[PLUG] It's Here!!

John Jordan johnxj at comcast.net
Tue May 10 16:03:53 UTC 2005


On 9 May 2005, at 22:32, Jason R. Martin wrote:

> > And there is (as I feared) a problem with the video. It should be
> > running at 1280 x 800. Instead it is 1024 x 768, vesa. I
> > right-clicked on the desktop and went into settings, but that's the
> > only resolution option. I think I remember someone here or in the
> > R3000 e-list saying that he had a problem with the ATI Radeon Xpress
> > 200 and how he resolved it. I'll research that later.

> I am not familiar with ATI cards, since I'm an Nvidia guy, but my
> laptop has an 1280x800 display, and it is not supported by the
> standard X configuration tools (I run FC3).  The only distro I've used
> that detected and configured it right the first time was Ubuntu.  I
> would suggest Googling for something like "Radeon 1280x800 xorg.conf"
> and look for people who have set it up.  It will probably involve hand
> editing your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, though perhaps Yast is better at
> adding custom stuff than Fedora's tools.

OK, here is what I know and what I have recently figured out. First, 
there is an e-list for the Compaq R3000 series, the predecessor to 
my R4000. They all have 15.4 inch wide screens. Everyone on the 
list has no problem running at 1280 x 800, although sometimes 
they have to do something manually. However, with the R4000 line 
Compaq switched from the Nvidia video they used in the R3000 to 
the ATI Radeon Xpress Pro 200. That's the source of my problem.

However, I know I read somewhere about someone doing it. I just 
can't find it now that I need it. But later today I'll use your google 
suggestion and keep looking.

Last night I was chatting on IRC with a Linux guru. He wanted me 
to find the xorg.conf file, but it's not on this computer. Also, a lot of 
the bash commands he told me to use did not work. "Locate" and 
"slocate" just gave me "unknown command." He also wanted me 
to find the XF86Config file. Using the GUI file finder I finally found it. 
But when I opened it, it turned out to be a binary file. Evidently 
there is supposed to be a text file somewhere, but the binary is all I 
could find. By the end of our conversation he was expressing 
certain feelings about Suse. :)

> Modern linux distributions use the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
> (ALSA) for sound, which has separate mixer settings for a whole bunch
> of stuff, including CD and PCM (MP3/OGG/whatever digital audio).  Open
> the volume control and look for the CD mixer, it's probably set way
> low.

Aaah! That helps. Went in and fiddled with the sliders in the mixer 
(which I didn't even know was in there). Sound all good now. 

Except the Pause button on KsCD still doesn't stay paused. Oh 
well, I'll deal with that later. 




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