On 29-Jul-01 Sam Varghese wrote: > i managed to get two 20" monitors today - but > both are fixed frequency. > does anyone have any experience in getting a > monitor of this kind to work with linux?
I've done this with Hewlett Packard A1079C monitors. These have a 3-line input with separate cables for Red, Green and Blue, the synchronisation signal goes on the Green channel, and the resolution is fixed at 1280x1024. In this case the main issue is coping with the sync-on-green. The only way I found was to install a Matrox Millennium board (though maybe there are others that support sync-on-green, but I haven't found them). Then you have to edit your XF86Config file so as to a) Get the monitor frequency, etc., right; b) Ensure that the device section has the sync-on-green option set. In the case of the HP A1079C and the Millennium (4MB) board, the relevant sections of XF86Config are: Section "Monitor" Identifier "HP 1280x1024-72Hz" VendorName "Hewlett-Packard" ModelName "A1097A" BandWidth 135 HorizSync 78.125 VertRefresh 72.008 Mode "1280x1024" DotClock 135.00 HTimings 1280 1344 1536 1728 VTimings 1024 1027 1030 1085 EndMode EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Matrox Millennium" VendorName "Matrox" BoardName "MGA" Option "sync_on_green" EndSection Section "Screen" Driver "svga" Device "Matrox Millennium" Monitor "HP 1280x1024-72Hz" Subsection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1280x1024" ViewPort 0 0 EndSubsection EndSection That's all that's needed, and I find it works fine in X (those ancient monitors have a great display: sharp, undistorted, steady, good colours, and lots of pixels). If your monitor is not the same, you will have to find the right settings for the Section "Monitor" -- these are fairly critical. And if the resolution is different, you will have to also change Section "Screen". You may well be able to locate the appropriate parameters by doing a Web search on monitor make/model plus "linux". For instance, I got a lot of useful stuff with a Google search on "HP-A1079C" AND "linux" You may even find suitable settings tucked away in the "monitors" database in XFree86, which in my case was in the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/Monitors where you find #Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 23:16:32 -0700 #From: "Leonard N. Zubkoff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Section "Monitor" Identifier "HP 1280x1024-72Hz" VendorName "Hewlett-Packard" ModelName "A1097A" BandWidth 135 HorizSync 78.125 VertRefresh 72.008 Mode "1280x1024" DotClock 135.00 HTimings 1280 1344 1536 1728 VTimings 1024 1027 1030 1085 EndMode EndSection NOTE: As I say, it works fine in X. However, it won't work in text mode since it's not getting the sync-on-green (which isn't started up until X starts). All I get in text mode is shimmering horizontal lines, and I suspect one is stuck with that in Linux (though I believe there are drivers, but not for Linux, which can set the sync-on-green for all modes). So in that case I either boot up with the monitor switched off, start X "blind", and then switch it on; or I can telnet in from another machine. Possibly some other card may allow sync-on-green to be set by jumpers. The other thing to bear in mind is that the Apple Mac monitor works exactly the same (sync-on-green), but you can buy PC->Mac adapters (plug the adapter into the PC video port, and then the monitor cable into the adapter) which route the PC sync output onto the Mac green line, and then it should work in all modes. Could be worth a try for your monitor. Hoping this helps, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972 Date: 29-Jul-01 Time: 11:02:48 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------