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[SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possible?

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babcat
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[SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possible?

#1 Post by babcat »

Hello to the community, this is my first post. I have installed Debian 9 on a laptop with the VIA VN800 chip and cannot increase the resolution to 1280X800 with the vesa driver. Tried using the openchrome driver but the screen had purple and blue horizontal lines and the mouse pointer blinked, so I went back to vesa...
Pasting from Xorg.0.log:

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[  4692.612] (II) VESA(0): Not using built-in mode "640x480" (no mode of this name)
[  4692.612] (WW) VESA(0): No valid modes left. Trying less strict filter...
[  4692.612] (II) VESA(0): Monitor0: Using hsync range of 31.50-48.00 kHz
[  4692.612] (II) VESA(0): Monitor0: Using vrefresh range of 50.00-70.00 Hz
[  4692.612] (II) VESA(0): Monitor0: Using maximum pixel clock of 65.00 MHz
[  4692.612] (WW) VESA(0): Unable to estimate virtual size
[  4692.612] (II) VESA(0): Not using built-in mode "1600x1200" (hsync out of range)
[  4692.612] (II) VESA(0): Not using built-in mode "1400x1050" (hsync out of range)
[  4692.612] (II) VESA(0): Not using built-in mode "1280x1024" (hsync out of range)
[  4692.612] (II) VESA(0): Not using built-in mode "1280x800" (hsync out of range)
[  4692.612] (II) VESA(0): Not using built-in mode "1280x768" (hsync out of range)
[  4692.612] (--) VESA(0): Virtual size is 1024x768 (pitch 1024)
lspci

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01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 Graphics [S3 UniChrome Pro] [1106:3344] (rev 01)
dmesg:

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[    1.422347] agpgart: Detected VIA VT3314 chipset
cvt

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alexia@localhost:~$ cvt 1280 800
# 1280x800 59.81 Hz (CVT 1.02MA) hsync: 49.70 kHz; pclk: 83.50 MHz
Modeline "1280x800_60.00"   83.50  1280 1352 1480 1680  800 803 809 831 -hsync +vsync
Searched on the laptop's monitor horizontal refresh rate but found nothing on the manual and elsewhere.
I want higher resolution.
Thank you in advance :-)
Last edited by babcat on 2018-04-11 12:49, edited 1 time in total.

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babcat
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Re: 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possible?

#2 Post by babcat »

I added a random value on xorg.conf, section monitor, Horizsync 40, and now have the desired resolution. Should have noticed on the output of cvt that the hsync is mentioned... Now I experiment with other resolutions.

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Re: 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possible?

#3 Post by None1975 »

babcat wrote:I added a random value on xorg.conf, section monitor, Horizsync 40, and now have the desired resolution. Should have noticed on the output of cvt that the hsync is mentioned... Now I experiment with other resolutions.
I suggest you be careful. This can easily damage the monitor.
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Re: [SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possi

#4 Post by p.H »

I doubt that an out-of-range frequency can damage a flat panel. They operate differently from CRT screens.

40 kHz is within the horizontal sync frequency range (31.5-48 kHz) but it is a bit low for 1280x800. At this frequency and resolution, the vertical refresh frequency is less than 50 Hz (40,000 / 800) which is the lower limit of the range (50-70 Hz).

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Re: [SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possi

#5 Post by None1975 »

p.H wrote:I doubt that an out-of-range frequency can damage a flat panel.
Yes, incorrect settings can break a monitor. Most significantly, refresh rate can cause serious problems. An incorrect resolution (number of horizontal pixels x number of vertical pixels) may be less likely to cause damage. But at least some monitors really dislike bad refresh rates. Now, how likely is damage to occur? That can vary based on factors like how good of quality the monitor is. Ideally, if a monitor doesn't support certain settings, then it will just show a message saying "No signal", or something benign like that. What will break some monitors might not break other monitors.
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Re: [SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possi

#6 Post by p.H »

None1975 wrote:Yes, incorrect settings can break a monitor.
Have you personnally observed such a case ?

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Re: [SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possi

#7 Post by None1975 »

p.H wrote:
None1975 wrote:Yes, incorrect settings can break a monitor.
Have you personnally observed such a case ?
Yes.
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Re: [SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possi

#8 Post by shep »

My understanding is that CRT monitors could be broken by excessive sync rates but LCD monitors were significantly more tolerant Still, I'm paranoid and would web search modeline/sync rate for a unrecognized monitor.

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Re: [SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possi

#9 Post by pylkko »

BTW and FWIW, because this is a bit of a stupid comment. I once had the same problem with the openchrome implementation in Debian. I have an old via board containing laptop. The openchrome implementation in Debian showed the exact same symptoms that you are describing. Ubuntu did not, nor did any derivative (Watt Os, Lubuntu and so on). And this was the case with both Debian 8 and 9. So, I believe that the Ubuntu developers either patch it or use another branch or something like that. I never had the chance to / interest to explore the problem further. This is because I know that the openchrome project has stalled for years and actually it is a miracle that it still even exists, and also because for the use purposes that I had in mind for that computer, using Ubuntu or VESA drivers was completely ok. I remember having a discussion about it with a developer of some "light weight" Debian spin (do not remember which one) and they had no idea. However, that is one thing you could try, if you want to use that instead of VESA for whatever reason. Even though using VESA is, well, using VESA, in this case using the proper kernel module/settings might not make much difference. What I mean is that even if you could get the openchrome to work perfectly, it is not that much better than VESA, because I believe the drivers lack significant 3d/opengl and other things anyway. There are also many tweaks that you can try like disabling EnableAGPDMA (See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Via_Technologies)

Apparently Debian is still on 0.5 version and there is at least a 0.6 in the git of the openchrome project and in testing. So, while not having any kind of solution to your problem, I offer you these trails for where to go hunting. If you do find a solution, please post back.

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Re: [SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possi

#10 Post by shep »

I have an Everex NC1501 Stepnote that uses the P4M900 chip: Chome 9 HC. Debian 9 broke graphics on this particular chip. It will run Debian 8.
Opencrhome upstream has the details and I think your can find some bug reports
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=777235

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Re: [SOLVED] 1280X800 resolution on VIA chip with vesa possi

#11 Post by p.H »

shep wrote:My understanding is that CRT monitors could be broken by excessive sync rates but LCD monitors were significantly more tolerant Still, I'm paranoid and would web search modeline/sync rate for a unrecognized monitor.
A CRT has big coils at the rear which produce alternative magnetic fields used to drive the electron beam across the screen surface. The higher the scan rate, the higher the current and voltage fed to these coils, and the higher the stress on the electronic parts which generate these current and voltage. An LCD has nothing like this.

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