Issues w/ Xorg 7.0, Dell L610, and i810 drivers

[Philip Prindeville]

Alan Hourihane wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-06-20 at 16:34 -0600, Philip Prindeville wrote:
>   
>> Alan Hourihane wrote:
>>     
>>> On Tue, 2006-06-20 at 15:36 -0600, Philip Prindeville wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> I'm using a Dell L610 to run FC5 (updated), and it has an i915GM controller,
>>>> which uses the i810 drivers...
>>>>
>>>> I can't seem to configure it correctly (I've attached the config I'm
>>>> using).  It seems to have two issues.
>>>>
>>>> (1) it probes for the monitor DDC sync values, which disagree with what I've
>>>>     explicitly configured, but looking at the Xorg.0.log file, it gives
>>>>     no indication of what the EDID actually said the values were (grrr... you
>>>>     can never have too much logging).
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> You've actually specified "noddc" so it's not going to read the DDC
>>> information.
>>>   
>>>       
>> I've tried it both ways, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
>>
>> And since it won't tell me what it thinks the sync-timings of the flat-panel
>> are, I can enter those manually into xorg.conf in the "Monitor" section.
>>     
>
> >From what I can see it is detecting DDC and showing you the sync timings
> as well as using them.
>
>   
>> I also can't tell if the built-in screen is LFP, and if it's on PipeA or 
>> PipeB,
>> etc...
>>     
>
> Again, according to the log, it certainly shows you it's an LFP on
> PipeB.
>
>   
>>>> (2) it then complains that "1400x1050" isn't a known modeline (no mode of
>>>>     this name), even though I've explicitly configured a modeline with that
>>>>     exact setting.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> Specifying a modeline with the i810 driver without a matching BIOS
>>> modeline is fruitless.
>>>   
>>>       
>> You'd think the BIOS would know the modeline for the native resolution
>> of the panel!
>>     
>
> You would, but this is a majorly common problem. Look at bug 643 on
> bugs.freedesktop.org to see.
>
>   
>>> You should check out the program i915resolution to override one of your
>>> existing modes to the 1400x1050 mode. Given that your BIOS manufacturer
>>> neglected to add a 1400x1050 mode into the BIOS - this is currently your
>>> best route - unless you want to build the "modesetting" branch from git
>>> which programs the modes directly.
>>>
>>> Hope that helps,
>>>
>>> Alan.
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>> I hate VBE.
>>
>> Grrr.
>>
>> Usually the Dell hardware is fairly solid.  Are we positive that there's no
>> VBE mode for 1400x1050?  I made some minor changes to the config...
>> now I'm not getting that warning any longer, but the local flat-panel is
>> coming up 1280x1024...  As if the settings for the two monitors were
>> backwards...
>>     
>
> Positive. No mode for 1400x1050 so use i915resolution, or the
> "modesetting" branch as I've mentioned.
>
> Alan.
>
>   

I'm reading this code and seeing:

                            /* WARNING: I don't know at all what are the formulas
                               to calculate these values !
                               The following lines are only an example.
                            */

                            modeline->clock = freqs[i] * x;
                            
                            modeline->hsyncstart = x+10;
                            modeline->hsyncend   = x+20;
                            
                            modeline->vsyncstart = y+10;
                            modeline->vsyncend   = y+20;
                            
                            modeline->timing_h   = 0x2ff;
                            modeline->timing_v   = 0x4ff;

and I'm distinctly feeling the absence of warm and fuzzies.  Oh, well.

Does anyone have a .spec wrapper for this?

Just a thought.

I'll try it out.  Does this need to be run from /etc/rc.d/rc.local or
what?  Too bad there's no simple way to tell GDM to run this a program
as a preamble to starting the X server...

I suppose I could override the server-Standard program path with a script
that first runs 915resolution before invoking the server... sigh...

Gah.

-Philip