New Monitor Weirdnesses or how do I get Xorg to pay attention to my xorg.conf file?

Fri Dec 4 12:11:33 PST 2015

I am just using the KVM included in CentOS7 with Cloudstack.
Not sure what I am missing by not including Xen but I am pretty new at it.

I can not help but believe that CentOS 7 would be a better platform for 
virtualization than CentOS 5.

CentOS 7 is not too bad but it is different and it has taken me a while 
to stop fighting it.
The changes to networking and the firewall were hard to absorb. The new 
way to manage processes is still a bit of a challenge for me but I am 
not spending any time on this since it works just fine.

I run a software firewall, DNS server and virtual router which I moved 
from CentOS 4 to CentOS 7 and it seems to work better but it is hard to 
tell if it is the newer hardware or the new OS. This is a critical part 
of the infrastructure and I am happy with the change.
The hardware was too old to run the nouveau driver properly so I am 
running the NVIDIA legacy driver. Works but I am not using it as a 
workstation.

Ron

  On 04/12/2015 12:43 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> At Fri, 4 Dec 2015 11:42:18 -0500 xorg at lists.x.org wrote:
>
>> If you ready for some fun, CentOS 7 is out and into its third revision.
>>
>> Did I miss the discussion about the drivers from NVIDIA? I am using them
>> with new and old hardware(different machines).
>> A bit tricky to get working and there are different drivers for legacy
>> cards and newer cards.
> The drivers from NVIDIA are not supported for Xen-based systems.  I am using
> Xen for virtualization, so the drivers from NVIDIA are not an option.
> Appearently the kernel and Xorg that sh
>
>> I had trouble with the nouveau driver but it may have been me or may
>> have been an early version.
> The nouveau driver is not available for CentOS 5 -- the kernel and Xorg
> libraries are too old.
>
>> CentOS 7 runs well but it does have a lot of changes to the tools that
>> one got used to in CentOS 5 and 6.
> *I* am not ready for that big a change.  It would probably be too disruptive
> for my work flow.  I *may* install CentOS 7 as a VM at some point.
>
>> It is supposed to be a better workstation OS.
>>
>> I am still running 5 and 6 on some production machines.
>> I am not using my units as workstations but like to have the GUI working
>> well in case I have some maintenance activities that are easier in the GUI.
>>
>> Ron
>>
>> On 04/12/2015 10:30 AM, Robert Heller wrote:
>>> At Fri, 4 Dec 2015 12:32:59 +1000 Dave Airlie <airlied at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 4 December 2015 at 12:27, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:
>>>>> At Thu, 3 Dec 2015 16:27:22 -0500 Felix Miata <mrmazda at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Robert Heller composed on 2015-12-03 16:00 (UTC-0500):
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I use a distro with long term support.
>>>>>> Not without a price. What you have is hardware technology that is more
>>>>>> advanced than the foundation on which that support is built. A GeForce 8200
>>>>>> needs either the FOSS nouveau driver, which seems to be missing from CentOS
>>>>>> 5, or the proprietary NVidia driver. VESA is a low technology fallback driver
>>>>>> wholly incapable of properly supporting widescreen displays. AFAICT, there's
>>>>>> no amount of xorg.conf or xrandr twiddling you can do to overcome the
>>>>>> shortcomings of a fallback driver.
>>>>> The video chipset has been working fine with the CentOS software, with a 4:3
>>>>> monitor. The (available) proprietary NVidia driver won't work with a Xen
>>>>> kernel.
>>>> The graphics card BIOS contains the modes that vesa can use. It doesn't have
>>>> widescreen modes in it. The below 3 choices are yours.
>>>>
>>>> CentOS6 should drive things better in theory.
>>> I guess I will have to upgade to CentOS 6...
>>>
>>>> Dave.
>>>>>>>    *I* have better things to do than
>>>>>>> spend all of my time dealing with incompatible updates every few months.
>>>>>> You have 3 choices that I can see:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1-upgrade software to the technology level of your hardware (nouveau driver,
>>>>>> likely requiring KMS kernel)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2-backlevel your video hardware (either supported gfxcard, or supported 4:3
>>>>>> or 5:4 aspect display)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 3-suffer a standard aspect video mode on your widescreen display
>>>>> --
>>>>> Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
>>>>> Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
>>>>> http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
>>>>> heller at deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>                                                                                                     
>>

-- 
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: rwheeler at artifact-software.com
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102