Preseeding xserver-xorg configuration is awkward

[Timo Aaltonen]

I've successfully used preseeding on hoary but it doesn't work with breezy. Not
a single one get's in the config.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

now the version -49 doesn't even create an initial (somewhat working) config.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

that is not even close to enough information for me to begin attempting to debug
your problem. what exact problems are you having, what steps are you taking to
preseed and also generate a new configuration, and what is the new, allegedly
broken, configuration?

noting that preseeding has worked for the ltsp package for quite some time now.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Uh, sorry.. I have these preseeded:

xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/device/driver select nvidia
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/display/default_depth select 24
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/display/modes multiselect
1280x1024, 800x600, 640x480
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/inputdevice/keyboard/layout string fi
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/inputdevice/mouse/emulate3buttons boolean
false
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/horiz-sync string 25-100
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/vert-refresh string 40-150

debconf gets them (I can see those values with 'debconf-get-selections'), but
they are not found on xorg.conf. With -49 the file was completely empty.. I'm
now doing a test installation with -50 and will report how it went.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

you have to preseed xserver-xorg/autodetect_{monitor,mouse,video_card}=false to
disable the autodetection.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

ok, things are partially better, but even then the display driver is
automatically set, this time as 'apm'

xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/device/driver select apm

although I preseeded 'nvidia'. Resolutions are now correct, but the horiz-sync
and vert-refresh strings are nowhere to be found in the config =) So something
is not right here.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

driver would probably be getting forced to apm because nvidia isn't actually a
valid choice, since we don't ship with it. as for the sync ranges,
xserver-xorg/config/monitor/use_sync_ranges=true, or something.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

well, the admin should be able to force the driver to be whatever he likes.. so
I'd like to think that as a bug.

I haven't tested the sync-range stuff, but believe you on that. So the driver is
the only remaining issue ;)

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

due to the way that question is implemented (historical baggage from Debian),
changing this is seriously non-trivial, and certainly won't be fixed for breezy.
 so I'm marking this one as FIXED.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Thanks. It effectively makes preseeding xorg useless for us. Why did this work
on hoary, then?

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

horiz-sync and vert-refresh are not preseeded if I set use_sync_ranges=true, but
instead these are applied:

xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/vert-refresh string 50-160
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/horiz-sync string 30-70

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

try preseeding xserver-xorg/config/monitor/selection-method=Advanced

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

yes, that did the trick, thanks!

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

fixed per previous comments