fuzzy fonts and altered resolution

[mimosa]

This is really weird. I managed to reproduce the problem by booting with the screen off, with the incorrect resolution confirmed by xrandr. Then I rebooted and it was still wrong. I have 1024 * 768 instead of 1600 * 900.

I thought maybe the monitor is somehow causing it by persisting in whatever contortions it has to undertake to deal with the incorrect resolution, so then I tried shutting everything down and turning off power at the wall for a minute or two. Still no improvement.

Incidentally, it must be hardware detection during boot, not starting X, because you have to do that manually with the Ratposion edition, so the display is always on. Well, you could do it blind, but I just turn the display on if it isn't already.

The physical proportions of my screen fit the higher resolution, too - it is almost twice as wide as it is tall.

[mimosa]

Fixed, at least for now. xrandr wasn't listing higher possible resolutions (perhaps I needed to call it as root?) but I ran xorgsetup. Although the xorg.conf it created contains no mention of screen resolution, I was then able to do this:

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root[vanilla]# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 443mm x 249mm
   1600x900       60.0 +
   1440x900       75.0     59.9
   1280x800       74.9     59.8
   1152x864       75.0
   1024x768       75.1     70.1     60.0*
   832x624        74.6
   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2
   640x480        72.8     75.0     66.7     60.0
   720x400        70.1
root[vanilla]# exit
vanilla[~]$  xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1600x900
vanilla[~]$

So - I think all's well, and I know how to fix it another time. But I still don't understand what happened. Note that there was no xorg.conf till xorgsetup created it.

[gapan]

Simple. The hardware detection happens during boot. If your monitor is not on during boot, the right resolution is not detected and you get the wrong one. If you explicitly ask for a specific resolution through xorg.conf or xrandr, it becomes available and you can switch to it.

[mimosa]

Yes, but when I rebooted (and then when I did a shutdown and booted) the monitor was on - and I still got the wrong resolution. Anyway, it's fixed now.

EDIT

Just had a look in /etc/X11, and as well as xorg.conf (which didn't exist before I ran xorgsetup, I checked) there is xorg.conf.new; neither of these files specifies a resolution, or anything else much. But there is *also* an xorg.conf-vesa, with lots of real-looking config data, which has this in it:

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    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

.....    [etc]

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       32
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubsection

[gapan]

The xorg.conf-vesa file is a sample. It's not being used.

[mimosa]

Just rebooted (with the monitor on) and the display is messed up again - but now I can't fix it:

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vanilla[~]$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       60.0* 
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        59.9  
vanilla[~]$  xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1600x900
xrandr: cannot find mode 1600x900

The output is identical as root.

This installation is a good few months old, and my impression is this problem's quite recent. What could be going on?

[gapan]

I don't know what's wrong. Maybe a recent minor hardware fault with your monitor and now it doesn't (always) report the right size. Instead of messing with xorg.conf, you can use xrandr all the way. First run

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gtf 1600 900 60

that's your desired resolution and refresh rate. Change them if you need different ones. You only need to do this once. That will output a Modeline. You can add that mode with xrandr:

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xrandr --new-mode "1600x900_60.00"  119.00  1600 1696 1864 2128  900 901 904 932  -HSync +Vsync

again, change the output to the one you got. You'll get a new mode named "1600x900_60.00" this way. Now you need to tell xrandr that your monitor supports it:

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xrandr --add-mode VGA1 "1600x900_60.00"

again, change VGA1 to your monitor and the mode to the one you got before. Finally switch to it:

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xrandr --output VGA1 --mode "1600x900_60.00"

You can put the xrandr commands in your xinitrc, so they will run everytime.

[mimosa]

Thanks Gapan. I came unstuck here:

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vanilla[~]$ xrandr --addmode VGA1 "1600x900_60.00"
xrandr: cannot find mode "1600x900_60.00"
vanilla[~]$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       60.0* 
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        59.9  
  1600x900_60.00  (0xb0)  119.0MHz
        h: width  1600 start 1696 end 1864 total 2128 skew    0 clock   55.9KHz
        v: height  900 start  901 end  904 total  932           clock   60.0Hz

I've included the output of xrandr too, because the new entry doesn't look right. The output of the first command was exacty the same as yours - I didn't copy and paste by mistake.

EDIT

... but the command I used before now works, at least sometimes:

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vanilla[~]$  xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1600x900
xrandr: cannot find mode 1600x900
vanilla[~]$ xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1600x900
vanilla[~]$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 900, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1600x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 443mm x 249mm
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        59.9  
  1600x900 (0xb1)  108.0MHz
        h: width  1600 start 1624 end 1704 total 1800 skew    0 clock   60.0KHz
        v: height  900 start  901 end  904 total 1000           clock   60.0Hz
  1600x900_60.00  (0xb0)  119.0MHz
        h: width  1600 start 1696 end 1864 total 2128 skew    0 clock   55.9KHz
        v: height  900 start  901 end  904 total  932           clock   60.0Hz

[gapan]

Did you run the xrandr --new-mode command? Any errors there? This is very weird.

[mimosa]

That part was fine, though it did give me an error when I ran it again - I imagine because you can't step in the same river twice:

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vanilla[~]$ xrandr --newmode "1600x900_60.00"  119.00  1600 1696 1864 2128  900 901 904 932  -HSync +Vsync
X Error of failed request:  BadName (named color or font does not exist)
  Major opcode of failed request:  149 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  16 (RRCreateMode)
  Serial number of failed request:  23
  Current serial number in output stream:  23