about X resolutions on non-laptops (xresprobe)

[Fabio Massimo Di Nitto]

On Wed, 25 Aug 2004, Ross Burton wrote:

> On Wed, 2004-08-25 at 08:32 +0200, Fabio Massimo Di Nitto wrote:
> > Scenario:
> >
> > - classic home made workstation with the most common video hardware
> >   available on the market.
> >
> > xresprobe (and all the underlaying tools) perfectly capable of
> > detecting the video card and the monitor.
> >
> > As we discussed during the last conference, our X resolution should be
> > set to the second best available and insert the others as option.
>
> By non-laptop do you really mean non-LCD?  My LCD monitor (assuming the
> probing worked, damn thing) supports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024
> and anything else looks a bit crap.

I mean any kind of monitor that is not on a laptop. It can be either LCD
or CRT and detectable. If it is not detectable there is no problem since
we are forced to ask the user.

> Will the X install process detect/ask if I have a LCD panel, or will it
> drop to 1024x786?

If we are not on a laptop, X will attempt a ddcprobe. If it fails it will
ask which resolution you want to use. Clearly if the probe is successful
you will get the resolution. The point here is which one.

> I presume the rationale for picking the second best resolution was many
> can monitors support high resolutions, but the refresh drops to 60Hz.

Exactly.

> By picking the second best generally the prime resolution is used.  How
> about picking the highest resolution which is available at 75Hz or
> greater by default (assuming CRT of course).

When we probe, we don't know if an LCD or a CRT is connected to the card.
none of the tools out there reports this information and we cannot assume
it. That's why we need to use a safe default for the first install.
The only thing we are 99.99999% sure is that if we are installing on a
laptop there is an LCD panel connected to it.

Fabio

-- 
<user> fajita: step one
<fajita> Whatever the problem, step one is always to look in the error log.
<user> fajita: step two
<fajita> When in danger or in doubt, step two is to scream and shout.