need tool for manually configuring xorg.conf

[tz]

This is in an i386 Intrepid on an openchrome system (which crashes so I'm trying to use Vesa until I can figure out something - probably interrupts).

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6027629 discusses a similar problem.

Vesa comes up in 800x600. There is no official way in intrepid to set it to the correct resolution of 1024x768.

The "gksu displayconfig-gtk" if I select both Vesa and 1024x768, test successfully and say keep will set my display. I have this leftover from hardy or gutsy.

The gnome-display-properties cannot be made to find my LCD monitor in my laptop, nor is there any way to set it manually to an LCD so it only allows the default 800x600 resolution.

I can find no way to manually select a display under Intrepid, and the automatic detection doesn't work. Either bring back displayconfig-gtk or add an equivalent manual setup that does not involve editing xorg.conf with vim.

Detect Displays apparently does nothing - I don't know if it is causing an error, or simply detecting the wrong thing, but there needs to be an override.
[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge [1106:0204]
     Subsystem: TWINHEAD INTERNATIONAL Corp Device [14ff:0322]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800/K8N800/K8N800A [S3 UniChrome Pro] [1106:3108] (rev 01)
     Subsystem: TWINHEAD INTERNATIONAL Corp Device [14ff:0322]

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automated message]

Hi thomas-mich,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[tz (thomas-mich)]

I will do this later (my battery on the laptop now refuses to recharge
so I have to be careful) however I don't know what this has to do with
the complete inability to manually set the device.

To quote the original bug:

Vesa comes up in 800x600. There is no official way in intrepid to set
it to the correct resolution of 1024x768.

THE BUG IS THAT INTREPID DELETED THE ABILITY TO MANUALLY SET THE
INFORMATION, not that you can't chase down every possible hardware
combination.

I DON'T WANT THIS PARTICULAR LAPTOP AND SCREEN SUPPORTED WITH A
ONE-OFF CHANGE. Then if I get a new laptop I will be in the same
place with the same bug report and yet another PCI bus information
dump and will still have to find the displayconfig-gtk utility to make
it work.

I can appreciate that something is going wrong in the monitor
detection and probably should be fixed, but something which worked
under Hardy and back was REMOVED from Intrepid. The via/chrome driver
barely worked in edgy, and has gotten worse with each new release.
But at least I had ways of getting around the brokenness. Now
Intrepid has apparently removed any ability for me to fix it.

Before, if the detection was broken, the configuration could be set
manually in an easy fashion. Now with intrepid, if the detection is
broken, you're stuck with a horrible failsafe mode that cannot be
corrected - and may not be corrected at all if you don't find
something in the hardware dump.

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 1:48 AM, Bryce Harrington
<email address hidden> wrote:
> [This is an automated message]
>
> Hi thomas-mich,
>
>
> Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.
>
>
> ** Changed in: xorg (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> vesa doesn't let me set my LCD resolution
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/296437
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[tz (thomas-mich)]

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 1:48 AM, Bryce Harrington
<email address hidden> wrote:
> [This is an automated message]
>
> Hi thomas-mich,
>
>
> Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.
>
>
> ** Changed in: xorg (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> vesa doesn't let me set my LCD resolution
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/296437
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Based on your previous emphatic comment, it sounds like this is a wishlist bug for an xorg.conf configuration tool. I will focus the bug on that. If you do care to get the resolution detection issue investigated please file a second bug.

[tz (thomas-mich)]

It is NOT a WISHLIST.

I have no way of getting anything but a blurry wrong VESA resolution with anything available in Intrepid. Autoconfiguration or detection is hopelessly broken, and you've removed anything I could use to actually configure it correctly manually.

Usually filing bugs to get anything but current hardware detected properly (even with every log or debug output) is futile, but I will file a second bug. I assume the two logs weren't enough to find anything?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Thomas, I'm frustrated by your response. The way your bug report is written, with seemingly random collection of complaints, it is difficult to understand what your core issue is. I guessed that your issue is that you wish for there to be a tool to help correctly configure things manually (something I am willing to invest some of my time into - if such a tool would be appreciated by users), yet you then reply that "it is NOT a WISHLIST," indicating that I am not understanding the core issue you are trying to convey. (Btw, using all caps is considered shouting, and rude.)

If you can express yourself more clearly and calmly we may be able to resolve this issue. On the other hand if you are simply using this as a place to vent, I sympathize but will not be able to help you.

[tz (thomas-mich)]

I apologize, but I'm even more frustrated than you are.

When someone calls a request a "wishlist" it usually means (including
in bug reports) it is something trivial, or unneeded, or cosmetic, or
on a whim. That it gets the LOWEST possible triage ahead of invalid
or a wontfix. Even though this "wish" is simply to have a way of
getting working video on my laptop. I CANNOT MAKE MY LAPTOP WORK
UNDER INTREPID. The tool in hardy has disappeared, and the automated
tools in intrepid don't work.

Every time I upgrade this particular laptop to a new release, I LOSE
most of the functionality and have to spend hours getting it back.

The Via/chrome/openchrome I had to download separately under Edgy and
Feisty worked with a few quirks.

Gutsy had the 3d broken (lockup) and the old driver wouldn't compile.

Hardy would work if I manually selected the display and driver, but
not with accelerated 3d.

Now with Intrepid I'm limited to VESA, and the LCD monitor size
detection is still broken after all these years, but you've removed
the manual tool

To quote and annotate my original post:

> Vesa comes up in 800x600. There is no official way in intrepid to set it to the correct resolution of 1024x768.

If there is a way to get the correct resolution, please tell me how.
I can upload all kinds of register dumps but nothing happens when I do
and so doesn't fix the problem. I did one of the X drivers a while
ago (Cirrus, I forget which model) so I could probably help if I knew
where to look, but this is under VESA, not the specific driver and the
BIOS is probably not being truthful or the correct panel size is
simply not available using newer, standard methods. (It also has an
external display which can go to 1600x1200 and it occasionally seems
to detect that even without external monitor instead so I see the
login box at the lower bottom and can't see the login toolbar). It
might require a special probe be written just for this one setup.

> The "gksu displayconfig-gtk" if I select both Vesa and 1024x768, test successfully and say keep will set my display. I have this leftover from hardy or gutsy.

THIS IS THE PROGRAM REMOVED FROM INTREPID. I need this manual
backstop since your detection is broken and probably will never be
fixed (and I'm not trying to be annoying here - this is an old driver,
so is considered legacy, and would require a lot of effort for little
payback, so if it is not fixed by some other thing it has in common,
the automatic detection and/or the hardware specific driver won't work
on this laptop - it has been three years and it simply breaks in a
different and worse way each time - in some ways this is worse than an
abandoned proprietary driver).

The manual configuration program should be installable as an option
from the current display configuration - if gnome-display-properties
doesn't do the right thing, a button, perhaps "advanced" or "manual"
from that should (possibly install and) bring up displayconfig-gtk or
an equivalent manual utility or otherwise have some way I can manually
set 1024x768. The xorg.conf has always been hard to edit manually
particularly the modelines.

>The gnome-display-properties cannot be made to fin...