running xvidtune, I adjusted the Horizinal Sync and Vertical Sync values
in the Monitor Section of the XF86Config file as such:
HorizSync 37-38
VertRefresh 60-61
Visit www.linuxnewbie.org and read their Hi-Res X-Windows tutorial
to learn how to calculate the Modeline. Stop by www.linuxdoc.org and
give the XFree86-XInside mini-HOWTO and XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO a
read as well. Oh, and if you're looking for monitor refresh rates,
download the computer-graphics-card-xref.pdf file and visit
hawks.ha.md.us/hardware/monitor.html. If you're lucky your monitor will
be in one, or both, of those.
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Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 August Chaco