Solved Screen Resolution (only 800x600 and 640x480 available)

S

smnbldwn

I just installed FreeBSD on a Advent 4211b (MSI Wind clone). Having followed instructions to get XFCE4 running on it, it is working pretty well but the top screen resolution available is 800x600 which doesn't match the shape of the screen so images are distorted. I checked and the screen goes up to 1024x600. I let Xorg auto configure. What is the best way to address this? I checked on Xrandr and found that just 800x600 and 640x480 were available.
 
Last edited:
Install graphics/drm-kmod, follow the instructions and see if that works better.

Code: 
CPU	Intel Atom processor N270 Single Core 1.6Ghz
BIOS	Press DEL to enter
Chipset	Mobile Intel 945GSE
Memory	1GB DDR2 533Mhz SODIMM PC4300 (2 memory slots. Max 2GB)
Hard Drive	80GB Western Digital WD800BEVS *
CD Drive	Not Fitted
Screen	10" widescreen TFT (native resolution 1024x600)
Video Card	Intel 945GME (64MB shared)
Web Cam	1.3 Megapixel
Sound Card	Realtek ALC888 integrated soundcard
Modem	Not Installed
Network Card	Realtek RTL8101E/8102E LAN controller (onboard)
Realtek RTL8187SE (MS-6894) Wireless LAN
MSI MS-6837D Bluetooth
Ports	1x Kensington Lock
3x USB 2.0
1x 4-in-1 Card Reader (supports SD, MMC, MS, MS-PRO cards)
1x Microphone
1x Headphone
1x VGA
1x LAN
Battery	BTY-S11 (11.1v 2200mAh)
BTY-S12 (11.1v 4400mAh)
Power Supply	ADP-40MH Power supply
Dimensions	28 x 260 x 178 (HxWxD in mm)
Weight	1.2kg
Colour	Black/Silver
Made By	MSI Wind U100
 
Code: 
OS: FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE-p9 i386
   yo`:.            :o      `+-    Uptime: 53 mins
    y/               -/`   -o/     Packages: 454 (pkg)
   .-                  ::/sy+:.    Shell: sh
   /                     `--  /    Resolution: 800x600
  `:                          :`   DE: Xfce4 4.16
  `:                          :`   WM: Xfwm4
   /                          /    WM Theme: Default
   .-                        -.    Theme: Adwaita [GTK3]
    --                      -.     Icons: Adwaita [GTK2/3]
     `:`                  `:`      Terminal: xfce4-terminal
       .--             `--.        Terminal Font: Monospace 12
          .---.....----.           CPU: Intel Atom N270 (2) @ 1.600GHz
                                   GPU: Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics
                                   Memory: 930MiB / 982MiB
 
Thank you for the tip. I have installed the graphics_drm-kmod package but I am not sure what to do next. Where are the instructions I need to follow?
 
smnbldwn said:
I just installed FreeBSD on a Advent 4211b (MSI Wind clone). Having followed instructions to get XFCE4 running on it, it is working pretty well but the top screen resolution available is 800x600 which doesn't match the shape of the screen so images are distorted. I checked and the screen goes up to 1024x800. I let Xorg auto configure. What is the best way to address this? I checked on Xrandr and found that just 800x600 and 640x480 were available.
Click to expand...

Install drm-kmod as outlined above in post #3 of this thread. Reboot the computer after installing it.

Use the cvt command to get the correct modeline data for your desired resolution. Example:
Code: 
$ cvt 1200 800
# 1200x800 59.86 Hz (CVT) hsync: 49.74 kHz; pclk: 78.00 MHz
Modeline "1200x800_60.00"   78.00  1200 1264 1384 1568  800 803 813 831 -hsync +vsync

Determine your monitor's identifier name by searching your dmesg output for the search string "Connector". In this example, my monitor is identified as "VGA-0" but your monitor will most likely use a different identifier.

Create or modify the file /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf or a similar file, along the following lines, using the exact modeline data you obtained using cvt for your "Modeline" and "PreferredMode" Option:
Code: 
Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "VGA-0"
  Modeline "1200x800_60.00"   78.00  1200 1264 1384 1568  800 803 813 831 -hsync +vsync
  Option     "PreferredMode" "1200x800_60.00"
EndSection

Reboot the computer. If your XFCE resolution doesn't then look good enough for your purposes, try again using 1200x600 resolution instead of 1200x800, as 1200x600 was indicated to be the native resolution for your monitor in post #3 of this thread.
 
My mistake in the initial post, it should say 1024x600. Thank you for these instructions, I will try them when I get home.
 
I found the information about the display in dmesg:

Code: 
vgapci0: <VGA-compatible display> port 0xd0f0-0xd0f7 mem 0xdfe80000-0xdfefffff,0xc0000000-0xcfffffff,0xdff00000-0xdff3ffff irq 16 at device 2.0 on pci0  
vgapci1: <VGA-compatible display> mem 0xdfe00000-0xdfe7ffff at device 2.1 on pci0

There wasn't a xorg.conf set up already if I create a new one, will it be read or do I need to change something? Also, is my device name pci0 or vgapcio?

Thank you.
 
If you create a new xorg.conf file it will be read. You don't need a device name for this, you need a Connector name.

You should see a "Connector" string in your dmesg output if you are loading drm. If you're not loading drm you may need the following line in /etc/rc.conf:
Code: 
kld_list="i915kms"

Then reboot and check dmesg output again. You should then see a line like this:
Code: 
[drm] Connector eDP-1: get mode from tunables:
In this example, the monitor Identifier would be "eDP-1".
 
<https://bsd-hardware.info/?view=search&name=945GSE&d=freebsd&typeid=graphics+card#list> finds a few matches for 945GSE, although please ignore advice to install graphics/drm-legacy-kmod (I'll report a bug).

Re: <https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics#drm-kmod>

sysrc -f /etc/rc.conf kld_list+=i915kms

– there would have been a comparable hint after you installed the package.
  • …
  • Ensure that your UID is a member of the video group.
  • Restart your system. You should see i915kms listed, and a flash of the console when the display driver is switched.
  • …
In most cases:
  • …Manual configuration of X.Org is not required
  • …
Click to expand...


Postscript

github.com

References to deprecated, obsolete drm-legacy-kmod · Issue #129 · linuxhw/hw-probe

At https://bsd-hardware.info/?view=search&name=945GSE&d=freebsd&typeid=graphics+card#list the first and last of the thirteen matches (I didn't check others) include a link to: drm-legacy This port ...
github.com github.com
 
Thank you for all your help with this. I am posting this from my Advent 4211 with the correct screen resolution! I added the command to load the i915kms module but got a message on startup that it couldn't be loaded. I therefore installed drm-fbsd13-mod which also brought in gpu-firmware-kmod. I added my user to the video group and rebooted. It loaded the module and defaulted to 1024x600 as it should. I couldn't have got here without all the helpful advice on here.
 
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