Comment 8 for bug 1606103
Revision history for this message
| Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote Re: modeset driver is missing some modes that the intel driver had | #8 |
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0e1f616
(Get the code!)
In the KMS world (kernel mode setting) the kernel maintains the list of real modes available. Previously (where Xorg drivers would communicate with the hardware directly), the kernel was less involved and the Xorg driver would invent the in-between modes mostly to support CRT monitors which don't have a specific native resolution. And also for legacy support just so that people don't complain that the list of modes has shrunken.
In the "modern" KMS world however we (and the kernel) recognise that LCDs only have one real resolution and one preferred (highest) refresh rate. So you will sometimes see the kernel being brutally honest and reporting one/few modes. This is reasonable because using anything other than the native mode will make the image on an LCD blurry. In an ideal world you would always use the native mode of the LCD panel and just scale things up in software if they're too small. But I know Unity7 still doesn't quite do that as well as we'd like it to...
Another reason is slightly harder to explain; external monitors continue to report they support more modes than internal laptop LCD panels. They just tell us over the wire that they can do more. Which is not a software decision.