Enable higher virtual resolution

Hello,

I tried to use a virtual resolution for my Acer Aspire One 110l but it was resulting in a unusable GUI Output. I was forced to use a recovery pendrive Linux to restore the old xorg.conf.

Has somebody succesfully increased the screen resolution of the internal screen to at least 1024x768?

I heared that WinXP allows such a virtual resolution nativly. I would hate it, if my linux cann't do this.... :shock:

 

This should help : http://tinyurl.com/mrxtb9

Contrary to popular belief, using Google will NOT make you impotent, your dog run away, your wife become pregnant, or your PowerBall lotto numbers be off by 2 digits .

Click on the first link returned after clicking on the above tinyurl link, and you should get all the info required.

 

My fault. I did not write precisely enough what I had done. Thus you where forced to try to be funny or ironic or try to act someway that does not help me anyway.
Befor I register in a new forum just to ask on 1 specific topic I defenetly search the web for a easier way to get a solution.

So, here is the article I tried out on my AAO110l: http://odkq.com/virtualres.html

This results in a unusable distorted screen. Due to the crippled Linux (Linpus) it was not possible to switch to Runlevel 3 to reset the xorg.conf. So, yes I had some fun with bootable USB Sticks and Damn Small Linux. And no, I had not found a appropriate solution in the internet for this problem. May I should ask somebody in a dedicated Acer Aspire One forum?

 

It would help if you would post exactly what you changed.
Did you just add the virtual line or did you also add a modeline?
IIRC, my AA1 came with a virtual desktop of 1024x768. I deleted the virtual line because I don't like scrolling the desktop.

 

I have tried to change the virtual resolution (in my xorg.conf there is also 1024x768 written, but there is no scrolling. I would like to see it scroll...) and to add the vesa display as described in the article under "trubleshooting intel".

I will bost my xorg.conf when I get back on my AAO.

 

This is my xorg.conf:

Code:

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display
Section "ServerFlags"
	Option "DontZap" "yes"
	Option "DontVTSwitch" "yes"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "Default Layout"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Synaptics Mouse" "AlwaysCore"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option	    "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "de,gb,us(euro)"
        Option      "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier "Synaptics Mouse"
        Driver     "synaptics"
        Option     "Device" "/dev/psaux"
        Option     "Protocol" "auto-dev"
	Option	   "LeftEdge"  "1700"
  	Option	"RightEdge"     "5300"
  	Option	"TopEdge"       "1700"
  	Option	"BottomEdge"    "4200"
  	Option	"FingerLow"	"25"
  	Option	"FingerHigh"	"30"
  	Option	"MaxTapTime"	"180"
  	Option	"MaxTapMove"	"220"
  	Option	"VertScrollDelta" "100"
  	Option	"MinSpeed"	"0.09"
  	Option	"MaxSpeed"	"0.18"
  	Option	"AccelFactor"	"0.0015"
  	Option	"SHMConfig"	"on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier  "Monitor0"
	Modeline  "1024x600" 48.96 1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622 -HSync +VSync
#	Option	"Above"	"Monitor1"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard0"
	Driver      "intel"
#	Option      "monitor-LVDS" "Monitor0"
#	Option	    "monitor-VGA" "Monitor1"
	Option	    "Clone" "true"
	Option	"MonitorLayout"	"LVDS,VGA"
	BusID	"PCI:0:2:0"
#	Screen	0
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Card1"
	Driver		"vesa"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Videocard0"
#	Device	   "Card1"
	Monitor	    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
         	Virtual 1024 768
		Modes    "1024x600" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

When I comment out Videocard0 and activate Card1 instead, the error occures. The device "Card1" is the one described in the document as troubleshooting for intel cards.
What is different to the xorg.conf your AAO was shipped with?

I also heared a rumor that a future XServer will be able to stretch/shrink a given virtual resolution to a physical resolution. This would mean, that you will see the content of 1024x768 on 1024x600. Some pixels will blend in each other but the content is there.
This would be helpful, too.

 

I've been experimanting with my desktop system, it uses the older i845 chipset which uses the same drivers as the i945 chipset used in the AA1.
The software is the same: Slackware 12.1 with kernel 2.6.30. The kernel is custom configured to work on 4 different machines.
Both vesa and fbdev worked, unless I tried to set a virtual resolution, in which case I had various failures.
Doing: lsmod | grep fb
intelfb 23152 0
fb 26912 2 i915,intelfb
i2c_algo_bit 3112 2 i915,intelfb
cfbcopyarea 2420 2 i915,intelfb
cfbimgblt 1576 2 i915,intelfb
cfbfillrect 2124 2 i915,intelfb

I decided to try vesa after removing intelfb, which worked. I had a virtual screen size of 1280x1024 and a real screen size of 1024x768.
The problem you'll have is that fb support seems to be built-in to the Linpus kernel:
~/kernels$ grep -i 'fb.*=' config-a1
CONFIG_FB=y
CONFIG_FB_BOOT_VESA_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_FB_CFB_FILLRECT=y
CONFIG_FB_CFB_COPYAREA=y
CONFIG_FB_CFB_IMAGEBLIT=y
CONFIG_FB_MODE_HELPERS=y
CONFIG_FB_VESA=y

My custom kernel uses modules, and I use intelfb rather than vesafb, and only on the desktop machine, I have intelfb blacklisted on the AA1.

If you have a /dev/fb or /dev/fb0 device you have one of the kernel fb drivers active.

I assume Acer uses the frambuffer so they can display a graphic during startup.

Summary: Xorg driver vesa can do virtual screens, but not while using a kernel framebuffer driver.

 

Thank you JerryP for this detailed information.

The question is, why is it possible with some AAO to scroll (on virtual resolution) and on some other (like mine) there is only this fixed resolution of 1024x600?
Is it possible to determine AAO Version change or something? And what would be more interesting: Is it possible to change this for a given machine?