Non standard resolution and Orbiter Skin

[dopey]

I've been working to get my HP Pavilion dv8000 to work as a MD with UI2. I also wanted to up the resolution to it's max setting of 1680x1050. I, for the most part, got this working, but for some reason every screen under Media is blank (just a black screen).

Of course 1680x1050 is a non-standard resolution in LinuxMCE, so I had to add it, which I probably did wrong. I issued the following command in the pluto_main database to accomplish this:

Code: [Select]

insert into Size (Description,Width,Height,ScaleX,ScaleY) VALUES('1680x1050',1680,1050,657,657);
I'm not too incredibly sure about the ScaleX and ScaleY fields. I calculated the ScaleX field with 1050/1600, which gave me .65625. I then rounded up to 657. The ScaleY field I am really unsure about, but I saw that 1080p has the same value in ScaleX and ScaleY, so that's what I did.

After doing that I set both the Media Director and OnScreen Orbiter to 1680x1050, did another reload router and then full regen of that Orbiter. Like I said, this works, for the most part; I just can't get anything to display under Media. I've tried a couple more reload router and regens as well, but that didn't help...

I've completely run out of ideas on this one, so if anyone else has some I'd much appreciate it.

[chriss]

Hi,
this is interesting. I got an 22"-LCD a couple of days ago which also has a resolution of 1680x1050. I didn't get it to work in its native resolution yet. I tried to force the resolution by adding a modeline to xorg.conf but LMCE always changed it back to 1280x1024 or 1600x1200. My next step would be to change the startx-scripts not to mess with xorg.conf.
How did you get your screen to that specific resolution?

Cheers
Chris

[dopey]

You have to insert the new resolution in the Size table in the pluto_main database.

You enter the database by issuing the command:

Code: [Select]

sudo mysql pluto_main
Then you run the command I listed in my previous post and do a reload router. Then you change the resolution for the MD in the admin site. There is a field called Video Setting, that stores the resolution. Then you need to change the resolution for the On Screen Orbiter, which is in the advanced info for the Orbiter. Then do another reload router and full regen of the Orbiter.

All of that will make LinuxMCE try to use that resolution. It worked for me, but sometimes you need to change the modeline in /etc/X11/xorg.conf to match your monitor as well.

Of course, like I said, it's still doesn't work completely... I still haven't figured out why I get a black screen for all screens under media. I'm able to pull up the floorplan and everything else... I can even play media, but only if I click on things from memory (can't really see what I'm doing). Also the "three button" stuff also displays black while something is playing...

[dopey]

I had most of my media detached from the core, so when I went to the video screen it would only display 2 videos. With only 2 videos being displayed the video screen came up just fine. However, the "3 button" thing still showed black and made the video choppy. After adding all the videos back the video screen displayed a black screen again.

I did notice that doing anything that causes the black screen would cause the orbiter and Xorg processes to use all CPU usage. I also attached to the orbiter screen session and I didn't see any errors when going to the video screen or pressing F6 to get the "3 button" thing to pop up.

My first guess at the cause of all this is that direct rendering was off... but glxinfo states that it's on... I also ran glxgears and it reports an FPS between 890 - 1300 with an average of about 1000. Obviously, not the best in the world, but I thought this would be sufficient.

Does anyone have any ideas or logs for me to look at?

[dopey]

I'm bumping this...

Has anyone else tried doing what I'm doing? At this point I'm beginning to think that the my issues have nothing to do with the non-standard resolution. It would be cool though if someone else can confirm.

[chriss]

dopey,

still the same problems

Then you change the resolution for the MD in the admin site. There is a field called Video Setting, that stores the resolution. Then you need to change the resolution for the On Screen Orbiter, which is in the advanced info for the Orbiter. Then do another reload router and full regen of the Orbiter.

I did all of that, but firstly, the field on the MD admin site is no drop-down box but a simple textbox. I entered the new value anyway, it says "1680x1050/60" now, at least I think so (I'm not home right now so I can't check). I changed the resolution for the Orbiter via drop-down box - no problem here. But after a full regen and reboot the output was still at 1280x1024, as well as the orbiter's resolution.
I also tried to run AV-Wizard but the new resolution does not show up.

Cheers
Chris

[dopey]

The AVWizard will actually override your changes, so you will need to change things back.

The Media Director does have a text entry field for it, so you did it right; sorry I wasn't clear about that.

That wasn't the result I expected at all... it should either put it to the new resolution, fail and display nothing, or fail and revert to 640x480. It doing nothing is just really wrong...

Are you adding this to a diskless MD or your Core/Hybrid? Do you have multiple MD's? Once you regen and reboot and it reverts to 1280x1024 check the admin site again to see if LinuxMCE decided to change everything back. I noticed it has a really bad habit of doing that all over the place...

[afilep]

Well I've gone through the process of changing to 1680x1050 as described in the original post. It seems to have worked (no problem with the Media screen as mentioned by dopey).

One thing I noticed is that arrow indicators that come up when you scroll media lists are not fully showing. I don't remember this being the case before the change. Not sure whether it could be related to the ScaleX and ScaleY values. Part of my problem is that I am very new to LinuxMCE so I am not 100% sure what to expect and what the proper look and behaviour is  . For example, I've noticed that even after regenerating screens the overall proportions of menus to the screen remain the same. I am guessing that this is correct and is probably the whole point of regenerating?? It's just that it's different to say changing the resolution of the standard desktop where you get more screen real estate (GUI elements taking up less space proportionate to the screen) as you increase the resolution.

I've also noticed that menu labels that wrap over two lines tend to run over the boundaries of those menu items (buttons). Not sure if this is to do with my setup or a system limitation?

I am running a hybrid setup with a Viewsonic panel attached to it via DVI. It would be really nice if we had a definitive guide how to setup custom resolutions.

[1audio]

There are two villains in this story and neither are the developers. The core problem is the display manufacturers not reporting accurate EDID data and promoting suboptimal ones even if they do report correctly. (Its common to see 1080p displays report 1024X768 resolution. That reduces the number of customer calls.)
Second, is the video drivers from the card vendors. Linux is the ugly stepchild that get the leftovers after the Windows child get the good stuff. Not to mention the short market life of the hardware. Most computer hardware has less market life than a Hollywood B picture. But people don't change their media hardware as fast as they do their computers. This leaves a lot of perfectly fine old hardware to support. But for a video card manufacturer that just a problem. Better to obsolete it and get those customers to buy new stuff.
And 710 is still beta. Some of these issues will be sorted by release (very soon now. . .)

[goo]

I followed the steps to get 1360x768 for my LCD, and after the regen of orbiter, I got no orbiter menu, the resolution seems fine, but all I got is a blue bar on top of the screen with the pictures from flickr and no way to select something or neither getting to KDE.  By default resolution (1280x800), I allways get ghosts on the screen when a windows or the mouse is on the far left side of the screen. I tried changing xorg.conf but I allways have the same results with ghosts.