Introduction:
Having stuffed up my Yellowdog 2.1 installation, I decided to reinstall, only to find that my one and only YDL 2.1 CD was damaged. I bought a new YDL 2.2 set and promptly installed that onto my Quicksilver 733MHz G4, with a ColorSync 17" monitor. (Although I have had similar problems, with the same sort of solution with my Compaq Presario running RedHat 7.)
After configuring the monitor for 1280x1084 at 16 bit depth and re-booting, I immediately ran into two problems :-
a) The screen image was misshapen and flickering
b) The dreaded "dead mouse pointer" problem.
This is how I fixed those problems...
Content
A) Fixing the Screen
When you configure the X-Windows server, either while doing an install, or by using the program Xconfigurator, a file
XF86Config-4is written in the
/etc/X11directory. This has several sections -- ServerLayout, Files, Module, InputDevice and Monitor. The contents of these sections are governed by what the setup program discovers in your computer, and the choices you make.
We are concerned with the Monitor section.
You are likely to have a number of lines that look like this, in the middle to last half of the file :-
-------------------------------------------------------------------- # 640x480 @ 85 Hz, 43.27 kHz hsync Modeline "640x480" 36 640 696 752 832 ... -HSync -VSync # 1152x768 @ 55 Hz, 44 kHz hsync (TiBook) # PowerBook G4 # D: 64.994 MHz, H: 44.154 kHz, V: 54.781 Hz Modeline "1152x768" 65 1152 1178 1314 1472 768 ... +HSync +VSync # 1152x864 @ 89 Hz interlaced, 44 kHz hsync ModeLine "1152x864" 65 1152 1168 1384 1480 ... Interlace # 800x600 @ 72 Hz, 48.0 kHz hsync Modeline "800x600" 50 800 856 976 1040 ... +hsync +vsync # 1024x768 @ 60 Hz, 48.4 kHz hsync Modeline "1024x768" 65 1024 1032 1176 1344 ... -hsync -vsync # 640x480 @ 100 Hz, 53.01 kHz hsync Modeline "640x480" 45.8 640 672 768 864 ... -HSync -VSync # 1152x864 @ 60 Hz, 53.5 kHz hsync Modeline "1152x864" 89.9 1152 1216 1472 1680 ... -HSync -VSync # 800x600 @ 85 Hz, 55.84 kHz hsync Modeline "800x600" 60.75 800 864 928 1088 ... -HSync -VSync # 1024x768 @ 70 Hz, 56.5 kHz hsync Modeline "1024x768" 75 1024 1048 1184 1328 ... -hsync -vsync # 1280x1024 @ 87 Hz interlaced, 51 kHz hsync Modeline "1280x1024" 80 1280 1296 1512 1568 ... Interlace # 800x600 @ 100 Hz, 64.02 kHz hsync Modeline "800x600" 69.65 800 864 928 1088 ... -HSync -VSync # 1024x768 @ 76 Hz, 62.5 kHz hsync Modeline "1024x768" 85 1024 1032 1152 1360 ... # 1152x864 @ 70 Hz, 62.4 kHz hsync Modeline "1152x864" 92 1152 1208 1368 1474 ... # 1280x1024 @ 61 Hz, 64.2 kHz hsync Modeline "1280x1024" 110 1280 1328 1512 1712 ... -------------------------------------------------------------------- (I have truncated each line, to make them fit neatly.) Each line has two parts, a description, followed by a Modeline, that actually passes instructions onto the X-Server, and thence to your monitor. This part of the file describes all the possible settings that the configuration program thought your monitor could do. At the end of the file is a section that looks like this :- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Card0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 16 SubSection "Display" Depth 1 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 4 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 8 Modes "1280x1024" ViewPort 0 0 Virtual 1280 1024 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 15 Modes "1280x1024" ViewPort 0 0 Virtual 1280 1024 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "1280x1024" ViewPort 0 0 Virtual 1280 1024 EndSubSection . . . EndSection --------------------------------------------------------------------This section gives the possible color depths that the configuration program thought your monitor could do, along with the screen resolution that you selected. The section "DefaultDepth 16" shows that it should run the 16 Bit Depth section.
So, the X-Server is going to try to run the monitor at 1280x1024, at 16 bits colour depth. However, which one will it run, as there are several mentioned in the top section? The answer is that it runs the first one it comes across, in this case,
# 1280x1024 @ 87 Hz interlaced, 51 kHz hsync Modeline "1280x1024" 80 1280 1296 1512 1568 ... InterlaceThis is an interlaced setting, accounting for the screen flicker. If you disable the Modeline, by commenting it out, thus :-
# 1280x1024 @ 87 Hz interlaced, 51 kHz hsync # Modeline "1280x1024" 80 1280 1296 1512 1568 ... Interlacethen the system drops down to the next available 1280x1024 line, which is
# 1280x1024 @ 61 Hz, 64.2 kHz hsync Modeline "1280x1024" 110 1280 1328 1512 1712 ...and this works quite nicely on my system.
Similarly, if I want to use the 1152x864 resolution, then I found that I need to comment out these lines :-
# 1152x864 @ 89 Hz interlaced, 44 kHz hsync # ModeLine "1152x864" 65 1152 1168 1384 1480 ... Interlace . . # 1152x864 @ 60 Hz, 53.5 kHz hsync # Modeline "1152x864" 89.9 1152 1216 1472 1680 ... -HSync -VSyncso that
# 1152x864 @ 70 Hz, 62.4 kHz hsync Modeline "1152x864" 92 1152 1208 1368 1474 ...is used. Alternatively, you could just delete all the lines you don't want to see in your XF86Config-4 file.
Depending on your computer and monitor, you may need to experiment to find what settings work with your setup. I found that the easiest way was to run XConfigurator in text mode. As detailed in another HOWTO, use CTRL OPTION F1 or F2 to get to a text screen, and type
/usr/sbin/init 3to turn off the X-Server. Then use Xconfigurator to write your XF86Config-4 file in your /etc/X11 directory. Edit this file with vi or pico, and test it by running
startxWhen all is well, reset the X-Server by
/usr/sbin/init 5If all works properly, then reboot and have fun, otherwise, edit the XF86Config-4 file again.
B) Reviving the Dead Mouse
Having done all of that, and setting the system for a graphical login, I found that the mouse would freeze up when X-Windows started. I found that if I used Xautoconfig4, instead of Xconfigurator, to set up the screen, the mouse worked. Unfortunately, Xautoconfig4 sets the screen to 640x480, decidedly not the best use of a 17" monitor.
Obviously, there was something different about the way Xautoconfig4 set up the screen from the way Xconfigurator was. I went through a couple of setup files, turning things off and on by commenting them out and then back in again, until I hit the line :-
# BusID "PCI:0:16:0"Bingo! In the file where the mouse worked, this line was active. In the file where the mouse froze, it was commented out, as above. Deleting the asterisk, so
BusID "PCI:0:16:0"revived the mouse, so that after running
/usr/sbin/init 5again, the mouse pointer still worked properly.
This HOWTO was written by David Waites
