Hi Mark;

On Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:32:00 -0800 Marc Chamberlin wrote:

...

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? Thanks Thomas for your thoughts/reply! Both of my monitors are LCD monitors. These are for my media center, I run mythTV, regular TV, music

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. The screen resolution settings are the same - 1920 x 1080 for the main monitor, 800x600 for the small monitor. What is bizarre to me is that under both 11.2 and 11.3 the size of the display area is slightly larger

On 2/4/2011 4:30 PM, Thomas Taylor wrote: programs like Amarok etc on it. The computer is in a small closet off my living room, hence the reason I have a small monitor in there, so I can see what is going on if I have to work on the computer. You asked if I am using the same driver for 11.2 and 11.3. I presume you are asking about the nVidia drivers? I used YaST2 in each OS and determined the following versions are being used. Your answer is a partial yes and no! But these are the purported lasted versions available from the respective nVidia repositories. openSuSE11.2 nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-default 260.19.29_2.6.31.5_0.1-21.1 nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop 260.19.29_2.6.31.5_0.1-21.1 x11-video-nvidiaG02 260.19.29-22.1 openSuSE11.3 nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop 260.19.29_k2.6.34.0_12-21.1 x11-video-nvidiaG02 260.19.29-22.1 xorg-x11-driver-video-nouveau 0.0.15_20100401_bfb95cc-1.10 I found it interesting that the "default" version of the nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-default is also required in 11.2. It purports to support older GPUs than the one I have, but it is required. I tried to remove it and that was disastrous! than what the actual screen size is, meaning there is stuff that is apparently being displayed beyond the physical edge of the screen. This was NOT happening in 11.2 until I installed 11.3 and found my displays messed up under both OS's! That means it has to have been affected by something changing in my /home/marc directory, not in the /etc directory.

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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 wish the openSuSE developers wouldn't remove software before the replacement is really ready. It leaves us in a difficult position. I don't know what the status is now, and whether recovering Sax2 and using xorg.conf will break the new model of automatic configuration with 11.3.

That said, I decided to try an follow your advice, and simply copied the xorg.conf file from my 11.2 installation over to the 11.3 installation. That has given mixed results! I no longer have the stair step edges to my windows and was able to resize the various plasmoids/widgets within each activity. But the kicker bar remains extremely large and extends off screen as before. It cannot be resized without losing the icons below the edge of the screen. Also, a new problem may have developed. A couple of times (not every time it appears, after I boot up) I notice the mouse is moving very jerky. It stops for awhile, then will unfreeze and move again. I ran top while doing so and notice that the Xorg process was using 99% of the CPU when this happens. Mouse clicks and other system actions also are sluggish. Over time it gets steadily worse until the system becomes so unusable that I consider it froze and have to force a hardware reset of the system and reboot. Worrisome!

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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

Ok here is the contents of the files you requested - cat 50-device.conf Section "Device" Identifier "Default Device" #Driver "radeon" ## Required magic for radeon/radeonhd drivers; output name ## (here: "DVI-0") can be figured out via 'xrandr -q' #Option "monitor-DVI-0" "Default Monitor" EndSection cat 50-monitor.conf Section "Monitor" Identifier "Default Monitor" ## If your monitor doesn't support DDC you may override the ## defaults here #HorizSync 28-85 #VertRefresh 50-100 ## Add your mode lines here, use e.g the cvt tool EndSection cat 50-screen.conf Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Device "Default Device" ## Doesn't help for radeon/radeonhd drivers; use magic in ## 50-device.conf instead Monitor "Default Monitor" EndSection -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-kde+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-kde+help@opensuse.org

On 02/05/2011 12:25 PM, Marc Chamberlin wrote:

Hello -

OK! I managed to solve this problem, but I really don't understand why this worked... What I did...

1. Copied over my xorg.conf file from openSuSE11.2 to openSuSE11.3

2. Since the desktops now appeared similar under both OS's, I booted up 11.2 where I had vnc servers already configured. I then vnc'ed into my media center from my laptop. In the vnc window I noticed that I could see the WHOLE desktop, unlike on my monitor where I was not seeing things close to the edges.

3. Within the VNC window, I noticed that there were empty panel toolbars around both the left and right edges, as well as at the top of the desktop. I removed these, and then the kicker bar at the bottom of the screen started behaving properly. I was able to resize it, making it smaller in height, and none of the icons disappeared off the bottom of the screen. (Why in the world were these empty tool bar panels configured to be part of the desktop? That is beyond my capabilities to grok!!! If a user wants em, let him/her decide and add, don't force such nonsense on em, that just opens up possible problems like this one! IMHO...)

4. Rebooted the system to 11.3, crossed my fingers, and when the desktop appeared, the kicker bar was now visible, all icons showed up on it, and it was normal in height!

5. Checked the ability to pan on my smaller monitor, and it too is now working.

This was NOT easy to figure out! Took many hours of fooling around with it, but I managed to get to a solution. Don't know why Sax2 and xorg.conf had to be suddenly removed in this release, and not slowly phased out over a couple of releases. It would have been more appropriate that an immediate warning be given that these tools were being deprecated, when used, and a description given as to what the alternative approach was for configuring these monitors/displays.. That way there would have been an obvious fallback in case things went wrong, and more time to do testing before the final switchover would occur. Hope the next release will be easier...

Marc...

Marc Congrats! That was a tough one. I would write down the steps in case some one else may run into the same problem. -- Cheers! Roman openSUSE 11.3 - 2.6.37-6-desktop "http://counter.li.org" #179293 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-kde+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-kde+help@opensuse.org