Side note about wrong monitor size [was Re: New monitor, pink vertical line ...]

[Dave Witbrodt]

John Stoffel wrote:
> What happens if you put back in the 58xx card and clear out the
> Monitor section from your xorg.conf file completely?  Let the KMS
> figure out the monitor settings on it's own?  Do you get the screwy
> pink line then?

The HD 5750 gives me the pink line before X even runs!  The problem, I 
believe, lies with the HDMI support in the Evergreen DRM code.  I am not 
the only Evergreen user to be affected by this.

Just for kicks, I removed xorg.conf completely.  The Xorg.0.log files 
produced were barely different:  the changes mostly have to do with 
autodetection of Default Screen and loss of Monitor sections. 
Interestingly, the removal of the Monitor sections causes this change in 
the Xorg.0.log output:

     -(**) RADEON(0): Display dimensions: (593, 371) mm
     -(**) RADEON(0): DPI set to (82, 82)
     +(==) RADEON(0): DPI set to (96, 96)

The first two lines are expected, since I removed the monitor section 
that specified the physical size of the monitor.  The line replacing 
them ought to be indicating a DPI of 82 since the correct resolution and 
screen size are detected:

     (II) RADEON(0): clock: 154.0 MHz   Image Size:  593 x 371 mm

Instead, either the radeon driver or the X server is altering the 
physical screen size to this:

     (II) RADEON(0): Setting screen physical size to 508 x 317

This also happens with my HD 4850 (even with my old xorg.conf being 
used) if I use the DVI-to-HDMI converter cable.  With the new HDMI cable 
being used (on HD 4850), I get the correct physical size:  593x371.

Baffling....


> Good lukc, and thanks for all your testing.  I'm slowly getting
> tempted to upgrade from my x1650 card.  :]

Thanks.  I purchased the HD 5750 knowing that Linux open driver support 
would be lousy or nonexistent.  Or, stated another way, I knew that 
support was being newly introduced, and it was my big chance to 
contribute by testing the new support as it is developed!

My big regret is that I still have not improved my skill set enough to 
contribute code.  I taught myself C, and then C++, in the early 1990s; I 
was even writing assembly language subroutines and integrating them with 
C++ programs.  But I stopped programming for many years.  I actually 
tutor some beginning courses at a local community college, but have only 
been learning Unix tools very slowly since installing Linux for the 
first time in 2005.  I have a long-term goal of becoming a Debian 
Maintainer (or Developer).

At this late date, I had hoped to be able to contribute code (instead of 
mere testing) to efforts like Evergreen support in DRM, radeon, and 
Mesa.  It's very frustrating to not have the time or the skill set to be 
able to do so (yet).  Hopefully within a year or two....


Dave W.