On Thu, 2006-06-29 at 15:56, Dave Miner wrote:
> Peter Tribble wrote:
> > Depends. My experience is that this is erratic. I have a sparc and
> > x86 system that generate a working X server configuration, but both
> > make suboptimal resolution choices. And I'm seeing keyboard
> > misidentification reasonably often too.
> > 
> 
> I hope you're filing bugs!

Next time I see it, I will!

> When you get sub-optimal resolution, does the Gnome screen resolution 
> preferences setting help to get it right?  Just like to understand how 
> deep the problem is here...

Partially. Let me try and remember:

I've got a W2100z with a Sun 22" CRT. Under S10 I think it
decided that 1280x1024 was correct, although that might have
been a hangover from the previous monitor (where 1280x1024
was correct). Upgraded to S10U1 and it decided that it
would choose 2048x1536. I can see why, because the monitor
will go to that - it just makes the text a bit on the small
side, and the monitor recommended resolution is 1600x1200
which is actually what I want. (That's what I mean by saying
that it's sub-optimal - it's not actually wrong.)

In that case, the Gnome screen resolution gizmo allows
me to set the resolution to what I want. The downside
is that I still get the undesirable resolution at login
(dtlogin, I expect) and in anything else like KDE. This
doesn't bother me to the point of fixing it.

I've also got a SunBlade 2000 with an identical monitor
driven by an M64 card (what's that, a PGX64?). Anyway,
that always installs at 1280x1024 (I install every SXCR
release onto it afresh). Of course, Gnome doesn't support
changing the resolution so I have to fbconfig it. The
odd thing is that fbconfig knows that 1600x1200 is supported
by both the monitor and the card, yet it still chooses
the lower resolution. (It doesn't know about 2048x1536
either, but I don't think the card can go that high.)

I have another W2100z where I swapped out a 19" LCD
for a 20" LCD. Worked fine, but was stuck at 1280x1024.
The Gnome resolution gizmo wouldn't offer me the higher
resolution (presumably it didn't know about it). This
is my primary work machine and the whole point was to
get the extra pixels, so there I had to go edit xorg.conf
by hand. It would have been nice to have a simple way
of telling it I had a new monitor and go work things out
for itself, but I couldn't see a way to do that.

> Apparently keyboard identification is somewhat spotty due to 
> manufacturers cutting corners, so that's one thing you definitely will 
> be given a choice to configure.

Hm. The problems I've seen recently are Sun Type 6 USB on
sparc misidentifying UK vs Unix variants. I rebuilt a whole
load of systems when my department closed last year. I'm
not sure whether I've currently got anything that's wrong.

Going further back, similar problem on x86 (S7 thru S9)
with it making the same error. (Dells with a rack KVM
switch.) As I recall, it was correct in X but wrong in
console mode. Annoying if your root password contains
one of the symbols that's not on the key it says it's
on...

-- 
-Peter Tribble
L.I.S., University of Hertfordshire - http://www.herts.ac.uk/
http://www.petertribble.co.uk/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/



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