Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 169204
system-config-display is "kind" enough to destroy my X configuration without asking
Last modified: 2007-11-30 17:11:14 EST
Description of problem: On a laptop with an LCD panel with a "native" 1024x768 resolution system-config-display from time to time takes on itself to bugger totally an X configuration. The most important change that instead of required Section "Monitor" .... ModelName "LCD Panel 1024x768" HorizSync 31.5 - 65.0 VertRefresh 40.0 - 80.0 .... EndSection it writes Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Monitor Vendor" ModelName "Unknown monitor" HorizSync 31.5 - 37.9 VertRefresh 50.0 - 70.0 Option "dpms" EndSection and replaces in section "Screen" a line Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" with Modes "800x600" "640x480" and drops down DefaultDepth from 24 to 16. The problem with that is that not only display looks very badly in a simulated 800x600 but also either software or hardware obviously dislikes that strongly and the whole thing either does not start at all or quickly locks up without any traces anywhere. BTW - this is "Intel 845" video using i810 driver. There are some other things in a category of annoyances - like setting "Emulate3Buttons" on a mouse to "yes" instead of a correct "no". The first time I run into that was during an upgrade of FC2 to FC4 on that laptop. This messed up thoroughly /etc/X11/xorg.conf, without even leaving an old configuration in a backup, to that extent that on the first boot after an upgrade I got only a black screen. I thought that this was some "misunderstanding" in anaconda. Recently I did an upgrade of xorg-x11 packages. After the first reboot with new packages installed I got something on a display but a computer locked up promptly on an attempt of login without even finishing painting a desktop. I found a broken xorg.conf again but this time I had xorg.conf.backup (and burned earlier I also kept an extra copy of something sane). Yes, some extra sections and options associated with "Synaptics" input device showed up in a newly created xorg.conf. Still one wonders if this is really a good reason for destroying a presumably working configuration file. Nothing was ever asked if I really want to do that and try to recover from the damage later. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): system-config-display-1.0.29-1
This report targets the FC3 or FC4 products, which have now been EOL'd. Could you please check that it still applies to a current Fedora release, and either update the target product or close it ? Thanks.
It appears that for a while xorg-X11 updates did not mess up /etc/X11/xorg.conf too badly so at least system-config-display, or whatever writes in this config file on occasions, got much more careful. AFAICT this bug can be closed.