[Savage40] Thinkpad T23 and external monitor 1680x1050

Gianluca Interlandi gianluca at u.washington.edu
Thu Oct 4 13:23:47 PDT 2007


I have a Thinkpad T23 with S3 video card. I have bought a Philips 20inch 
1680x1050 widescreen monitor (200w6cb) which I attach to my laptop through 
the VGA connector. I use the options "UseBios" "FALSE" and "CrtOnly" 
"TRUE".

It works fine at the full resolution of 1680x1050 and 32-bit color depth. 
However, if I try to watch a DVD movie with mplayer or xine the image 
starts flickering and there are strange horizontal lines. This does not 
happen if I watch a mpeg file containing a movie at low resolution. If I 
turn down the color depth to 16-bit everything is fine and I'm able to 
watch DVDs. What could the reason be? I have xorg-6.8.2 and 
savage-20050718 drivers.

In any case, I hope that the information in this e-mail is of help to 
other people who own a Thinkpad T23 and are thinking about using it with 
an external monitor. In summary, it works apart from small issues with 
DVDs and 32-bit.

Thanks a lot,

           Gianluca

On Sun, 22 Jul 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:

> 
> --- Gianluca Interlandi <gianluca at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> 
> > It works!
> > 
> > I have only tested it with an old 19" CRT monitor though. But I was
> > able 
> > to set 1680x1050 by using the option "UseBios" "FALSE". I have a
> > safety 
> > question though. What happens if I accidentally switch to the laptop
> > LCD 
> > (by pressing Fn+F7) while the X11 is running at 1680x1050? Am I going
> > to 
> > damage my laptop LCD? Would "CrtOnly" "TRUE" prevent that?
> 
> I'm not sure what the bios actually does when you press fn-f7.  It may
> set the mode of you panel and toggle the output routing bits or it may
> just toggle the output routing bits.  None of the driver options affect
> the bios as it bangs the hardware directly.
> 
> Alex
> 
> 
> > 
> > For those who are interested here is a short description of what I
> > have 
> > done. I first shut down the X11 server (runlevel 3) and pressed Fn+F7
> > to 
> > switch to the external monitor. I started sax2 (I use SUSE linux) and
> > 
> > selected 1680x1050. I chose to save the configuration (test fell back
> > to 
> > 1400x1050). I manually edited xorg.cong and added
> > 
> > Option       "UseBIOS" "FALSE"
> > 
> > to the Device section. I started the X server and it was really
> > running at 
> > 1680x1050. However, since it was an old 19" 3:4 monitor the desktop
> > was 
> > squeezed in the horizontal direction. But this should be enough to
> > tell 
> > that the S3 Savage card is able to bring that resolution.
> > Furthermore, 
> > 1600x1200 worked out of the box without any manual editing. I will
> > post 
> > another message after testing it with a 20" widescreen LCD monitor.
> > 
> > Best,
> > 
> >    Gianluca
> > 
> > On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:
> > 
> > > 
> > > --- Gianluca Interlandi <gianluca at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > > I've never used sax so I don't really know how it works.  Just
> > add:
> > > > > Option "UseBIOS" "FALSE"
> > > > > to the device section of your xorg.conf and restart X.
> > > > 
> > > > ok, but how do I change the resolution from 1400x1050 to
> > 1680x1050
> > > > after I 
> > > > have restarted X?
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Adjust the monitor section to reflect the hsync and vrefresh of
> > your
> > > monitor and then add 1680x1050 to the modes line in the screen
> > section
> > > of your config.  You may have to add a custom modeline if the
> > monitor
> > > requires special timings.
> > > 
> > > Alex
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > G
> > > > 
> > > > On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > --- Gianluca Interlandi <gianluca at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > > Sorry, I need to ask another question. I use sax2 (SuSE) to
> > setup
> > > > the
> > > > > > X11 
> > > > > > server. If I add "UseBIOS" FALSE (in the Section "Device"?)
> > how
> > > > do I
> > > > > > make 
> > > > > > sax2 consider this option? Or is there a better way of doing
> > it?
> > > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > I've never used sax so I don't really know how it works.  Just
> > add:
> > > > > Option "UseBIOS" "FALSE"
> > > > > to the device section of your xorg.conf and restart X.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Alex
> > > > > 
> > > > > > Thanks a lot,
> > > > > > 
> > > > > >            Gianluca
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > --- Gianluca Interlandi <gianluca at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > There is some code to manually program the mode ...
> > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > Do you mean xmode? Or is there some other code?
> > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > There's code in the driver.  Set option "UseBIOS" to FALSE
> > in
> > > > your
> > > > > > > config.  you'll probably have to mess you with you monitor
> > > > settings
> > > > > > as
> > > > > > > well.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Alex
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > >        
> > > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
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> > > > > > 
> > > > > > -----------------------------------------------------
> > > > > > Dr. Gianluca Interlandi gianluca at u.washington.edu
> > > > > >                     +1 (206) 685 4435
> > > > > >                     +1 (206) 714 4303
> > > > > >                     http://biocroma.unizh.ch/gianluca/
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Postdoc at the Department of Bioengineering
> > > > > > at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
> > > > > > -----------------------------------------------------
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> > > > -----------------------------------------------------
> > > > Dr. Gianluca Interlandi gianluca at u.washington.edu
> > > >                     +1 (206) 685 4435
> > > >                     +1 (206) 714 4303
> > > >                     http://biocroma.unizh.ch/gianluca/
> > > > 
> > > > Postdoc at the Department of Bioengineering
> > > > at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
> > > > -----------------------------------------------------
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> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
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> > -----------------------------------------------------
> > Dr. Gianluca Interlandi gianluca at u.washington.edu
> >                     +1 (206) 685 4435
> >                     +1 (206) 714 4303
> >                     http://biocroma.unizh.ch/gianluca/
> > 
> > Postdoc at the Department of Bioengineering
> > at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
> > -----------------------------------------------------
> > 
> 
> 
> 
>        
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-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Gianluca Interlandi gianluca at u.washington.edu
                    +1 (206) 685 4435
                    +1 (206) 714 4303
                    http://biocroma.unizh.ch/gianluca/

Postdoc at the Department of Bioengineering
at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
-----------------------------------------------------


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