Hi Derek, Hope the reply-to is set correctly now. Let me know.
Monday, September 22, 2003, 5:22:59 PM, you wrote: DJ> Mandrake will run a nightly job to compress and rotate your log DJ> files, so overflowing the logs will not happen. It also does a DJ> lot of other housekeeping at the same time. However the job runs DJ> at 4am and if your computer is switched off it will not do its DJ> nightly housekeeping. If you install the anacron package, any DJ> missed job will run when you turn your PC on in the morning. Overnight I have Windows running a lot of jobs, so I guess it will do it whenever I log into Linux. Glad to hear about this, however. Having a /var volume doesn't hurt anything however, right? DJ> SNIP >> >> So the big next question is where the heck do I get at this >> vertical refresh setting? DJ> Unfortunately the scan rate cannot be easily selected like it is DJ> in Windows. It can be set but you have to do a bit of working DJ> out. The easiest way to set it is probably to run the Monitor set DJ> up utility again in Mandrake Control I have run that several times, but I see no setting for refresh rate, only for color depth and screen res. DJ> it will have selected a generic monitor with quite conservative settings. I have a Viewsonic PF790, perfectly detected, and in the file you referenced. DJ> Check your monitor handbook and put the appropriate values in DJ> there. *DO NOT* put in values too high or you could damage your DJ> monitor. I well understand the danger of values too high, thanks. The settings are auto detected apparently, and they are correct. However, there is nothing in this file that allows me to set the refresh rate that I can see. ---8<--- Your next lines below set off very loud alarm bells for me. DJ> Note nowhere does it say scan rate. The system calculates scan DJ> rate from the Horiz and Vert rates, and from the resolution and DJ> colour depth. Hmmm. This seems to contradict what you said up above, which I reproduce again below: DJ> Unfortunately the scan rate cannot be easily selected like it is DJ> in Windows. It can be set but you have to do a bit of working DJ> out. Either I can set it precisely, or I can't. But I don't see anything that allows me to control it, nor do I see any way to verify what the actual refresh rate is that the system has decided is optimal for my eyes. <g> I do know this: What I'm getting right now at 1024x768 @ 24 bits in Linux is eating my eyes up, and there is absolutely no earthly reason for that to be happening. The monitor and card can do 100 Hz @ 32 bits @ 1024x768. This would be the preferred setting, although I'm sure as I said I can live with 24 bit depth. But I am going to get this refresh rate, and know I'm getting it, or I'm going to run away from Linux -- or at least Mandrake Linux. <rant> No guessing, no "system knows best"; this is for me to decide, and there should be a fairly easy way to set it, although I'll accept an arcane file edit. But it *will* be set to *my* specifications, or Mandrake Linux is rather a joke AFAIC. I strongly suspect that this is going to grate on some nerves here, and I'm sorry about that. But it's impossible to deny the fact that something very key is missing here. For me, this one is game, set, and match: Redmond wins. I'm probably not any happier about typing it than you folks here are about reading it. But it's a glaring, stupid, startling omission, one that has been solved in Windows a long long time ago. </rant> DJ> If you want to edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 it has to be done as root. Easy way DJ> to do that is DJ> Menu>Applications>FileTools>FileManager(SuperUserMode) DJ> right click on the file and select Openwith>Kedit I really appreciate your help on this. But I don't want to do any editing that isn't going to result in 100 Hz refresh. I'm very sure I'm getting 72 as the default, maybe 76, but neither of these settings are tolerable for me -- 85, also a valid setting at that resolution and color depth, is the minimum I'll use. I paid a little extra money for the monitor and card specifically so I would not have to worry about this aspect of computing, and I'm not going to put up with sub par video performance by running an OS that isn't developed enough to let me control this setting precisely. (Sorry again, but a fact is a fact, and this is apparently a fact.) If you or someone else knows how to accomplish what I want, I'd really like to hear about it. But as I said in the other note, this is a show-stopper issue. I control the refresh rate on my monitor -- within spec. Not Linus Torvolds, not Mandrake, not anyone else. Or I simply go right back to Windows, which gives me that authority. I find it hard to believe Linux users can't precisely set their own refresh rates, or apparently even know what they are. Isn't this kind of embarrassing to the community? Our eyes are the basic interface with the box. I will not use an OS that hasn't figured that much out. Lance
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