EDID info - using I2C/DDC

Hello,

I am trying to teach myself FreeBSD (release 7), and am having trouble configuring Xorg.

I am running it as a guest under VMware Player on a Vista 64-bit host. My machine is a Toshiba M305D-S4830 laptop, which has a 14.1 inch display with a native resolution of 1280x800. The chipset is an AMD M780V and the GPU in an integrated AMD 3100 with shared memory (256 1519 MB).

I have no trouble getting it to operate at 1024x768, but am unable to get it to function at the native resolution. Is this a limitation of the "vmware" driver, which I installed as a port?

I have searched all over the net to find the horizontal sync and vertical refresh rates, without success (Toshiba doesn't provide the information). I have looked for the EDID info at "/var/log?Xorg.0.log" as detailed in "5.4.3.2 Adding a Widescreen Flatpanel to the Mix" in the Handbook but the information either isn't there or the information is presented in a different format as detailed in the Handbook, and I am not recognizing it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
The VMWare console is rather virtual, so it doesn't really have a horizontal or vertical refresh rate.
You might try setting both to 0-99999.
 
Hi,

Here is the output from xrandr and part of my xorg.conf:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 2360 x 1770
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 85.0* 75.0 70.0 60.0
800x600 85.0 75.0 72.0 60.0 56.0 73.0
640x480 85.0 75.0 73.0 60.0
640x400 85.0 65.0
832x624 75.0
720x400 85.0
640x350 85.0
320x240 85.0
400x300 85.0
512x384 85.0
1152x864 85.0
1280x960 56.0
1400x1050 60.0
1600x1200 72.0
1920x1440 75.0
2048x1536 85.0
854x480 60.0
1280x720 70.0
1366x768 75.0
1920x1080 85.0
1280x800 75.0
1440x900 60.0
1680x1050 85.0
1920x1200 60.0
720x480 75.0
720x576 85.0
320x200 60.0
800x480 70.0
1280x768 75.0
1280x1024 85.0
2360x1770 60.0

-----------------------

Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "vmmouse"
Option "Protocol" "Auto" # Auto detect
Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"

HorizSync 0-99999

VertRefresh 0-99999

Identifier "** VMWare guest OS (generic) [vmware]"
Driver "vmware"
#VideoRam 262144
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate

Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "** VMWare guest OS (generic) [vmware]"
Monitor "My Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection

I appreciate your help.
 
Well 1280x800 is showing up. You can always use 'xrandr -s 1280x800' to change the resolution *after* X starts up. In the Monitor section, you can try adding a Modeline and PreferredMode option. I'm not 100% sure that the vmware driver supports it, but it'd be like so:

Modeline "1280x800_75.00" 106.50 1280 1360 1488 1696 800 803 809 838 -hsync +vsync
Option "PreferredMode" "1280x800_75.00"
 
Hi,

I can change the resolution using "xrandr -s "1280x800", but add those lines to my xorg.conf file doesn't do anything.

Where did you get those values that you told me to try, and what do they represent? (I have pretty limited math skills, so I am always a hesitant to screw around where I have to figure stuff out.)

Finally, what process would have helped me discover the solution by myself? I looked at the manual and untold numbers of forum posts and web pages, but never once saw it mentioned.

Thanks again for the help.
 
Yeah, I wasn't sure if the vmware driver would support the PreferredMode option, and I'm not surprised it doesn't. Those values came from the utility 'cvt'... It takes three arguments: the horizontal resolution, vertical resolution, and refresh rate. In this case, I ran 'cvt 1280 800 75'.

I'm not sure how to go about getting the vmware driver to use a specific resolution, by default, with your xorg.conf file. You could always simply add that xrandr command to your gnome/kde/xfce session (or your .xinitrc or .xsession file).

As for the process to finding the solution... I'm not sure there is one short of googling for information and running Xorg for years :)

Adam
 
Okay. I can live with changing the resolution manually.

I am pretty excited about using FreeBSD for everything once I get a little more experience with it, even though I like MS Windows. (Yes, yes, I know I am a schlub, but I can't help it... I think back to when Lotus and WordPerfect both cost hundreds of dollars twenty-some years ago and how hard it was to make them 'talk' to each other!)

Just for giggles, I also set up a VM with W2k and ran some Ruby programs, which I timed. I am just learning to program, so my Ruby programs are not very sophisticated, and I realize that my whole approach isn't overly scientific, but I am amazed at how much faster FreeBSD is.

Again, thanks for your help. It's great that people take the time to help strangers.
 
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