[Pan-users] Re: Pan config question -- or not?

[beartooth]

On Sun, 01 May 2005 12:20:25 -0700, Duncan wrote:

> Well, there's no question about PAN fitting on an 800x600 screen, it
> doesn't.  It needs at least 1024x768. (Or it needs at least 1024 width,
> anyway, or to be precise, at least 870 width, as that's the lowest I
> seem to be able to shrink it, here, as I just tried.  I've never noticed
> the issue personally, since I have 2048 width to use, now, @ two screens
> of 1536 high, giving me 2048x3072 =8^).
> 
> Therefore, if you are having issues fitting it on the screen, and you
> are getting 800x600 max, it's indeed a resolution issue.  That simply
> won't work.
> 
>> I haven't yet tried actually editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf, or whatever it
>> is. But I'm not sanguine. Not sanguine at all.

I have now, and come to grief, though I eventually made it back to where I
was. In a nutshell, trying to use an FC1 config file under FC3 (involving
XF86 instead of xorg) really bombed; trying to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf in
obvious ways -- especially changing the defaultDepth spec -- were almost
as bad; details on gmane.redhat.linux.fedora.general in a thread called
"Getting FC3 to see a Benq FP767."

> The issue is the toolbar.  It's not configurable like most KDE app
> toolbars (one reason PAN is my only GTK app..).  What's there is there,
> and it takes a certain amount of pixels to display, period.  The only
> way around that is to either a) hack the source and build it yourself
> from said hacked source, or b) use a workaround like putting the group
> pane in the offscreen area, since that's the least used pane (here,
> anyway).

Hmmm : VVDQ : is the toolbar that thing across the top with Post, Get,
Reading, Filters, and Net on it? I don't use it, though I'm sure I'm
missing a bet; I do use the group pane constantly, though.

> As for hacking xorg.conf, take a look at your /var/log/Xorg.0.log
> (normal location) file.  That logs all the steps xorg takes as it
> launches, including the bunch of resolution tests it tries and why it
> rejects various ones.

Hmmm.... Looks a lit like the screens full of hieroglyphics it showed me
one time when it couldn't start the X server under one of my bad configs.
Looking at it now, I spot a line about 1280x1024 saying "hsync out of
range" -- whatever that means ....

> What's probably happening is your monitor is reporting incorrect values,
> so xorg decides it can't run at the higher resolutions and limits you to
> 800x600.  Again, the log will say why it rejects different modes.  What
> you then need to do is google your monitor and find the correct values,
> then put them in the monitor section of xorg.conf.

I had done that before trying the config edit that flopped: it is
definitely 1280x1024. 

What's more, all works fine under FC1 on another machine with this in
*its* config -- and did fine on the FC3 machine with it in its FC2
display config file (whatever that was) afaik : 
                           =====
Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Videocard0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     16
                Modes    "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768"
                "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     24
                Modes    "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768"
                "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
EndSection
                          =====


> If you don't have an existing xorg.conf and it's using auto-settings,
> use the tools to save a basic one from your graphical config program,
> whatever you use, and them modify only the portion you need to.
> 
> It could also be an incorrectly detected video card or video card
> settings.  Perhaps it is using the barebones generic VESA driver and
> SVGA, which IIRC is 800x600.  (IRC, VGA=640x480, SVGA=800x600,
> XVGA=1024x768...)

Could that have changed just in the course of a change of OS?? I haven't
had the case off the machine.

> Another way to do it would be to download and burn an ISO of knoppix or
> gnoppix, then boot it, use it to detect your setup, and assuming it does
> better, copy its xorg.conf/XF86Config to your hard drive Fedora
> installation.  (The config files are close enough xorg uses XF86Config
> if it's available and xorg.conf isn't.)  You may need to change things
> like font paths, but the general config should be useful as-is.  Knoppix
> is famous for its generally very good hardware detection, tho of course
> nothing is perfect, so if any random LiveCD is likely to get it right,
> knoppix has a better chance than most.

I can download, but I've seldom had much luck burning CDs; the Knoppix CDs
I have lying around somewhere are years old. Is it worth trying to find
them?

> Anyway... when you get it fixed /this/ time, be /sure/ to save a copy
> somewhere where it won't be overwritten next time you upgrade! =8^P Many
> veteran Linux users keep /home on a separate partition, and don't
> overwrite it when they upgrade.  It's then a convenient location to
> store any settings you wish to keep, in addition to your user files.
> Here, I tend to simply copy over my entire /etc dir, so it's there if I
> want to look up my old config for anything.  Or, you say KVM switch,
> which implies you have other computers around as well.  You can store
> such files on one of them.

I try to do that sort of thing as systematically as I can keep track of --
it's the main reason I keep the older machines around.

> ... Which of course suggests another solution.  Try copying over the
> monitor section from your xorg.conf on the other computer attached to
> the same KVM, the one still working.  It'll likely have a different
> setup for most things including graphics card, but if you use the same
> monitor thru a KVM switch, the same monitor section should work on the
> other computer(s) connected to it.

That's what failed so disastrously as detailed in the fedora.general
thread that I mentioned. I don't have another machine that uses xorg.conf
instead of XF86Config, alas!

-- 
Beartooth Neo-Redneck, Linux Evangelist
FC 12&3, YDL 4; Pine 4.62, Pan 0.14.2; Privoxy 3.0.1; 
Dillo-0.8.4, Opera 8.0, Firefox 1.0.3
Remember that I have little idea what I am talking about.