tim hall wrote:
> Hi Gustin,
> On Sun, 2009-12-13 at 18:15 -0700, Gustin Johnson wrote:
>> Don't bother.  8.04 will simply move it out of the way and replace it
>> with a generic one anyway.  You are better off using the Gnome utility
>> for this.  An alternative application to manage your video output is
>> grandr.  If you are still having problems it might be a good idea to
>> get
>> to know xrandr, the command line program that manages your video
>> output.
> 
> Yuck. My xorg.conf had been working perfectly for years*, until I
> decided to move the cards about in their slots (in order to troubleshoot
> a completely different problem). Now I discover that I have to learn how
> to use some new configuration application, which doesn't appear to be
> intelligent enough to use my (still valid and usable) old settings or
> allow me to manually override it. I'm not a fan of user-friendliness
> that dis-empowers the user, I would save up and buy a Mac if I wanted
> that! Grumble, moan ...

I felt the same at first.  Once I understood how it works I am now a big
fan.  Being able to change to Xorg settings on the fly, adding,
changing, and re-orientating displays on the fly like every other OS is
also a good thing.  No more of the edit/restart X dance for me.  When
things go wrong I can still ssh in and fix things, now without having to
restart X.

I am not a fan of dumbing things down for the mythical "average user",
but this is a case of legitimate progress that happens to make point and
click configuration possible.  Change is almost always uncomfortable but
it is not always bad :)

I only mention xrandr but it succeeds where sometimes the GUIs fail.
Plus when things go wrong and you can't see the screen, it is a good
utility to know.
> 
> * The PC in question is approximately 10 years old, well, most of it is;
> and all the components are still supported.
> 
As long as the hardware is supported by the latest Xorg release, you
should be OK.

> I don't mean to shoot the messenger, thanks for the information Gustin.
> I think a brief overview of X configuration with pointers would be a
> useful addition to the 64 Studio documentation to help users whose
> monitor / video card set-ups are not automatically configured correctly
> or indeed, have unusual and interesting monitor set-ups. Anyone?

I used to know the X configuration inside and out.  Lately though
everything just seems to work for me out of the box.  I am writing this
on a 5 year old tablet that worked out of the box (even the touchscreen
works though I very rarely use it).

What I am trying to say is that there is less of a need these days on
complete how-to guides for configuring X.   It would still be useful to
document those edge cases but since I don't have any of that hardware I
am pretty useless for this task.

Hth,
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