fuzzy fonts and altered resolution

[gapan]

I don't know what's wrong. Maybe a recent minor hardware fault with your monitor and now it doesn't (always) report the right size. Instead of messing with xorg.conf, you can use xrandr all the way. First run

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gtf 1600 900 60

that's your desired resolution and refresh rate. Change them if you need different ones. You only need to do this once. That will output a Modeline. You can add that mode with xrandr:

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xrandr --new-mode "1600x900_60.00"  119.00  1600 1696 1864 2128  900 901 904 932  -HSync +Vsync

again, change the output to the one you got. You'll get a new mode named "1600x900_60.00" this way. Now you need to tell xrandr that your monitor supports it:

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xrandr --add-mode VGA1 "1600x900_60.00"

again, change VGA1 to your monitor and the mode to the one you got before. Finally switch to it:

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xrandr --output VGA1 --mode "1600x900_60.00"

You can put the xrandr commands in your xinitrc, so they will run everytime.

[mimosa]

Thanks Gapan. I came unstuck here:

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vanilla[~]$ xrandr --addmode VGA1 "1600x900_60.00"
xrandr: cannot find mode "1600x900_60.00"
vanilla[~]$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       60.0* 
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        59.9  
  1600x900_60.00  (0xb0)  119.0MHz
        h: width  1600 start 1696 end 1864 total 2128 skew    0 clock   55.9KHz
        v: height  900 start  901 end  904 total  932           clock   60.0Hz

I've included the output of xrandr too, because the new entry doesn't look right. The output of the first command was exacty the same as yours - I didn't copy and paste by mistake.

EDIT

... but the command I used before now works, at least sometimes:

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vanilla[~]$  xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1600x900
xrandr: cannot find mode 1600x900
vanilla[~]$ xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1600x900
vanilla[~]$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 900, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1600x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 443mm x 249mm
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        59.9  
  1600x900 (0xb1)  108.0MHz
        h: width  1600 start 1624 end 1704 total 1800 skew    0 clock   60.0KHz
        v: height  900 start  901 end  904 total 1000           clock   60.0Hz
  1600x900_60.00  (0xb0)  119.0MHz
        h: width  1600 start 1696 end 1864 total 2128 skew    0 clock   55.9KHz
        v: height  900 start  901 end  904 total  932           clock   60.0Hz

[gapan]

Did you run the xrandr --new-mode command? Any errors there? This is very weird.

[mimosa]

That part was fine, though it did give me an error when I ran it again - I imagine because you can't step in the same river twice:

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vanilla[~]$ xrandr --newmode "1600x900_60.00"  119.00  1600 1696 1864 2128  900 901 904 932  -HSync +Vsync
X Error of failed request:  BadName (named color or font does not exist)
  Major opcode of failed request:  149 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  16 (RRCreateMode)
  Serial number of failed request:  23
  Current serial number in output stream:  23

[mimosa]

That now seems to be working consistently:

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vanilla[Twin Peaks Season 2]$ cat /usr/local/bin/xorg_fix.sh
xrandr --newmode "1600x900_60.00"  119.00  1600 1696 1864 2128  900 901 904 932  -HSync +Vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA1 "1600x900_60.00"
xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1600x900_60.00

I expect I mistyped something - indeed, maybe I got it wrong, then got it right, but the first attempt stopped it working somehow. However, xrandr reports the resolution with just an asterisk, that is, it no longer thinks it's the *correct* resolution - and it's not displaying properly. That makes me think you were right to suspect a hardware problem, and maybe the monitor is moribund.

[mimosa]

This is an old thread, but the problem is is identical: the same Ratpoison install on HD, transferred to a healthier machine with identical hardware, and the same physical monitor.

When I do the first step, I get:

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vanilla[~]$ xrandr --newmode "1600x900_60.00"  119.00  1600 1696 1864 2128  900 901 904 932  -HSync +Vsync
X Error of failed request:  BadName (named color or font does not exist)
  Major opcode of failed request:  149 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  16 (RRCreateMode)
  Serial number of failed request:  23
  Current serial number in output stream:  23

here is the output of xrandr (remembering that this monitor definitely does 1600x900):

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vanilla[~]$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       60.0* 
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        59.9  
  1600x900_60.00  (0xb0)  119.0MHz
        h: width  1600 start 1696 end 1864 total 2128 skew    0 clock   55.9KHz
        v: height  900 start  901 end  904 total  932           clock   60.0Hz

EDIT for completeness;

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vanilla[~]$ gtf 1600 900 60

  # 1600x900 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 55.92 kHz; pclk: 119.00 MHz
  Modeline "1600x900_60.00"  119.00  1600 1696 1864 2128  900 901 904 932  -HSync +Vsync

[gapan]

It seems that the new mode was registered. Did you try to add it and actually switch to it?

[mimosa]

But then:

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bash-4.1$ xrandr --addmode VGA1 "1600x900_60.00"
xrandr: cannot find mode "1600x900_60.00"

All that was some time ago, and it's possible I've swapped the monitors or something. How do I check the capabilities of the physical monitor? However, given what I posted above about the physical proportions of the monitor, which are the same as the one in front of me (pretty wide ), I don't think so.

[gapan]

No idea. xrandr seems to have registered the resolution, but then it says it hasn't....

[mimosa]

It now sort of works, though it doesn't look very good. I think what was happening was I was trying slightly different things and xrandr needs the user to remove their traces before doing that. So good practice (for anyone trying this) might be to reboot X and try again, if something doesn't work:

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#init 3
#init 4

I suspect that the original hardware problem I had (moribund motherboard) was compounded all along by some defect in the monitor, which means that apart from the aspect ratio, the lower resolution I'm getting without fiddling may actually be the best compromise. Slitaz, my current guest OS, only provides 800 X 600 and that doesn't look at all bad either.

I'll test it at some point with a bigger and better, and above all, newer monitor, and post the result. The third possibility is that this hardware-identical machine has the very same motherboard tuberculosis, just less advanced.

A footnote: cvt gave me very slightly different output:-

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vanilla[~]$ cvt 1600 900
# 1600x900 59.95 Hz (CVT 1.44M9) hsync: 55.99 kHz; pclk: 118.25 MHz
Modeline "1600x900_60.00"  118.25  1600 1696 1856 2112  900 903 908 934 -hsync +vsync

which also worked; I couldn't see any difference.