topic title: higher resolution in X using vesa? SOLVED
Posts: 1,028
SamK
Joined: 21 Aug 2011
#1
How does one force a higher resolution in X using vesa when booting from a conventional hard disk installation?

The system is capable of console 791, gui 1024x768. The boot parameter vga=791 is accepted and produces the expected console resolution. The highest gui resolution obtained is 800x600.

The graphics card and monitor both support 1024x768 as evidenced by Tinycore (booted live) producing that resolution using xvesa.

The system is antiX-15.1-Stable

Kernel

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uname -r
4.2.1-antix.2-486-smp
Graphic card

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inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Mach64 GTB [3D Rage II+ DVD
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 driver: vesa Resolution: 800x600@0.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.5, 128 bits) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2
Automatically produced xorg.conf

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cat / etc/X11/xorg.conf
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
# xorg.conf file
#
# Generated by make-xorg-conf sometime around Tue Dec  8 11:14:43 GMT 2015
#
# If you want to save customizations, delete the line above or this
# file will get automatically deleted on the next live boot.
#----------------------------------------------------------------------

Section"Monitor"
    Identifier"Monitor0"
    Option"DPMS""true"
EndSection

Section"Device"
    Identifier"Device0"
    Driver    "vesa"
EndSection

Section"Screen"
    Identifier"Screen0"
    Monitor"Monitor0"
    Device "Device0"
    SubSection"Display"
        Modes"1280x1024""1333x768""1024x768""800x600"
    EndSubSection
EndSection
I've tried removing all unwanted modes from xorg.conf (1280x1024 1333x768 800x600) and also renaming xorg.conf to prevent its use. The resolution remains 800x600.

According to smxi the ati/radeon driver for the card is no longer used, so not much hope in that direction.
Last edited by SamK on 11 Dec 2015, 05:50, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 88
kmathern
Joined: 25 Aug 2012
#2
You might need to set the color depth to 16 bits to get the higher resolution, maybe try adding a DefaultDepth 16 line to the Screen section of the xorg.conf file.
Posts: 1,028
SamK
Joined: 21 Aug 2011

11 Dec 2015, 05:40 #3

kmathern wrote:You might need to set the color depth to 16 bits to get the higher resolution, maybe try adding a DefaultDepth 16 line to the Screen section of the xorg.conf file.
Thank you very much kmathern, your suggestion produces the wanted higher resolution.

Abstract from edited xorg.conf

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[...]
Section"Screen"
    Identifier"Screen0"
    Monitor"Monitor0"
    Device "Device0"
    DefaultDepth 16
    SubSection"Display"
        Modes"1280x1024""1333x768""1024x768""800x600"
    EndSubSection
EndSection
Resolution obtained in GUI

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inxi -c0 -G
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Mach64 GTB [3D Rage II+ DVD]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 driver: vesa Resolution: 1024x768@0.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.5, 128 bits) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2
Posts: 72
cwilliams
Joined: 16 Aug 2013
#4
I had an older machine that needed a couple more tweaks to get the last bit of performance out of xorg.conf
Under the Section"Device" I needed to add
VideoRam mem
This optional entry specifies the amount of video ram that is installed on the graphics board. This is measured in kBytes. In most cases this is not required because the Xorg server probes the graphics board to determine this quantity. The driver-specific documentation should indicate when it might be needed.
I think mine was 8192 for 8 meg of onboard ram.
The last thing was the BIOS AGP arperture size.
I think I tried all settings , but 64 Meg was optimum for that board/card combo.
I also had an IBM laptop which needed the AGP built-in card to be called out as a PCI device.
BusID"bus-id"
This specifies the bus location of the graphics card. For PCI/AGP cards, the bus-id string has the form PCI:bus:device:function (e.g.,"PCI:1:0:0" might be appropriate for an AGP card). This field is usually optional in single-head configurations when using the primary graphics card. In multi-head configurations, or when using a secondary graphics card in a single-head configuration, this entry is mandatory. Its main purpose is to make an unambiguous connection between the device section and the hardware it is representing. This information can usually be found by running the Xorg server with the -scanpci command line option.
Once I finally got it tuned , the so-so graphics were quite good after all.
Colin
Posts: 1,028
SamK
Joined: 21 Aug 2011
#5
This topic led to this idea
xvesa-suggestion-t6128.html