From: piercj@aix.rpi.edu (Will Pierce) Subject: Re: Trident Vga Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1993 10:52:05 GMT
On the subject of trident cards, I have an 8900x myself, running on an
interlaced monitor...
I could not get ANY mode to work porperly in interlaced mode, which seemed
at first to be an insoluble problem (I posted earlier, about the halfway screen
problem), but I found a (tedious) fix:
I don't know if it's just the trident 8900c driver, but this worked for me:
Use the 1024x768 mode, and lower it to about 600 vertical resolution, using
the timings found in the original 800x600 mode in the monitor DB, then
(with the help of timings.exe) try to raise it to 640, using the timings that
different modes give you. This "almost" worked, but I had to really play and
play and play with the vertical timings. Once you get the horizontal timings
to work at 1024, it isn't necessary to change them. Do not use interlaced moe,
I repeat. Then try to raise the first number in the vertcial timings list,
to the vertical resolution, and the last number seems to control "flicker"
on my monitor. SO I then lower the last number from 800 or 768 to a
number that doesn't produce much flicker. Then I try to get the middle two
numbers (this is all in the /usr/X386/lib/X11/Xconfig file) to some
sane values that almost match this:
X1 X2 X3 X4
X1 = vertical resolution
X4 = requires playing with. Use about X1+20..X1+40
X2 ~= (X4-X1)/4 + X1
X3 ~= (X4-X1)/2 + X1
So that you have the difference between X2 and X1 twice that between X3 and X4,
and remember that these are just approximate, to really get it to look nice,
(I found) you have to adjust the middle numbers and last number to values that
don't hide the upper or lower parts of the window. This causes some really
strange (i.e. messed up) displays to come up, so abort those really quick.
Easy: a login in VC 1: startx only. a login to VC 2: emacs
/usr/X386/lib/X11/Xconfig
in this manner, you can change the Xconfig, try it out in VC 1, then abort to
make adjustments.
I ended up with these resolutions:
1024x600
1024x640
1024x670
1024x680
1024x690
1024x700
I don't know if this helped or not, but I adjust one of the little knobs on
the back of my monitor to reduce the vertical size of the display, then made
a mode that fit in nicely, which is probably not good for the monitor,
but I'm no hardware tech, so I am just hoping my display doesn't go poof
anytime. I've run it for awhile now, so I don't anticipate any problems.
If you are going to try this, set aside 2 hours or so, since adjusting the
timings in the Xconfig is pure torture. I.e. frustrating.
I hope this helps anyone who wants to try out new resolutions because their
monitors blow off other resolutions.
I'm happy at 1024x700 right now. Oh, and I use a $285 1024x768 Interlaced,
0.28 dot pitch, Infiniti monitor, on a trident 8900c w/ 1meg.
Later all.
-- || Will Pierce || piercj@rpi.edu || "PGP/!DES/VR/HLAB/LINUX - ideals" || \\ __ Obey. ____++____ Panic. _____++___ Enter my mind, thrill in it. ___//