On Sat, 21 May 2011 19:25:03 -0700 someone <[email protected]> wrote:
> Turns out under XP that the video driver has a special tool to > fine tune the resolution so that the picture fits the screen. > XP Home 32 bit is not going to work with MythTV let alone a > dual core Atom. > > How under Linux do I fine tune the resolution in X? There is an old X application, xvidtune, that can help. It's still available, as part of the xorg packages. I used it a LOT in the old days when I had to create my own mode lines for the X config file. (Boy am I glad I don't have to do that anymore!) There are a few HOW-TOs out there (Google should find them, probably at the Linux Documentation Project), plus the man pages for xvidtune(1) and xorg.conf(5). It's been a long time since I messed with building my own mode lines, so my memory is a bit hazy, but here's a little info, for what it's worth. Running xvidtune without any options will pop up a small gui that allows you to modify the scan mode on the fly. It will also pop up a small window warning you that you can destroy your monitor with a badly-chosen mode line. I don't know that modern LCD displays are prone to that, but CRTs certainly were. You Have Been Warned. The gui allows you to move the display up, down, left, and right, as well as adjust horizontal and vertical size. The "prev" and "next" buttons allow you to step through the various modes, but I believe you have to have them specified in the xorg.conf file before xvidtune can use them. The gui will also show you the pixel clock frequency in MHz, and the horizontal and vertical sync rates, in kHz and Hz, respectively. Using the -show option will print out your current mode line, without the gui. As an example, here's mine: $ xvidtune -show "2048x1152" 156.75 2048 2096 2128 2208 1152 1155 1160 1185 +hsync -vsync The various fields of this mode line are: "2048x1152" -- name of the mode 156.75 -- the dot (pixel) clock frequency, in MHz 2048 -- width of the display, in dot clocks 2096 -- horizontal sync start time, in dot clocks 2128 -- horizontal sync end time, in dot clocks 2208 -- total horizontal scan time, in dot clocks 1152 -- height of the display, in scan lines 1155 -- vertical sync start time, in scan lines 1160 -- vertical sync end time, in scan lines 1185 -- total vertical scan time, in scan lines +hsync and -vsync are the polarities of the horizontal and vertical sync signals. It is also possible to specify various flags, such as "Interlace", at the end of the line. See the MONITORS section of the xorg.conf(5) man page. I found a calculator to be very useful when working with this stuff. :-) Once you've determined which mode lines you need, put them in the xorg.conf file, and restart X. Be sure you back up your original xorg.conf file! Anyway, I hope this helps. --Dale -- "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." -- Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
