Whoops, I misplaced this message and only rediscovered it today... On Tuesday 08 October 2002 17:05, zentara wrote:
I would like to point out one thing which you "seem" to be overlooking, (or at least you are not mentioning it); and that is the video card in the laptop.
It says it's an ATI Mobility M3 AGP 2X (about 3-1/2 years old).
It dosn't matter how high-powered your external monitor is, the svga output is limited by the "svga circuits" inside the laptop.
Well, maybe in Linux it is. When I boot into Windows, I can have 1600x1200, with no complaint. I forget the refresh rate that's available at that resolution, but it's faster than 60Hz. At 1280x1024 and 24-bit color, I can have up to 85Hz..... but I have several reasons for not wanting to use Windows.
So your best bet, is to find out which type of svga card it is, then select that card under sax2's EXPERT menu, and try to work it's output up from there. Under monitor type, select 1280x1024 vesa Do a groups.google.com search for the svga card type and the laptop make, and see what others are doing.
I already searched on "ATI Mobility M3 AGP 2X " Linux, and got nothing very useful, after visiting dozens of pages. Maybe if my Polish was better? <g> There was a site with lists of boards and manufacturers, that told what chipset was used by a given board... but of course the link that I needed was broken. Some company called Xi would be happy to SELL me what I need, but I'd prefer not to pay if I don't really have to... and I'd like to learn how this stuff works. In a list this size, there must be a BUNCH of people who have SuSE and X working properly with a laptop and external monitor. There's probably some simple tweak/configuration that lets X know: a) that there are two different display devices available and, b) when/how to address each one. After all, Windoze can do it automatically. Hell, even Red Hat can do it. :-) If somebody has a laptop and external monitor, and gets 1200x1024 (approximately) and a vertical refresh rate of 70Hz or better (absolutely must have!!), could you please send me a copy of your X config files?? As far as I'm concerned, I've got some appropriate Modelines in XF86Config, now, but I don't know how to make X decide to use them. /kevin