Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003, James Miller wrote:

> On Mon, 10 Nov 2003, Day Brown wrote:
>
> > James Miller wrote:
> > > I'd set up for an S3 ViRGE/VX 86C988.
> > I've had trouble with that one too. IIRC, Mandrake dont run it either.
> > Corel (debian 2.2.1) does pretty well with it, but you havta scoot the
> > monitor image way over to make it fit right.
> >
> Well, I think I've finally figured out what xvidtune does and how to use
> it (generates a set of modelines that you then can copy and paste into
> your XF86Config file).  I think that might fix this problem - which I've
> also run into in this, and other, situations using Linux.  We'll see about
> that . . .
>
Day and others.  I have now been able to confirm that xvidtune does, in
fact, resolve the problem of the misaligned display image (what Day was
talking about having to "scoot the monitor image way over to make it fit
right" [the monitors dipswitches doing likely the "scooting" in his
case]).  Many times I've been confronted during BL and other Slack
installs with running xvidtune, and have even fiddled around with it.  I
just couldn't quite figure out what it was doing, and what I was supposed
to do in response.  Then, I ran across an article on a totally different
subject (installing some distro or other), and it happened to mention
running xvidtune to get the display image centered correctly on the
monitor, and that this utility writes a set of "modelines" for those
settings (don't ask me what modelines are: I have only the faintest
notion).  So, just now as I was finetuning the X display I finally got out
of the Virge card I posted about earlier, I was able to position the
monitor's display image correctly using xvidtune.  I just ran XF86Setup
(part of the xset package, right, Steven?), and at the end of setting all
the display settings, I was asked if I wanted to run xvidtune (apparently
xvidtune can also be run separately, but for Slack it seems to be
integrated into XF86Setup).  I, of course, accepted.  In xvidtune, I
fiddled with repositioning the various slide controls until the picture
was centered correctly on the monitor (if you try to use problematic
settings, it will refuse to use them and give you an error message): the
display was initially noticeably off to the right - a small portion of the
display even getting cut off on that side.  I fixed that by manipulating
the slide controls in xvidtune and got the thing centered correctly.
Then, I hit "apply", and the settings stuck.  I also hit "show", since on
the manpage for xvidtune it says this "prints the settings in modeline
output to stdout" (whatever that means).  Then, I hit "quit", and was put
back in XF86Setup where I was informed I had created a valid XF86Config
file.  I hit "ok" and was once again back at the CLI.  Next time I fired
up X, sure enough, the picture was properly centered.  At long last, I
discovered how to correct this misaligned display problem (without
resorting to fiddling with the monitor's dipswitches).  I hope I can save
someone some trouble and confusion with this description of what I did.

Now, a couple of questions - probably best fielded by Steven.  First, does
anyone have anything to add to the description I've posted above?
Secondly, doesn't xvidtune as it's integrated into the XF86Setup program
automatically (if you've clicked the right series of buttons - I'm still
unclear on which need to be clicked, and in what sequence; all I can say
for sure is that the sequence I offer above worked for me) save the
modelines that help position the display correctly on the monitor to the
XF86Config file?  Would be nice to get clarification on what seems to have
happened in the instance I'm describing from others more
experienced/knowledgeable about it.  Third, presuming one runs xvidtune
independently of XF86Setup - clicking "show" prints the modelines
generated to stdout; but what, exactly, does this mean?  Does it get saved
as a file somewhere?  If so, where?  I did try running it separately,
since I already had a valid XF86Config file, but I couldn't find the file
in any of the places I could think of to search (e.g., /var) on the
system.  I began to wonder whether, since I was using this as an
application under X, it was unable to display the results (it was not
running in an xterm).  In that case, "stdout" would mean the console in
front of you.  It does seem that xvidtune can be run from the CLI, but I
have a hard time imagining what use that would be, since for us
non-programmers, the numbers mean virtually nothing, while the position of
the display does.  Any clarification on this anyone?

Thanks, James