[bumbler]

I just got my hands on a Compaq Presario 1200 XL526. Junky, I know, but it was only $100 (US). In spite of the specs on the HP website, this thing has a screen capable of 1024x768. Now, I haven't gotten my hands on a FreeBSD 5.4 CD yet, so I haven't had a chance to check: Does this release offer a VESA mode greater than 800x600? Are there plans to fix this annoying issue?

I recall seeing a patch on a mailing list somewhere, with discussion of it being incorporated in the code base. The patch made it possible to use 1024x768 on the console. The whole point is that I like doing things in console from time to time, and on LCDs, anything other than the native resolution is just an emulation, and pretty darn ugly and hard to read. The native resolution on this laptop is 1024x768.

[Kernel_Killer]

Did you make sure that your VSync and HSync were set for your display correctly. That can keep you from going to it's highest rated screen res.

[molotov]

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=freebsd-current&m=111678756605035&w=2

might be of intrest.

[bumbler]

Well, Killer, that's irrelevant for the console. In general, with LCDs, it's almost irrelevant for X. LCDs don't require a refresh the way CRTs do -- I did my homework. Part of what drove me to study LCDs under X is neither HP nor old Compaq pages will release the rates for this model laptop. I discovered it was really a minor point in X. But for console, it's not even an issue, as there's no way to set it in console, as far as I know.

Molotov, that's just like the patch I referred to earlier. It looks like the devs are gonna bring it in. It's about time. I've often envied Linux's framebuffer modes, and how easily they are set, and how perfectly they work. That's part of why I'm running SuSE 8.2 on the laptop right now. I may not even try FreeBSD until that patch is mainstreamed.

[Kernel_Killer]

Yes, LCDs don't deal with refresh, but if X sees that your HSync and VSync are lower than what can handle 1024x768, it will refuse to use it. A few of our LCDs at work were just as tempermental. They were not recognized during install, and they were given low H/V Sync rates. The best res they could do was something lower than we wanted. After changing to the values that the LCDs used, we were able to achieve higher resolutions.

[bumbler]

You have a point there. I picked up some reasonable H&V sync rates from someone making an educated guess on a similar laptop. Before I installed SuSE over Windows ME, I searched the entire system looking for something, and spotted a config using simply "60hz" and gave up. Still, none of that matters for the console. I just want good clean text when I'm not running X.

Thanks, guys.