kennylog
July 25th, 2006, 06:54 AM
I had some trouble getting the resolution of my graphics card right on my laptop, I found several solutions, but I think this is the best one:
(I didn't write it! sorry but forget where I got it from but I guess the author won't mind)
Graphics
The Intel Extreme 915GM graphics chip is detected by the Ubuntu installer and it correctly writes the /etc/xorg.conf file with modelines for 1280x800 that appear to be appropriate for the built-in panel and no other modelines. Unfortunately the video BIOS fails to report the TFT panel's dimensions as one of the modes available from the card and when X starts however it decides that the most appropriate mode to be in is 1024x768. The resulting video gets mapped onto the TFT and looks wrong because its aspect ratio is incorrect (1280x800 is a widescreen TFT and 1024x768 is a standard screen mode) and the pixels of the mode don't exactly map onto the pixels on the panel. There are also some unfortunate times when bits of windows fall off the screen and can't be accessed.
I was pointed in the direction of a program called 855resolution which rewrites the video BIOS tables of machines with the Intell 855 Centrino chipset and allows the reported modes to be redefined. I was unsure whether 855resolution was suitable for my 915GM card but I located a fork of the project called 915resolution which definitely is. Its website is [here] I chose the "Debian packages can be found here" link and downloaded 915resolution_0.4-1_i386.deb .I opened a root shell and installed the package with dpkg -i
I ran 915resolution from the command line with no arguments and it displayed the available resolutions reported by the BIOS. I selected a resolution I didn't use (I chose the highest as I can't afford a monitor that expensive!) and wrote down the mode numbers in each of the bit depths (in my case 3c, 4d and 5c.) 915resolution must change the mode definitions before X starts if X is to correctly read the modes so I decided to run it at boot time. I opened the file /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh with an editor and went to the end. The last line of the file read ": exit 0" before that line I added the following lines to change the resolutions of my chosen modes to 1280x800.
#
# Modify video BIOS tables to report correct mode for LCD
#
/usr/sbin/915resolution 3c 1280 800
/usr/sbin/915resolution 4d 1280 800
/usr/sbin/915resolution 5c 1280 800
I saved the file, logged out and rebooted. The graphics immediately came right.
This worked for me, it can be pretty frustrating to have a wrong resolution
(I didn't write it! sorry but forget where I got it from but I guess the author won't mind)
Graphics
The Intel Extreme 915GM graphics chip is detected by the Ubuntu installer and it correctly writes the /etc/xorg.conf file with modelines for 1280x800 that appear to be appropriate for the built-in panel and no other modelines. Unfortunately the video BIOS fails to report the TFT panel's dimensions as one of the modes available from the card and when X starts however it decides that the most appropriate mode to be in is 1024x768. The resulting video gets mapped onto the TFT and looks wrong because its aspect ratio is incorrect (1280x800 is a widescreen TFT and 1024x768 is a standard screen mode) and the pixels of the mode don't exactly map onto the pixels on the panel. There are also some unfortunate times when bits of windows fall off the screen and can't be accessed.
I was pointed in the direction of a program called 855resolution which rewrites the video BIOS tables of machines with the Intell 855 Centrino chipset and allows the reported modes to be redefined. I was unsure whether 855resolution was suitable for my 915GM card but I located a fork of the project called 915resolution which definitely is. Its website is [here] I chose the "Debian packages can be found here" link and downloaded 915resolution_0.4-1_i386.deb .I opened a root shell and installed the package with dpkg -i
I ran 915resolution from the command line with no arguments and it displayed the available resolutions reported by the BIOS. I selected a resolution I didn't use (I chose the highest as I can't afford a monitor that expensive!) and wrote down the mode numbers in each of the bit depths (in my case 3c, 4d and 5c.) 915resolution must change the mode definitions before X starts if X is to correctly read the modes so I decided to run it at boot time. I opened the file /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh with an editor and went to the end. The last line of the file read ": exit 0" before that line I added the following lines to change the resolutions of my chosen modes to 1280x800.
#
# Modify video BIOS tables to report correct mode for LCD
#
/usr/sbin/915resolution 3c 1280 800
/usr/sbin/915resolution 4d 1280 800
/usr/sbin/915resolution 5c 1280 800
I saved the file, logged out and rebooted. The graphics immediately came right.
This worked for me, it can be pretty frustrating to have a wrong resolution