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

[Duncan]

beartooth posted <address@hidden>, excerpted
below,  on Fri, 29 Apr 2005 14:40:32 -0400:

>  A bunch of details in the display went bad, and Pan most of all --
> the in-between size window (the one I use) insists on being wider than the
> screen. The monitor is a BenQ FP767, which does 1280 x 1024; and there is
> a choice of it in the hardware list under Display. But the GUI offers only
> a choice between 800 x 600, and 640 x 480; if I go to "generic LCD 1280 x
> 1024" it makes no difference.
> 
> I had upgraded from FC2 to FC3; someone suggested a clean install.
> RESULT -- alas! Even after several rounds of Main Menu > System Settings >
> Display, with log-outs and back -ins as appropriate (sometimes reboots),
> trying both Benq FP767 and "generic LCD 1280 x 1024" -- I still get only a
> choice between 800 x 600 and 640 x 480. And Pan still won't accept the
> size window I want, as it has done on this machine with RH9, FC1, and FC2,
> using this monitor, with and without the KVM switch.

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.
> 
> Before I try that editing, which was an exercise in hairiness under early
> FC1, when the BenQ had only just come onto the market, is there any reason
> anyone can see why Pan should have more trouble with window sizings under
> a bad monitor config than any of my other apps??

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).

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.

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.  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...)

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.

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.

... 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.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html