281 lines
11 KiB
HTML
281 lines
11 KiB
HTML
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
|
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<META NAME="generator" CONTENT="lgazmail v1.1H.i">
|
|
<TITLE>The Answer Guy 37: Higher Resolution X on a Laptop</TITLE>
|
|
</HEAD><BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000"
|
|
LINK="#3366FF" VLINK="#A000A0">
|
|
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<H4>"The Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<center>
|
|
<H1><A NAME="answer">
|
|
<img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)"
|
|
border="0" align="middle">
|
|
<font color="#B03060">The Answer Guy</font>
|
|
<img src="../../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)"
|
|
border="0" align="middle">
|
|
</A></H1>
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<H4>By James T. Dennis,
|
|
<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
|
|
Starshine Technical Services,
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
|
|
</H4>
|
|
</center>
|
|
|
|
<p><hr><p>
|
|
<!-- endcut ======================================================= -->
|
|
<!-- begin 34 -->
|
|
<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
|
|
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
|
|
>Higher Resolution X on a Laptop</H3>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p><strong>From Dan Bell on Sat, 16 Jan 1999
|
|
</strong></p>
|
|
<!-- ::
|
|
Higher Resolution X on a Laptop
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
:: -->
|
|
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
|
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
|
>
|
|
I have been a windows users forever, and I got tired of the constant
|
|
crashing so I have just installed <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A> 5.2 on my laptop. I travel
|
|
the world in the telecommunications business. I haven't had one crash
|
|
since installing Linux. My problem is low resolution on the LCD screen
|
|
when running Xwindows. Under windows my screen has an 800 x 600
|
|
resolution. The best resolution that I can get when installing Xfree is
|
|
600 x 480. This is using the probing feature of the installation. I
|
|
know there must be a way to sharpen the characters an icons. However
|
|
with my limited knowledge I can't seem to find the answer. Please help
|
|
or direct me to someone who can help solve this simple problem.
|
|
</STRONG></P>
|
|
<P><STRONG>
|
|
Dan Bell
|
|
</STRONG></P>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
|
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
|
>
|
|
Personally I find X to be unusable until you can get
|
|
up to about 1024x768. However, I rarely use any GUI
|
|
so when I <EM>need</EM> one I need it to be pretty good.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
(When I use Netscape change the "icon" bar to text
|
|
only, and tweak as many of the setting to "unclutter"
|
|
the window frames as possible. Then I size it to
|
|
almost completely fill my current screen --- with the
|
|
virtual screen panner peekout out above it. That's
|
|
set to 3x2 --- so I can get to any of the three "top row"
|
|
screens with just a click and to any of the others with
|
|
two --- right click on the app title bar to "bury it"
|
|
then the whole panner is available).
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
However, back to your question.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
You don't give any details about your laptop. So,
|
|
I can't give any specific suggestions. However I
|
|
can give some general ones.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
First look in the Laptop Support Pages:
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE><BlockQuote><code>
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop"
|
|
>http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop</A>
|
|
</code></BlockQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
... This lists a few hundred models of laptops and
|
|
provides details about the installation and use of Linux
|
|
on them. Its an all-volunteer effort (like most of the
|
|
best projects in Linux) so the reporting can be a bit
|
|
uneven.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
So, look up your model of laptop in that database ---
|
|
or the closest that you can find. Also read through
|
|
some of the entries for some other laptops (more or less
|
|
at random) so you can some idea of general problems and
|
|
common solutions.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
One of the common problems with many laptops is the use
|
|
of the Neomagic chipset. This is a proprietary chipset
|
|
for which programming specifications are not openly
|
|
available. Luckily there is a free binary-only XFree86
|
|
"server" for it.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
Since you are new to Linux, and presumably Unix and X as
|
|
well, I'll digress for a moment to clarify a point of
|
|
terminology that causes greate confusion:
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE><BlockQuote>
|
|
The X Window System is a communications protocol.
|
|
You have a "display server" (consisting of one or
|
|
more "screens" a mouse and/or sensor tablet and a
|
|
keyboard) and a set of clients (various programs
|
|
that request operations, such as the drawing of
|
|
windows on the screen, or the reporting of mouse
|
|
and keyboard events). The clients can be run
|
|
locally (as most of us do with most of our Linux
|
|
boxes most of the time --- where the client program
|
|
is running on the same system as the server) or it
|
|
might be running remotely (communicating over TCP/IP
|
|
on port 6000 or so). In either event the client
|
|
and server communicate through the X protocol over
|
|
some sort of networking channel (unix domain or
|
|
TCP/IP sockets).
|
|
</BlockQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
Anyway, the software driver that responds to video requests
|
|
for the "clients" (Netscape Navigator, xterm, GhostView,
|
|
etc) is referred to as a "server." Thus we have different
|
|
servers for different video cards. Technically I think
|
|
that there would be different server for different
|
|
combinations of mouse, keyboard and video cards --- but
|
|
I think that the XFree86 implementation has been able to
|
|
consolidate the keyboard and mouse support into a common
|
|
set of libraries --- so only the video chipset support is
|
|
sufficiently different between systems to warrant different
|
|
drivers.
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
While looking at Kenneth Harker's laptop support pages
|
|
you should also look in the documentation for your
|
|
laptop (or contact the manufacturer and beat it out of
|
|
their support staff). You want to know the video
|
|
chipset (such as the CT65545 from "Chips and Technologies").
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
There is a whole section of KHarker's pages devoted to
|
|
general info about XFree86 on laptops (for Linux and
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</A> users, et al).
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
Finally, if these free resources fail you --- consider
|
|
a commercial solution. There are at least two companies
|
|
that provide commercial X servers for Linux. Since XFree86
|
|
is pretty good --- these companies specialize in laptops
|
|
and proprietary video cards that won't play nice with the
|
|
freeware programmers. (Naturally, it would be better for
|
|
the free software and alternative OS communities to
|
|
refrain from buying such hardware --- but some of us get
|
|
stuck with what we've got, so...).
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
So the two sites I'd check are:
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
|
|
MetroLink Inc. (publishers of Metro-X)
|
|
<DD><A HREF="http://www.metrolink.com"
|
|
>http://www.metrolink.com</A>
|
|
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
|
|
Xig (formerly X Inside Graphics)
|
|
<DD><A HREF="http://www.xig.com"
|
|
>http://www.xig.com</A>
|
|
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
... and, of course, you can check the latest
|
|
info on XFree86 by browsing around on its web site
|
|
at:
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE><BlockQuote><code>
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.xfree86.org"
|
|
>http://www.xfree86.org</A>
|
|
</code></BlockQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
Its possible that your copy of X can drive your video
|
|
card just fine even though the autodetection code doesn't
|
|
do it. Unfortunately X configuration for those cases is
|
|
still a bit of a black art (more art and magic than
|
|
science).
|
|
</BLOCKQUOTE>
|
|
<!-- sig -->
|
|
|
|
<!-- end 34 -->
|
|
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
|
|
>Copyright ©</a> 1999, James T. Dennis
|
|
<BR>Published in <I>The Linux Gazette</I> Issue 37 February 1999</H5>
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<P align="center">
|
|
<table width="98%"><tr valign="center" align="center">
|
|
<td rowspan="3" colspan="4"><A HREF="../lg_answer37.html"><IMG
|
|
SRC="../../gx/dennis/answernew.gif"
|
|
ALT="[ Answer Guy Index ]"></A></td>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./1.html">1</A></TD>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./2.html">2</A></TD>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./3.html">3</A></TD>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./4.html">4</A></TD>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./5.html">5</A></TD>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./6.html">6</A></TD>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./7.html">7</A></TD>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./8.html">8</A></TD>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./9.html">9</A></TD>
|
|
<TD width="8%"><A HREF="./10.html">10</A></TD>
|
|
|
|
</tr><tr valign="center" align="center">
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./11.html">11</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./12.html">12</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./14.html">14</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./15.html">15</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./16.html">16</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./17.html">17</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./18.html">18</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./19.html">19</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./21.html">21</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./22.html">22</A></TD>
|
|
|
|
</tr><tr valign="center" align="center">
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./23.html">23</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./28.html">28</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./29.html">29</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./30.html">30</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./31.html">31</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./32.html">32</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./33.html">33</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./34.html">34</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./37.html">37</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./38.html">38</A></TD>
|
|
|
|
</tr><tr valign="center" align="center">
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./39.html">39</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./41.html">41</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./42.html">42</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./43.html">43</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./44.html">44</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./45.html">45</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./46.html">46</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./47.html">47</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./48.html">48</A></TD>
|
|
<TD><A HREF="./49.html">49</A></TD>
|
|
|
|
</tr></table>
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!-- begin lgnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<A HREF="../index.html"
|
|
><IMG SRC="../../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ Table Of Contents ]"></A>
|
|
<A HREF="../../index.html"
|
|
><IMG SRC="../../gx/homenew.gif" ALT="[ Front Page ]"></A>
|
|
<A HREF="../lg_bytes37.html"
|
|
><IMG SRC="../../gx/back2.gif" ALT="[ Previous Section ]"></A>
|
|
<A HREF="../york.html"
|
|
><IMG SRC="../../gx/fwd.gif" ALT="[ Next Section ]"></A>
|
|
<!-- end lgnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
|
</BODY></HTML>
|
|
<!--endcut ========================================================= -->
|