From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 31 09:28:29 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1F9B616A420 for ; Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:28:29 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from kane.otenet.gr (kane.otenet.gr [195.170.0.95]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 81A8143D48 for ; Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:28:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from flame.pc (aris.bedc.ondsl.gr [62.103.39.226]) by kane.otenet.gr (8.13.4/8.13.4/Debian-8) with SMTP id k0V9SQDs009366; Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:28:26 +0200 Received: by flame.pc (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 8E660117F6; Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:28:01 +0200 (EET) Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:28:01 +0200 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Jozef Baum Message-ID: <20060131092801.GA1792@flame.pc> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A strategic question (continued) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:28:29 -0000 On 2006-01-31 03:41, Jozef Baum wrote: > Many thanks to everyone who answered my previous e-mail about this subject > on this list or by private e-mail. > > As some of you suggested, I have installed PC-BSD (http://www.pcbsd.com/). I > am sure a Unix guru would not like to install FreeBSD in this way, as it > doesn't offer many choices. But it is just wonderful for a Unix newbie like > me. At the end of the installation, the GUI, the cable Internet connection, > and even the sound system worked fine. Some configuration still needs to be > done (printing and German keyboard). But now at least I have a system I can > use right away to do some usefull work with, and to further explore. > > I will try to configure the printing myself before perhaps eventually asking > some specific questions about it here. > > I found an interesting explanation about the configuration of the German > keyboard, so if some other German speaking newbie asks about it: > > http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~eserte/FreeBSD/doc/umlaute/umlaute.html > > Giorgos Keramidas asked me: > > Can you explain *how* you configured your X11 desktop? > > Like explained in the handbook. First I created an xorg.conf.new > configuration skeleton file with > > # Xorg -configure > > Then I tested this configuration with > > # Xorg -config xorg.conf.new > > The result was a "Mode not supported" message on the display screen > until I found out the HorizSync and VertRefresh values to write in the > Section "Monitor" which were supported, and which were much narrower > than the hardware manufacturers specifications. That's probably a bug in the configuration file generated by Xorg and, quite possibly, a bug in the Handbook section. Most modern monitors and video adapters work without any HorizSync or VertRefresh line in `xorg.conf'. This forces the X11 servers to query the hardware for the supported refresh ranges, and I've found that it tends to be much easier to get things right this way :) > The display adapter is an nVidia GeForce4 MX with integrated GPU (which uses > 64 MB of the system's 512 MB physical working memory). The LCD monitor is a > Proview 780. I'm using an ATI on the laptop used to type this message. The file /var/log/Xorg.0.log lists it as: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] The `xorg.conf' file has commented out entries for HorizSync and VertRefresh, but this doesn't keep things from working. Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" # Uncomment if you don't want to default to DDC: #HorizSync 31.5 - 79.0 #VertRefresh 50.0 - 70.0 EndSection You may find it easier to comment out these lines from xorg.conf, start X11 and then tune the best refresh ranges later, after you get things working fine :)