Gnome desktop larger than screen

Da Man

Ok, this thing is doing my head in. Somebody mistakingly powered off my machine and when it rebooted the resolution looks like VGA but the desktop size is quite large so you have to use the mouse to scroll the desktop. Before the reset I was happily using 1280x1024. I'm using Red Hat 9 and they obviously do this automatic update thing and I'm pretty sure I downloaded the latest XFree86 before the machine was reset, so it's possible something got overwritten somewhere.

I've done some liberal Googling on the topic and nothing I've found so far has made a difference.

Relevant parts of my XFree86Config look like this:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "SyncMaster"
DisplaySize 380 310
HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 85.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "ATI Radeon 7000"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
"640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

I've tried the Ctrl-Alt-+ to switch modes, but that has no impact what so ever. A reasonable guess would be that the system thinks that I'm only capable of running VGA and ignores the modes. I would have thought that the XFree86 log file tells a different tale though:

(**) RADEON(0): Virtual size is 1280x1024 (pitch 1280)
(**) RADEON(0): *Default mode "1280x1024": 135.0 MHz, 80.0 kHz, 75.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1280x1024" 135.00 1280 1296 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
(**) RADEON(0): *Default mode "1280x960": 108.0 MHz, 60.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1280x960" 108.00 1280 1376 1488 1800 960 961 964 1000 +hsync +vsync
(**) RADEON(0): *Default mode "1152x864": 121.5 MHz, 77.5 kHz, 85.1 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1152x864" 121.50 1152 1216 1344 1568 864 865 868 911 +hsync -vsync
(**) RADEON(0): *Default mode "1024x768": 94.5 MHz, 68.7 kHz, 85.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1024x768" 94.50 1024 1072 1168 1376 768 769 772 808 +hsync +vsync
(**) RADEON(0): *Default mode "800x600": 56.3 MHz, 53.7 kHz, 85.1 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "800x600" 56.30 800 832 896 1048 600 601 604 631 +hsync +vsync
(**) RADEON(0): *Default mode "640x480": 36.0 MHz, 43.3 kHz, 85.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "640x480" 36.00 640 696 752 832 480 481 484 509 -hsync -vsync

pickarooney

If you change the colour depth can you increase the display resolution?

Da Man

I changed it to 16, and it made no difference. Ctrl-Alt-+/- still do nothing.

Da Man

But after some more digging into the logs, I think I'm onto something:

Now:

(WW) RADEON(0): Monitor0: Using default hsync range of 28.00-33.00kHz
(WW) RADEON(0): Monitor0: using default vrefresh range of 43.00-72.00Hz

Before reset (I have old log files lying around):

(II) RADEON(0): Monitor0: Using hsync range of 30.00-81.00 kHz
(II) RADEON(0): Monitor0: Using vrefresh range of 56.00-85.00 Hz

Somewhere else in the log it mentions that 1280x1024 requires 75Hz, so for some reason it's not picking up my frequency settings for monitor0. I'll continue hitting my head against this, but if anyone has any ideas let me know...

pickarooney

You could maybe try giving fixed hsynch and vsynch values instead of a range?

Jorinn

Hmm, I came across this before the first time i came across slackware, it's really got nothing to do with gnome itself. It has everything to with x. As far as I remember it remedied itself when i set specific sync ranges and there was some other option i changed as well, Unforutnately i don't have a linux box to hand at the moment so i ca't tell you what it was.

zAbbo

Its the specifc monitor frequencies you need, should be printed on the back of your monitor, or can be googled. Reconfig X with said values

Da Man

My current theory has to do with the Radeon 7000 being a dual-head card and the driver is getting confused. I originally ran XFree86 4.2 (which worked) and then upgraded to 4.3 which has an "improved" driver. I'm now running 4.4 in case they fixed something since 4.3, but it still doesn't work.

The primary is the DVI connector and the secondary is the VGA connector. I'm using the VGA connector. Supposedly accordint to documentation, if I'm only using one of them, it becomes the primary head.

It's a little difficult to decipher what's going on by looking at the log file, but it starts off with the setting that I believe I end up with:

(II) RADEON(0): Primary Display == Type 1
(II) RADEON(0): Clone Display == Type 1
(==) RADEON(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(II) RADEON(0): Clone modes validation

---

(II) RADEON(0): Monitor0: Using default hsync range of 28.00-33.00 kHz
(II) RADEON(0): Monitor0: Using default vrefresh range of 43.00-72.00 Hz
[...]
(**) RADEON(0): Virtual size is 1280x1024 (pitch 1280)
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "1280x1024"
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "1280x960"
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "1152x864"
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "1024x768"
(**) RADEON(0): *Mode "800x600"
(**) RADEON(0): *Default mode "640x480": 25.2 MHz, 31.5 kHz, 60.0 Hz

i.e., the default values for the monitor forces it to use 640x480.

But then below there's this whole thing that seems to pick the right values:


(II) RADEON(0): Total of 2 clone modes found

---

(II) RADEON(0): Validating modes on Primary head

---

(II) RADEON(0): Monitor0: Using hsync range of 30.00-81.00 kHz
(II) RADEON(0): Monitor0: Using vrefresh range of 56.00-85.00 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Clock range: 12.00 to 350.00 MHz
[...]
(**) RADEON(0): Virtual size is 1280x1024 (pitch 1280)
(**) RADEON(0): *Default mode "1280x1024": 135.0 MHz, 80.0 kHz, 75.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1280x1024" 135.00 1280 1296 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
(**) RADEON(0): *Default mode "1280x960": 108.0 MHz, 60.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) RADEON(0): Modeline "1280x960" 108.00 1280 1376 1488 1800 960 961 964 1000 +hsync +vsync
etc etc

What I suspect is happening is that it's incorrectly treating the DVI connector as "primary head" and I get a poxy 640x480 on the "secondary" VGA port.

It's been a very productive day in XFree86 hell.

Da Man

It seems the driver is indeed incapable of determining what's connected where, so I told it there's nothing connected to the DVI port:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "ATI Radeon 7000"
Option "DDCMode" "on"
Option "MonitorLayout" "NONE, TMDS"
EndSection

and it works! I added the DDCMode option first in the vain hope that might do it so I don't have to hardcode something the driver should be able to figure out for itself, but I had to resort to the MonitorLayout option in the end.

Hopefully this will be of use to somebody else one day.