xf86

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Subject: Re: Desktop windows in 3/4 size
From: Steve Borho <sborho@ststech.com>
Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 14:21:06 -0500


On Wed, May 05, 1999 at 01:43:45PM -0500, Benjamin Sher wrote:
> Dear friends:
> 
> Using RH 6.0 (from metalab.unc.edu)
> 
> Just wondering: All the desktops in RH 6.0 (AnotherLevel, KDE and Gnome)
> fail to fill up the screen. Each is surround by a wide 1.5 inch bar of
> black space to the left, a .5 to .75 inch black bar all along the bottom
> and another similar bar 1/2 or .75 at the top but none on the right.
<snip>

Ahh!  It's time you get to experience the utter joy(hell) of tweaking
your /etc/X11/XF86Config file.  First, run xvidtune and twiddle with
the buttons until you get the screen just the way you like it,
then hit the "Show" button.  This will dump a partial 'Modeline' to
the xterm you ran xvidtune from.  It'll be a line with a bunch of
numbers on it.

For the short version of what those numbers mean, think of the way
your computer monitor works in very low speed.  There is an electron
beam which sweeps across the screen horizontally once for every
'scan-line' on your display.  (If you're resolution is 800 pixels by
600 pixels, this ray scans across the screen 600 times, each time
bumping down to the next row).  You're video card "drives" this
electron beam by sending signals to the monitor.  The card has a very
high speed clock in it that fires about 1000 times during each pass of
the beam.  The numbers in that 'Modeline' indicate on which clock tics
certain events happen.  By adjusting these numbers (or clock tics),
you're adjusting the size and shape of the projected image.

For the long version (and one hell of a good read) print out
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/VideoModes.doc some day and read it.  It's
written by Eric Raymond (author of The Cathedral and Bazaar), back in
his hacker days, and gives you a very good understanding of how modern
CRT's work.

Anyway, you take the modeline it generates and paste it into the
Monitor section of your XF86Config file (make it look like the other
modelines, and give it some name you recognize like "my800x600") then
add that mode to the "Screen" section for your video card, then
restart X.

Or, you can be lazy and just adjust the size of the screen using the
knobs on the bottom of the monitor :^)

> Otherwise, a splendid new interface(s) for RH 6.0. I love the graphic
> File Managers, some even with a "Recycling Bin". Very impressed, indeed.
> 
> This new Rh 6.0 should conquer the world :-)

I'm sure it will take a few iterations to work the bugs out.  Heck, it
took Microsoft many years to get to the Win95 interface.  As
johny-come-laters we get to pick and chose which features we like
and/or don't like, but we've still got catching up to do.  What I like
to watch is the speed at which it's happening.  The RH 6.0 default
Gnome desktop took me completely by surprise.

Now if we could just convince all those video card manufacturers to
release all their specs or write XFree86 drivers for their cards.

===


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