BEFN$?FN Ask Klaus! 8JB BC8LJ 1152x864, 1024x768, 832x624, 800x600, driver and is thus staying with the text- 720x400, and 640x480). mode resolution on the console. However, in System | Preferences | The default and setup resolutions de- Screen Resolution Klaus Knopper is the creator of , the monitor is shown pend on your version of Xorg. I’m not as UNKNOWN despite the name in xorg. sure which version of Xorg is used with Knoppix and co-founder of the conf being PLE1900 (for the iiyama your distribution, but if it is not older E1900S LCD monitor), and the list of res- than about half a year, it should be using LinuxTag expo. He currently olutions now reads 1280x1024, the randr extension, which means: works as a teacher, program- 1280x960, 1280x800, 1280x768, ฀ ฀฀฀฀฀฀฀฀ 1024x768, 800x600, and 640x480, own choice for the best resolution for mer, and consultant. If you have though when things went wrong, your card/ monitor combination, 1280x1024 disappeared. The refresh rate ฀ ฀Modes settings in /etc/X11/xorg. a configuration problem, or if is 60Hz. conf will probably be ignored, and you just want to learn more Where is the system picking up these ฀ ฀฀฀฀฀฀ resolutions, and how can I eliminate the desktop tools (usually running in the about how Linux works, send 1280x768? desktop panel), such as kandrtray or I used sudo displayconfig-gtk and was lxandr, which remember your last set- your questions to: able to select 1280x1024, and now two ting (hence the difference between dif- of my three users are OK, but although ferent user logins). klaus@linux-magazine. com my root primary user desktop is now Please check to see whether such a desk- 1280x1024, it has white bars on the left top tool is running in your desktop and right of the screen, as well as the panel. If it isn’t, try starting, for exam- normal white bars on the top and bot- ple, krandrtray of KDE, which will place tom. The User/ Password screen cannot a small monitor settings applet in your If^l\JZi\\eI\jfclk`fe be changed from a resolution that is ver- desktop panel that you can control with I need your help to overcome a tically stretched, so a circle becomes an left- or right-button mouse clicks. I be- problem with a rogue screen ellipse with the longer axis vertical. (I lieve your desktop configuration man- resolution using Ubuntu 8.04. think the resolution here is 1280x768.) ager also uses the X server randr exten- I might have caused the problem by The Splash screen has remained OK with sion and stores a setting somewhere that pressing the ESC key when the Splash no distortion. will get activated on login. Screen was showing. This was in a Can you please tell me what is hap- The good news is that you don’t have doomed attempt to see what was load- pening and how to correct the fault? I to change your X server configuration ing, and thus learn some more about the have read that Ubuntu will soon aban- anymore. The bad news is, if you try, problem. don xorg.conf. How will I be able to con- your attempt will probably be ignored. The LCD screen I’m using supports a trol things under the new configuration You can force a specific resolution for resolution of 1280x1024, but after I system? a randr-enabled X server by using the pressed ESC, the resolution changed xrandr utility as follows: to 1280x768 for the User/ Password I don’t think that switching back window and for all three of my user from the boot splash screen to xrandr --output LVDS 5 windows. I have looked at /etc/X11/xorg. the readable text console by hit- -s 1280x1024 conf, which now has a reasonable set of ting ESC really caused a problem for the resolutions (1280x1024, 1280x960, X server, unless it uses the framebuffer or 60 ISSUE 101 APRIL 2009 060-062_ask-klaus.indd 60 12.02.2009 14:29:32 Uhr Ask Klaus! BEFN$?FN xrandr --output LVDS 5 ฀ ฀฀sd module for scsi-like re- CXgkfgJfle[:Xi[ --mode 1280x1024 movable disks. This module is neces- I recently installed Ubuntu 8.10 sary in order to handle USB storage on my Medion MD 98300 laptop One of these two commands should devices the same way as SCSI hard in an effort to get rid of the Win- work. disks. dows Vista disaster that was delivered You can also change resolutions for Depending on the kernel configuration, with my system. Almost everything external monitors by using --output VGA you might have to load dependencies, works perfectly, but I am experiencing a instead of LVDS. such as the USB device white/ blacklists, few annoying problems. The biggest If you have problems with cut off bor- as well. You can check modules with the problem for the moment is the sound. ders of the screen, the most convenient modinfo modulename command to un- Playing music from my external hard way to fix these problems might be up- cover such dependencies, though all drive is no problem, but the music only dating the Xorg server and the Xorg modules might not fully support this plays through the built-in speakers. From video chipset-specific modules needed command. If you have the opportunity the moment I plug into a jack (with the for your card, rather than trying to set to get some kind of emergency shell cable going to my stereo-system), I have different options in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. when the USB hard disk doesn’t mount, no line out. Widescreen displays have much better check dmesg for a missing module load I tried to find a solution on the Ubuntu support in newer Xorg versions. attempt. documentation pages, but the proposed In most cases, the initramfs-tools will remedies (like upgrading to the most re- 9ffk@jjl\j take care of module dependencies in the cent ALSA driver) had no result. I can’t On the main drive, I have a initial ramdisk, but sometimes you have use a headphone or line out. small boot partition (akin to a to help by adding them manually to I looked on several forums to find peo- boot CD) with vmlinuz/initrd /etc/initramfs-tools/modules prior to call- ple with similar problems, but so far I installed in the /boot directory. Using ing mkinitramfs or update-initramfs. haven’t found a solution. I wonder grub’s configuration file menu.lst, I spec- Also, the /dev/sd* device files should whether you could give me any advice ify the root device as /dev/sdbx for a dis- be included in the initial ramdisk, so to get rid of this sound problem. (The tro installed on /dev/sdbx. But so far this that the disks actually get mounted. sound card is Intel HDA with a Realtek only works with Ubuntu Ibex. Fedora In some cases, accessing a USB hard ALC 883 audio-chip.) and SUSE fail – why? drive is simply a timing problem. The USB controller needs some time for de- Your sound card might suffer You have to make sure that ei- tecting and activating a device – up to 20 from a faulty internal mixer con- ther the initial ramdisk or the seconds. If you have access to the boot figuration. I have seen this kernel contains all USB drivers scripts used with your distro, adding a many times for the chipset you mention. necessary to operate a USB-storage de- sleep 10 before any mount attempt might The problem is that no matter which vice. The necessary components include: help. Booting with kernel append= op- value you set for the line out volume, it ฀ ฀฀฀฀฀฀ tion: does not change anything. In fact, this controller chips used on most com- also sometimes happens with the Master puter boards), usb-storage.delay_use=10 and PCM settings. ฀ ฀฀฀฀฀฀ The cause for this problem is often speed, might produce the necessary delay on switched channels. In other words, the ฀ ฀฀฀฀฀฀ the kernel side when USB storage is PCM or line out channel isn’t really disk” module), and compiled in. doing what the mixer program says it is doing. Instead, some other control on the mixer governs the function you are looking for. Often igain or phone out (re- ally!) sets the value you would have ex- pected to change when moving the line out slider. To solve the problem, first start the mixer tool of your choice. The more but- tons and sliders of different channels it has, the better. I usually try aumix or its graphical equivalent aumix-gtk first, but kmixer from KDE should do fine as well. Now play a sound file with the output socket attached to the speakers. (I as- sume you did not accidentally plug the speakers into the microphone or line-in socket.) Set Master, PCM, and line out to =`^li\(1K_\[d\j^ZfddXe[flkglkjk_\Zfek\ekjf]k_\b\ie\cd\jjX^\Yl]]\i% significant values (80 percent should be APRIL 2009 ISSUE 101 61 060-062_ask-klaus.indd 61 12.02.2009 14:29:33 Uhr BEFN$?FN Ask Klaus! sufficient), which will probably not In that case, you will have to use a In summary, I guess if I really want solve the problem yet, and then also in- mixer that can handle more than a single the Nero software for Linux I will have crease all other output channels to sound card and switch settings to the to purchase it. higher values. real output device. I understand that there are open Be careful with any so-called monitor source solutions that could provide the or feedback settings, which could cause C`eloF<DJf]knXi\ functionality that I am looking for to ugly noises when your laptop micro- I recently purchased a DVD burn DVDs.