Screen resolution changes after restarting X

B

balanga

I'm just finding my way around using X.Org and have noticed that when I first boot up and run startx X starts in high resolution - 1400 x 1050, but then when I exit and restart, the resolution is much lower. To restore high resolution, I need to reboot.

Can anyone explain this and suggest what I need to do to fix it?

My graphics card is an ATI FireGL T2/T2e.
 
Hmm, that's odd. Can you post the output of startx in both situations, and your X.Org configuration file if you have one?
 
fonz said:
Hmm, that's odd. Can you post the output of startx in both situations, and your X.Org configuration file if you have one?
Click to expand...

Do you mean Xorg.0.log for both instances?

I tried to use diff -y --suppress-common-lines to highlight the differences but both logfiles are completely different due to having each line prefixed by some number the significance of which I am not aware. I guess I need to try and ignore the first twelve characters in the comparison but I'm not sure how to go about that.

As for the configuration file, do you mean xorg.conf.new?

There are also a number of serverauth.xxxx files which may have some relevance but I have no idea what they are for.
 
balanga said:
Do you mean Xorg.0.log for both instances?

I tried to use diff -y --suppress-common-lines to highlight the differences but both logfiles are completely different due to having each line prefixed by some number the significance of which I am not aware. I guess I need to try and ignore the first twelve characters in the comparison but I'm not sure how to go about that.
Click to expand...
You could use cut -c 14- /var/log/Xorg.0.log > /tmp/something to trim off the prefixes (the number 14 is the character position to start from, adjust according to your needs).

balanga said:
As for the configuration file, do you mean xorg.conf.new?
Click to expand...
Please note that xorg.conf.new (probably in /root/) isn't used by X.Org at all. It has to be copied to (exactly) /etc/X11/xorg.conf in order to be picked up.
 
balanga said:
There are also a number of serverauth.xxxx files which may have some relevance but I have no idea what they are for.
Click to expand...
They are not relevant. AFAIR, these are created by startx when enable_xauth is set, and not deleted when Xorg is not shut down properly.

There are certainly some clues in your log files, Xorg indicates what resolution it chooses and why.
 
balanga:
  • How do you exit?
  • Can you switch (before exiting) to tty* with alt+F*?
  • How do you restart?
  • Can you switch (after restarting) to tty* with alt+F*?
  • Output of # kldstat -v | grep radeon
  • For vt resolution, set in /boot/loader.conf
    Code: 
    kern.vt.fb.default_mode="1024x768"
 
fonz said:
You could use cut -c 14- /var/log/Xorg.0.log > /tmp/something to trim off the prefixes (the number 14 is the character position to start from, adjust according to your needs).


Please note that xorg.conf.new (probably in /root/) isn't used by X.Org at all. It has to be copied to (exactly) /etc/X11/xorg.conf in order to be picked up.
Click to expand...


After cutting off the first 14 characters, the only difference in the log files was the time at which the logfile was written.

There are no files in /etc/X11.
 
fonz said:
I assume you created xorg.conf.new using Xorg -configure. In that case, copy it to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and see if that helps.
Click to expand...

I just tried that, but it makes no difference.

I boot up, run startx. X comes up in high resolution. I exit using Fluxbox's exit option and then rerun startx and X comes up in a lower resolution.

If I attempt to run an application such as Abiword it comes up as though expecting to be in high resolution, but it isn't, so that when I maximise the window it expects the screen to be much bigger, i.e. it doesn't fit on the screen at all. In high resolution it fits nicely on the screen, as does Chromium or Opera.
 
Beeblebrox said:
balanga:
  • How do you exit?
  • Can you switch (before exiting) to tty* with alt+F*?
  • How do you restart?
  • Can you switch (after restarting) to tty* with alt+F*?
  • Output of # kldstat -v | grep radeon
  • For vt resolution, set in /boot/loader.conf
    Code: 
    kern.vt.fb.default_mode="1024x768"
Click to expand...

I exit from X using Fluxbox's Exit option.

I can't switch to a TTY from within X.

X is restarted after exiting by simply running startx again.

Running kldstat in a TTY generates:
Code: 
2      1 0xc75ee000 f9000     radeonkms.ko
7      1 0cx7a70000 2000      radeonkmsfw_cp.ko

I set the screen resolution in text mode using
Code: 
allscreens_flags="MODE_280"
in /etc/rc.conf.
 
From what I read vt(4) gets installed with FreeBSD 10.1, so maybe I should try a fresh install, as I'm on 10.0 at the moment...
 
Fresh install is a Windows technique, usually a waste of time on FreeBSD when you can easily upgrade from source or binary and keep all the existing configuration and data files.
 
wblock@ said:
Fresh install is a Windows technique, usually a waste of time on FreeBSD when you can easily upgrade from source or binary and keep all the existing configuration and data files.
Click to expand...

That's fair comment but since I'm running an experimental system which is simply being used for teaching myself FreeBSD, I've probably installed a lot of things I don't need and configured things wrongly so there's a bit of a mess on the hard disk which would be best cleaned up with a fresh install.
 
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