HOWTO: Get proper video resolution with trident video card and Ubuntu 8.04

[haroman]

Hello

It's my first time using linux. I just installed Xubuntu (intrepid)in my laptop and i got that black border in my screen. I have a Trident Ciberblade.

I tried the displayconfig-gtk, but i got "unknoun command"

I also tried "apt-get install displayconfig-gtk" but says its not available.

Does "intrepid" require a different solution?



thanks

[NoSmokingBandit]

I followed the guide and everything seems to be working fine but the screen is shifted right a few px. There are a few blank pixels on the left of the screen and my mouse can go past teh edge of the screen on the right a little. Is there a way to get this all centered in?

[sdavmor]

Hello

It's my first time using linux. I just installed Xubuntu (intrepid)in my laptop and i got that black border in my screen. I have a Trident Ciberblade.

I tried the displayconfig-gtk, but i got "unknoun command"

I also tried "apt-get install displayconfig-gtk" but says its not available.

Does "intrepid" require a different solution?
thanks

There's no "Screens & Graphics" tool (displayconfig-gtk) in the Intrepid 8.10 release, regardless of which Ubuntu flavour you are using. It has been shelved because it's supposed to be no longer needed.

What might work, that I haven't tried yet (on my Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600, Cyberblade XP card), is to enable Intrepid backports and get the Hardy version of displayconfig-gtk. I'll give it a whirl and see if that provides a workaround. Either way I'll post back here.

SDM (Systems Theory internet music project)
http://systemstheory.net

[sdavmor]

Following up. I enabled Intrepid backports from Hardy. That didn't solve the problem. I was still not able to find the Hardy "Screens & Graphics" program. However some poking around in /etc/X11/xorg.conf on other machines gave me enough clues as to want I needed to do.

After verifying that my video was indeed the Trident Cyberblade XP, I saved the existing xorg.conf (which had section holders in it but nothing else). I then replaced its contents with the following:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XP"
Driver "trident"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-51
VertRefresh 43-60
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
Device "Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XP"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection

It took me a while to get to that. I actually had more stuff in there but things kept blowing up on boot. So it was a case of less-is-more, removing settings that caused video to crash on boot (it dropped me into the log) to arrive at just enough in xorg.conf to access all the screen and provide for various bit depths. You may not even need the 8 & 16 bit sub sections under "Screen".

If you find that your screen comes up in 1024x768 at the login prompt, but drops back into 800x600 after you login, you should go into System-->Preferences-->Screen Resolution and select 1024x768 which should now appear in your menu. Don't be alarmed if that happens the first time you boot up after getting it set correctly.

I hope that gets you sorted. I spent about 6 hours total on this, which is about 5 1/2 hours too much IMO. Now I know exactly want to do when "Jaunty" comes along if the same problem occurs!

SDM (Systems Theory internet music project)
http://systemstheory.net

[iClouseau88]

Hi sdavmor,

I edited my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to show exactly the same as yours, saved it then rebooted. After logging in, the screen shows error with parsing the config file. Since I chose not to let the system run in default (low-resolution) mode, I picked reconfiguring the card(?) (or graphics?). Now I have an empty screen!

Several days ago I did post a question on bugs.launchpad.net but did not get very far.

:-{

[sdavmor]

Hi sdavmor,

I edited my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to show exactly the same as yours, saved it then rebooted. After logging in, the screen shows error with parsing the config file. Since I chose not to let the system run in default (low-resolution) mode, I picked reconfiguring the card(?) (or graphics?). Now I have an empty screen!

Several days ago I did post a question on bugs.launchpad.net but did not get very far.

:-{

What kernel are you running? And are you running Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Xubuntu Intrepid 8.10?

I upgraded my Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 to the current production CD of Intrepid Ubuntu by doing a fresh install this morning, after doing an online upgrade over the weekend. I had two problems after the upgrade: (1) I couldn't access network-manager and (2) my screen was stuck at 800x600 resolution. The clean install somehow fixed the network-manager issue but I was left with a totally empty xorg.conf file. Or rather it wasn't totally empty. It just had nothing in it relevant to my Trident Cyberblade card.

So I'm wondering if you (a) have exactly the same model of Cyberblade, and (b) are you running the exact same kernel (2.6.27-7), and (c) which flavour of the o/s you're running. Push comes to shove I can email you my /etc/X11/xorg.conf and you can overlay yours with it and see what happens.

SDM (Systems Theory internet music project)
http://systemstheory.net

[iClouseau88]

Hello sdavmor,

Thanks for your reply. My Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 is a dual boot XP Pro-Ubuntu laptop with Trident Microsystems Cyberblade XP video card. Not sure which version. I upgraded from Ubuntu hardy 8.04.1 to Intrepid release candidate. Now I am using kernel 2.6.27-7.(15?).

Last might after posting the previous thread I turned off the machine and booted back into 2.6.27-7, accepting the default low resolution mode. It appears that the new xserver-xorg engine ignores the "xserver-xorg-video-trident" driver that is already in the machine. At this point I am wondering what to do next.

1) reinstall Intrepid on a clean slate?
2) reinstall Hardy the same way?
3) editing xorg.conf file as you suggested. After I am done with this by saving the (new) file, should I do a "sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg"? I am not sure I understand the message in the xorg.conf file.

Regards,

[iClouseau88]

Anyone?

[sdavmor]

Hello sdavmor,

Thanks for your reply. My Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 is a dual boot XP Pro-Ubuntu laptop with Trident Microsystems Cyberblade XP video card. Not sure which version. I upgraded from Ubuntu hardy 8.04.1 to Intrepid release candidate. Now I am using kernel 2.6.27-7.(15?).

Last might after posting the previous thread I turned off the machine and booted back into 2.6.27-7, accepting the default low resolution mode. It appears that the new xserver-xorg engine ignores the "xserver-xorg-video-trident" driver that is already in the machine. At this point I am wondering what to do next.

1) reinstall Intrepid on a clean slate?
2) reinstall Hardy the same way?
3) editing xorg.conf file as you suggested. After I am done with this by saving the (new) file, should I do a "sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg"? I am not sure I understand the message in the xorg.conf file.

Regards,

My apologies. I wasn't online with my laptop so the code wasn't cut and pasted. I have corrected it above to exactly what is working in my laptop. The "Monitor" section was wrong. It should have read:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-51
VertRefresh 43-60
EndSection

So, don't do 1 2 or 3 of your suggestions (yet). You can now cut and paste the entire code into xorg.conf and give it a try on your current Intrepid install. Let me know how it works out.

SDM (Systems Theory internet music project)
http://systemstheory.net

[iClouseau88]

Hello sdavmor,

Good to hear from you again!

I did type in the xorg.conf exactly as you wrote in your post #34, but when I turn on the machine to load Ubuntu, I got the error messsage about parsing error in the config file. I don't know how to make Intrepid recognize the ati and trident video drivers that are in the laptop since my first Ubuntu - 6.06!

I am almost resigned to giving up on Ubuntu! Haven't got around to wiping out the Linux partition to re-install Hardy. I am also tempted to install OpenSUSE or Fedora.