[oclug] Desktop size doesn't match monitor resolution

[Aaron Wilcox]

On Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:30:05 -0400, Brad Barnett <lists at l8r.net> wrote:
>
> Generally, when an app changes a config file of another app, it copies  
> the
> original as a backup (hence, 'saxsave').  X.org uses xorg.conf unless  
> told
> otherwise.
>
> xorg.conf doesn't require any modelines in its config file for it to  
> work.
>  It can autodetect modes, monitor, everything these days.  If you want to
> see what modes X started with, and perhaps changes made to the resolution
> _after_ X started, look at the logfile in /var/log/.
>
> You seem to have some conflicting info, but usually monitors know what
> they are displaying.  This is why I asked you, "What makes you think
> something is wrong?".  Do you have reason to suspect that your monitor
> is incorrect?
>
> For example, when you resize a window, such as an xterm, does window
> dimension information pop up?  If so, what does it say when you make an
> xterm the size of the entire screen?  Again, what visual clues are  
> telling
> you that the monitor is wrong about the dimensions it believes it is
> displaying?
>
> After all, if you are running something less stable (like Debian testing
> or unstable, or even more unstable, Ubuntu), you may have a KDE build and
> perhaps even conflicting libraries.  X.org is changing fast, and any
> distro variant that changes fast is sure to have issues with this rapid
> change.
>
> So, again, look at your X.org log file, and generally trust your monitor
> in most cases.
>
> If these things don't help, you're going to have to provide some real
> detail.  For example, what distro are you using, what X version, and so
> on...

I'm running OpenSUSE 10.0 64-bit, X.org 6.8.2, NVidia GF6600 PCIe (has  
both RGB and DVI outputs).  The screen resolution is obviously lower than  
when it was displaying 1920x1200 px using the RGB connection, and a screen  
capture gave me an image size of 1680x1050 px.  Here's some suspicious  
looking stuff out of /var/log/Xorg.0.log:
...
(II) NVIDIA(0): Monitor[0]: Using hsync range of 30.00-81.00 kHz
(II) NVIDIA(0): Monitor[0]: Using vrefresh range of 56.00-75.00 Hz
(II) NVIDIA(0): Clock range:  12.00 to 155.00 MHz
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode "1920x1200" (bad mode  
clock/interlace/doublescan)
...
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode "1920x1200" (no mode of this name)
...
(**) NVIDIA(0): Validated modes for display device DFP-0:
(**) NVIDIA(0):      Mode "1680x1050": 154.8 MHz, 68.6 kHz, 63.0 Hz
...
(II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1680 x 1050
(**) NVIDIA(0): Display dimensions: (518, 320) mm
(**) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (82, 83)
...

-- 
Aaron Wilcox
aaron dot wilcox (at) sympatico dot ca