Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 106287
can't use 800x600x16 resolution using redhat-config-xfree86 (fixed)
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:58:08 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2.1) Gecko/20030225 Description of problem: When running the Xfree86 Configurator in RHL 9 (Running on OptiPlex GX270, P4 2.26 gHZ, 512MB DDR SDRAM, Intel 865 Chipset with Intel Extreme 2 Graphics), I would like resolution of 800x600 with Thousands of colors. After getting the message to log out and login again, I do that, and my colors are fine, but the resolution has somehow changed to 640x480. I can only use 800x600 with 256 colors. Is there a way to fix this, or must I wait until the next RHL comes out? Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): redhat-config-xfree86-0.7.3-2 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Run /usr/bin/redhat-config-xfree86 2. Change resolution to 800x600, and color depth to thousands of colors. 3. Close, then logout Actual Results: The resolution was 640x480 instead of 800x600, but colors were fine. Expected Results: 800x600 resolution with thousands of colors. Additional info: I haven't seen any other bugs like this.
I see the same behavior on a Dell with the Intel 865 graphics chipset. It looks like the XFree86 drivers are not working at anything above 640x480. Changing component to XFree86.
I have fixed this issue. When booting, enter BIOS, just tinker with your video memory settings (I put it on 32 MB, but you can use 800x600x16 resolution even with 8 MB). Thanks to everyone who replied to this bug!
Indeed, this is not an XFree86 driver bug. You must configure your video memory amount using the BIOS CMOS tool. Some machines, in particular many Dell laptops and motherboards do not allow one to change this setting. Users with such hardware will encounter problems. In the past, Intel released the information to developers in order to work around this broken BIOS limitation and allow XFree86 to reprogram the registers which select the amount of stolen system RAM for Intel i830 hardware. Users who are experiencing problems with video memory amount on other Intel hardware should contact the manufacturer of their laptop or motherboard, as well as Intel, so that they are aware of the issue and can either provide workarounds to XFree86 for future releases, or they can provide the technical specifications to developers to create workarounds like was done for i830. In any case, these type of problems are either misconfigurations - as this one has shown to be, or they are hardware/firmware bugs/flaws, which require support from the manufacturer. Problem resolved via proper configuration of BIOS as indicated above, closing as NOTABUG.