Hi Mark;
On Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:32:00 -0800
Marc Chamberlin
Hello
I just got done installing openSuSE11.3 x64 on to my media center and WOW is the screen ever mucked up! And I don't have a clue how to fix it... So here are some of the particulars -
I am using an nVidia controller GeForce 8500GT I have 2 monitors connected to it, one is a 42 inch monitor that I run with a resolution of 1920x1080 dpi and the other is a small 6 inch monitor that I run at 800x600 dpi. I run these two monitors in clone mode with the second monitor using the pan ability to track the mouse cursor around the desktop.
What types are the monitors (LCD, plasma, CRT)? Is 11.3 using the same driver that 11.2 used? Just out of curiosity, what do you use such a big monitor for?
Under openSuSE11.2 I had these two monitors working fine. Note the usage of the word HAD, installing 11.3 has now seriously mucked up the display under 11.2 also... My disk drive is configured such that 11.2 and 11.3 were installed in their own partitions, and /home was installed in a separate partition, which I configured to mount under both 11.2 and 11.3. It is my belief that some configuration file must reside on my home directory /home/marc that worked ok for KDE and 11.2, but KDE and 11.3 did not like. So, contrary to what the openSuSE wiki says about how it is safe to port /home from one version of openSuSE to another, I must disagree! It didn't.
Very true. I tried a separate partition for home with different versions and different distros and it doesn't work. Finally ended up leaving /home under root (/) and having a common DATA partition with symlinks to Documents, Pictures, etc.
I will try to describe how the display appears, under 11.2 and 11.3, it is kinda similar but not quite. First of all the kicker bar at the bottom of the desktop is HUGE! Probably taking up a full 5th of the screen in height. In length it extends off screen at both edges, making it impossible to click on the SuSE applications icon at the far left, or seeing all of the clock at the far right. There are icons for Dolphin and launching a terminal window which are EXTREMELY small, hard to see, and icons for shutting down the system and locking the screen which are EXTREMELY large! Go figure that one!!!
Sounds like an inappropriate resolution problem. Have you tried changing it through editing xorg.conf? Do you have a backup of the 11.2 system (especially /etc)? If so, look at it's screen resolution for the settings that worked correctly.
I managed to unlock the widgets and bring up the control panel for the panel settings for the kicker. With that, I can adjust the height of the kicker bar, but if I try to make it a reasonable smaller height, the various icons will disappear below the edge of the screen. The handles to adjust the width of the kicker will not budge and remain immovable, no matter how I click on them and try to drag em.
The various plasmoids/widgets or whatever they are called, that go with the various activities are also extremely large. The activity bar that I had set up is now off the screen at the top and unreachable. So I can no longer switch activities. The xterm windows are launched extremely large also. but font size with in them is normal and what I have configured. Only the font size for the clock widget is extremely large.
In appearance, the main difference is that all the various windows in 11.3, do not form rectangular boxes, rather they are somewhat large stair steps along the vertical edges. Also the pan mode for the small monitor has stopped working. It does not appear I have the configuration tools I had in 11.2, in 11.3, such as Sax2, and the nVidia settings tool also seems to have changed. (extremely hard to use in 11.3 anywise due to the stair step effects on the windows, and mouse/cursor location does not seem to agree with what it is pointing at, so I have to guess where to put the cursor before clicking on something)
Yes, Sax2 was deprecated in 11.3 with no replacement. Best idea is to use the xorg.conf it generated in 11.2 to create a new one in 11.3. The automatic configuration doesn't take unusual scenarios into account yet.
I have uninstalled/reinstalled 11.3 with exactly the same results. I have also done a full update of everything from the repositories. Still no joy. If I were to take a guess, I would say that the nVidia driver is installing OK, (not sure about 11.3) judging by the background pictures shown on my desktop. But something is seriously mucked up with all the various KDE widgets, windows, toolbar, kicker etc...
Am willing to send any files that might be helpful, and thanks in advance for helping me with this problem.
Marc...
Perhaps send the "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf, /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf & /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-screen.conf". These are very small files. Tom -- Tom Taylor - retired penguin openSuSE 11.3 x86_64 openSUSE 11.4M5 x86_64 KDE 4.5.00, FF 3.6.8 claws-mail 3.7.6 registered linux user 263467 linxt-At-comcast-DoT-net -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-kde+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-kde+help@opensuse.org