Running without xorg.conf

[Bulkley]

Moving from this thread http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=26567 to a new one.

As an experiment, I removed xorg.conf and rebooted. My machine is working exactly as before. It is as if my specs are copied somewhere else and X is using them to boot with. Googling around I found that I'm not the only one. Has anyone else here played with this? Does anyone know what has changed in Xorg that we no longer need xorg.conf?

[rickh]

As long as you're using Xorg drivers with Xorg greater than 7.3, you shouldn't need xorg.conf

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work, but mostly it does.

[Bulkley]

As long as you're using Xorg drivers with Xorg greater than 7.3, you shouldn't need xorg.conf

How does it make the same choices that I had previously chosen?

[Bulkley]

I put xorg.conf back in place, but I edited it for minimality. In /var/log/Xorg.0.log any action that has (==) in front of it is a default and not necessary in xorg.conf.

[Eck]

Really just a guess but I think you probably just hit upon the naturally detected xorg settings. It wasn't automatic before. Now it is.

Everyone isn't so lucky and folks are using/figuring out different ways to set the various items, mouse, file/font paths, keyboard, resolution, refresh rate, monitor size, etc, etc, when xorg makes choices that don't jive with what a user wants or needs.

There will be ways to accomplish that and some are already in place, but it's not uniform across distros or always dependable yet. It'll be interesting to see how the situation evolves.

[Bulkley]

This is all I have left:

Code: Select all

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "ATI Radeon VE"
        Driver          "ati"
        BusID           "PCI:01:00:0"
        VideoRam        128000
        Option          "UseFBDev"              "true"
        Option          "AGPMode""4"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "ViewSonic E70"
        Option          "DPMS"
        HorizSync       30-70
        VertRefresh     50-160
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "ATI Radeon VE"
        Monitor         "ViewSonic E70"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
        Modes           "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
EndSection


Everything else uses an xorg default. For the time being, I'll keep this because of the options.

Eck, you are probably right; there is a lot of automatic in xorg now. It needs a bit of work, but it's coming along.

[Bulkley]

I was thinking about what Eck said. I think that xorg.conf, or a substitute, will be around for a long time but that its function will change. In the future, I expect xorg.conf to be reserved for exceptions and options.

[johnR]

I've just installed Lenny RC1 amd64 and X is almost unusable on my 1680x1050 screen. The default frequency setting is way too slow and it flickers badly enough to be a problem. I've tried setting the default resolution to "1680x1050" in xorg.conf, and specified HorizSync 30-80 and VertRefresh 55-75 in the Monitor section. This has changed its behaviour but it now tries to start at over 80Hz VertRefresh which is out of the monitor's range (ie. it's ignoring the range I specified).

Has anyone got any ideas how I can get xorg to use the frequency ranges that I specify? This worked fine in Etch.

[RawMustard]

Did you try using the modelines as obtained from gtf command?

[johnR]

I just tried a modeline generated by gtf and it ignores it. It tries to start at HorizSync 48.4kHz and VertRefresh 86.8Hz (same as without the modeline but with HorizSync and VertRefresh ranges specified). Using the default xorg.conf HorizSync is 65.4 kHz and VertRefresh 60 Hz which is barely usable. When I installed Etch the defaults were similar IIRC but I configured xorg.conf to give a higher refresh rate. This no longer appears to work.

As this is a production system, I guess the answer for now is to revert to Etch and compile the software that I need to update.

BTW thanks for the tip about gtf. I was unaware of the program and have calculated modelines from scratch in the past.

[MeanDean]

I use the following methods...
viewtopic.php?p=162636#162636

If I want a gui then I use displayconfig-gtk but I do not think it is in the repos. Might try grandr though...

[johnR]

Dean, thanks for the suggestions. I tried methods 1 and 3 without success. The problem isn't generating a valid xorg.conf (which is something I'm used to doing), it's the fact that xorg no longer seems to use the settings that are specified there.

[MeanDean]

Did you upgrade or do a clean install?

I think it does use the settings specified but I think the format for those settings may have changed.

Do you have all the hardware detection packages installed?

Have you tried not using a xorg.conf file at all?

what type of hardware? post your xorg.conf file

[johnR]

I may have found the problem. In Etch I've been using the vesa driver (card is Radeon 9200) as specified in my xorg.conf. This is an audio workstation and the last thing I need is a fast graphics card sucking up all the PCI bandwidth.

In Lenny xorg ignores the vesa driver entry and uses the radeon driver. I see from /var/log/Xorg.0.log that the mode I've been using with the vesa driver doesn't appear on the list of "supported future modes" reported by the radeon driver. The fastest reported mode at 1680x1050 is 60Hz VertRefresh, which is what it's using.

Maybe it's time to update the graphics card.

Update: Bizarrely, it's now working with the radeon driver at 60Hz without flickering. It seems to ignore modelines in xorg.conf, but obeys
Mode "1680x1050"
in the "Screen Section" "Display Subsection".
I had to add that to stop it switching to a different mode when I put a second monitor on a reverse KVM switch.

[BioTube]

I used to use gtf-generated modelines to keep everything at 1024x768.