[gentoo-user] after installing and running Xorg, my LCD colors in text mode are all wrong

[gentoo-user] after installing and running Xorg, my LCD colors in text mode are all wrong

[Denis]

Hello again,

I just installed Xorg on the older Dell machine, for which I have a
17-inch Sony LCD screen.  Before I did anything with X, my screen
colors were just like I'm used to.  Now, I fired up X, got it to work
fine, and the colors are fine, but then I kill X and go back to text
mode, and the colors in text mode are all wrong, like I'm using a
dying CRT that's not firing right.  I go back to X, and the colors are
fine again.  Back to text mode - same deal.  Is X setting some
variable wrong when it shuts off, or do I need to tweak something?
Using manual controls on the LCD menu don't help at all.  Anyone run
into this before and might know what to do about this?

Thanks,
Denis

Re: [gentoo-user] after installing and running Xorg, my LCD colors in text mode are all wrong

[Willie Wong]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 01:42:22PM -0500, Denis wrote:
> I just installed Xorg on the older Dell machine, for which I have a
> 17-inch Sony LCD screen.  Before I did anything with X, my screen
> colors were just like I'm used to.  Now, I fired up X, got it to work
> fine, and the colors are fine, but then I kill X and go back to text
> mode, and the colors in text mode are all wrong, like I'm using a
> dying CRT that's not firing right.  I go back to X, and the colors are
> fine again.  Back to text mode - same deal.  Is X setting some
> variable wrong when it shuts off, or do I need to tweak something?
> Using manual controls on the LCD menu don't help at all.  Anyone run
> into this before and might know what to do about this?

Maybe the video card? 

I had something similar to this happening on my desktop with an old
nvidia card. Throughout the years, shutting down X may give one of the
following:

  a) business as usual, nothing wrong.
  b) the computer thinking the screen is bigger than it actually is:
the upper left corner is okay, but the 3 right most columns and the
bottom row (of my 80x25 text display) is off the screen. The text is a
bit bigger than it ought to be.
  c) blank screen. The computer still responds: I can "type" xinit
without seeing anything and get back into an X session. Just nothing
is displayed on the screen. 
  d) funky colors on the screen, which may also accompany b). 

I never did figure out what is wrong. The behaviour is transient: if I
just start X again, and then shut-off, it not always give the same
problem. I suspect it is the video card because I remember noting that
it behaved better after a certain version of nVidia driver. But I
can't be certain because the bug is awfully un-reproducible. 

This probably doesn't help much... but I just want to throw in my two
cents. 

W
-- 
Willie W. Wong                                      wwong@math.princeton.edu
408 Fine Hall,  Department of Mathematics,  Princeton University,  Princeton
A mathematician's reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has given.

Re: [gentoo-user] after installing and running Xorg, my LCD colors in text mode are all wrong

[Denis]

That certainly is of interest - I never had this happen before, and I
always used nvidia cards (when possible).  This one is an older Dell
with Radeon 7500 in it...  Maybe it's a sign that it's dying or
something.  Or maybe it's something else entirely.

Re: [gentoo-user] after installing and running Xorg, my LCD colors in text mode are all wrong

[b.n.]

Willie Wong ha scritto:
> On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 01:42:22PM -0500, Denis wrote:
>> I just installed Xorg on the older Dell machine, for which I have a
>> 17-inch Sony LCD screen.  Before I did anything with X, my screen
>> colors were just like I'm used to.  Now, I fired up X, got it to work
>> fine, and the colors are fine, but then I kill X and go back to text
>> mode, and the colors in text mode are all wrong, like I'm using a
>> dying CRT that's not firing right.  I go back to X, and the colors are
>> fine again.  Back to text mode - same deal.  Is X setting some
>> variable wrong when it shuts off, or do I need to tweak something?
>> Using manual controls on the LCD menu don't help at all.  Anyone run
>> into this before and might know what to do about this?
> 
> Maybe the video card? 
> 
> I had something similar to this happening on my desktop with an old
> nvidia card. Throughout the years, shutting down X may give one of the
> following:
> 
>   a) business as usual, nothing wrong.
>   b) the computer thinking the screen is bigger than it actually is:
> the upper left corner is okay, but the 3 right most columns and the
> bottom row (of my 80x25 text display) is off the screen. The text is a
> bit bigger than it ought to be.
>   c) blank screen. The computer still responds: I can "type" xinit
> without seeing anything and get back into an X session. Just nothing
> is displayed on the screen. 
>   d) funky colors on the screen, which may also accompany b). 
> 
> I never did figure out what is wrong. The behaviour is transient: if I
> just start X again, and then shut-off, it not always give the same
> problem. I suspect it is the video card because I remember noting that
> it behaved better after a certain version of nVidia driver. But I
> can't be certain because the bug is awfully un-reproducible. 
> 
> This probably doesn't help much... but I just want to throw in my two
> cents. 

Could it be funny stuff remaining in the video card memory? I've seen
such eerie things happen in some occasions, with ATI cards. I also
remember that old cards had the habit of displaying a "ghost" of the
last X desktop, for a fraction of a second, just when X starts.

I think it can only be driver and/or X fault.

m.