DPI setting for ATI fglrx driver (Opensuse 11.3)

[Christoph Bartoschek]

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23705

Note that bug makes no mention of ATI or fglrx, and started out as an
apparent Intel driver bug.

I first thought this is a fglrx problem. Then I thought it is a general
X.org bug because of the above bug report. Now I think again that it is
a fglrx problem because the radeon driver seems to not show the same
behaviour. Unfortunately the radeon drvier does not work at all. I see
only in the logfile that it wants to set the DPI to 108. But I get no
picture from it.

As they do not provide a config option for the old behaviour

You apparently didn't read the first comment in bug 32430 very well. It
indicates one _can_ configure X via configfile _almost_ as before, e.g.
to use whatever DisplaySize (and thus DPI) one wants: "placing screen
and display parameters that used to work in xorg.conf into
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ files produces expected results".
In 11.3, with open source drivers at least, you simply must set
DisplaySize via xorg.conf.d/ rather than xorg.conf. If you use your
display's actual size, you'll get an accurate DPI. You can also fudge
that size to your liking by lying it bigger or smaller, which because of
the way common scalable fonts behave can often produce more pleasing
fonts if you choose a DPI that is a multiple of 12. In your case of a
109 DPI display that would be 108 (slightly smaller fonts) or 120
(larger fonts). http://fm.no-ip.com/Share/DisplaySize contains many
sizes that, give or take rounding behavior that varies according to
drivers, will produce 12 multiples.

I've added the option "DisplaySize 597 336" to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and also in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf. I see no difference
with the fglrx driver. Even after deleting /etc/X11/xorg.conf

However the fglrx driver responds to the -dpi option. Is there a way to
get it added to the startup of the X server if one uses kdm4?

[Felix Miata]

Post by Christoph Bartoschek
I first thought this is a fglrx problem. Then I thought it is a general
X.org bug because of the above bug report. Now I think again that it is
a fglrx problem because the radeon driver seems to not show the same
behaviour. Unfortunately the radeon drvier does not work at all. I see
only in the logfile that it wants to set the DPI to 108. But I get no
picture from it.

What video chip does lspci report you have? Maybe yours requires radeonhd
rather than radeon if not using fglrx? Does any behavior change or not if you
use nomodeset or radeon.modeset=0 on cmdline or not?

Post by Christoph Bartoschek
I've added the option "DisplaySize 597 336" to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and also in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf. I see no difference
with the fglrx driver. Even after deleting /etc/X11/xorg.conf

:-(

Post by Christoph Bartoschek
However the fglrx driver responds to the -dpi option. Is there a way to
get it added to the startup of the X server if one uses kdm4?

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2011-01/msg00006.html should have answered
this.
--
"How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose
understanding rather than silver." Proverbs 16:16 NKJV

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/

[Christoph Bartoschek]

If https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=661536 (which first
appeared in 11.3) and https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430
aren't enough help post back & we'll figure out what else you need.

Hi,

I've looked at the links but I cannot check because the solution is in
Factory and I still use 11.3.

However in the meantime I've found that this is a bug in X.org:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23705

They started to ignore the physical DPI of the monitor and use 96 DPI by
default now. In my opinion this is an epic fail because they removed a
praised feature to emulate bogus behaviour of older windows boxes.

As they do not provide a config option for the old behaviour my question
is now:

How can I convince kdm4 to start the X server with the option "-dpi 109"?

I tried to add it to /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers and to
/usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc but this had no effect.

The mentioned bug report says that one can change the DPI with xrandr
but in my opinion this is too late. The server should directly start
with the correct setting.

Christoph

[Felix Miata]

Post by Christoph Bartoschek

If https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=661536 (which first
appeared in 11.3) and https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430
aren't enough help post back& we'll figure out what else you need.

I've looked at the links but I cannot check because the solution is in
Factory and I still use 11.3.

FWIW, Factory is scheduled for 7 milestones prior to 11.4RC, and #6 is due
soon. You might consider switching to that (or even current/5+), which has
KDE 4.6 and a much improved kernel and X. 11.3 has a minimally evolved KMS
kernel, and thus minimally evolved dependent subsystem (e.g. X) support for
KMS paradigm changes.

Post by Christoph Bartoschek
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23705

Note that bug makes no mention of ATI or fglrx, and started out as an
apparent Intel driver bug.

Post by Christoph Bartoschek
They started to ignore the physical DPI of the monitor and use 96 DPI by
default now. In my opinion this is an epic fail because they removed a
praised feature to emulate bogus behaviour of older windows boxes.

It's been my experience that if using an open source driver that general
default behavior does not apply to openSUSE, which will usually obey valid
EDID (if it exists) to produce accurate DPI.

Post by Christoph Bartoschek
As they do not provide a config option for the old behaviour

You apparently didn't read the first comment in bug 32430 very well. It
indicates one _can_ configure X via configfile _almost_ as before, e.g. to
use whatever DisplaySize (and thus DPI) one wants: "placing screen and
display parameters that used to work in xorg.conf into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
files produces expected results".

In 11.3, with open source drivers at least, you simply must set DisplaySize
via xorg.conf.d/ rather than xorg.conf. If you use your display's actual
size, you'll get an accurate DPI. You can also fudge that size to your liking
by lying it bigger or smaller, which because of the way common scalable fonts
behave can often produce more pleasing fonts if you choose a DPI that is a
multiple of 12. In your case of a 109 DPI display that would be 108 (slightly
smaller fonts) or 120 (larger fonts). http://fm.no-ip.com/Share/DisplaySize
contains many sizes that, give or take rounding behavior that varies
according to drivers, will produce 12 multiples.
--
"How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose
understanding rather than silver." Proverbs 16:16 NKJV

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/

[Felix Miata]

Post by Christoph Bartoschek
How can I convince kdm4 to start the X server with the option "-dpi 109"?
I tried to add it to /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers and to
/usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc but this had no effect.
The mentioned bug report says that one can change the DPI with xrandr
but in my opinion this is too late. The server should directly start
with the correct setting.

xrandr is early enough if done via xinitrc following the lines beginning "Add
your own lines here..."
--
"How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose
understanding rather than silver." Proverbs 16:16 NKJV

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/

[Felix Miata]

I have a monitor with native 109 DPI. However the fglrx driver always
uses 96 DPI. The result is that the fonts look to small.
How can I get fglrx to use the correct DPI. I've added the Option
DisplaySize 597 336
[ 4455.379] (II) fglrx(0): clock: 241.5 MHz Image Size: 597 x 336 mm
[ 4455.426] (II) fglrx(0): DPI set to (96, 96)
The desktop is then started with 96 DPI. There is no "-dpi 96" argument
to the X server.
How can I convince fglrx to use the correct DPI setting?

If https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=661536 (which first appeared
in 11.3) and https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430 aren't enough
help post back & we'll figure out what else you need.
--
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/

[Christoph Bartoschek]

Post by Felix Miata

Post by Christoph Bartoschek
How can I convince kdm4 to start the X server with the option "-dpi 109"?
I tried to add it to /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers and to
/usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc but this had no effect.
The mentioned bug report says that one can change the DPI with xrandr
but in my opinion this is too late. The server should directly start
with the correct setting.

xrandr is early enough if done via xinitrc following the lines beginning
"Add your own lines here..."

I've added the line to the file /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc. This works for
the desktop. However the problem is that kdm itself starts with 96 DPI.
All messages from kdm are therefore with the old setting and smaller fonts.

Christoph

[Felix Miata]

Post by Christoph Bartoschek

Post by Felix Miata
xrandr is early enough if done via xinitrc following the lines beginning
"Add your own lines here..."

I've added the line to the file /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc. This works for
the desktop. However the problem is that kdm itself starts with 96 DPI.
All messages from kdm are therefore with the old setting and smaller fonts.

I'd forgotten about that problem because I spend so little time looking at
any KDM login screen. Until a solution for that is found, I suggest sticking
to getting correct DPI via xorg.conf*, which KDM will respect, or changing
the 10pt font size entries to something larger directly in kdmrc or
indirectly in kdmrc via systemsettings or kcmshell4 kdm.
--
"How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose
understanding rather than silver." Proverbs 16:16 NKJV

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/