Resolution problems & system-config-display not starting!

[sor]

After installing F10, the automatically defined screen resolution is far too high for user comfort, so login in is even difficult!

In order to change this, under Gnome I opened a console window, switched to root user and tried:

yum -y install system-config-display

So far so good, but...

In the Fedora top panel/menu, no Display entry shows up. Therefore, I had to start system-config-display manually in the console. The trouble is the system spits the following answer and the utility fails to start:

root@f10test ~]# system-config-display
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/system-config-display/xConfigDialog.py", line 61, in update_ui
    label.set_text(_("%s with %s")%(self.state.get_monitor_name(), self.state.get_videocard_name()))
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode bytes in position 20-21: invalid data
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/system-config-display/xConfigDialog.py", line 61, in update_ui
    label.set_text(_("%s with %s")%(self.state.get_monitor_name(), self.state.get_videocard_name()))
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode bytes in position 20-21: invalid data
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/system-config-display/xconf.py", line 376, in <module>
    dialog = xConfigDialog.XConfigDialog(hardware_state, xconfig, rhpxl.videocard.VideoCardInfo())
  File "/usr/share/system-config-display/xConfigDialog.py", line 659, in __init__
    self.update_ui()
  File "/usr/share/system-config-display/xConfigDialog.py", line 61, in update_ui
    label.set_text(_("%s with %s")%(self.state.get_monitor_name(), self.state.get_videocard_name()))
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode bytes in position 20-21: invalid data

Video card: Intel 82865G

What can I do further to solve the problem?
I and my 1000 school users thank you for help.

[Oakems]

Hello Sor, I use KDE so I'm not sure if this will help, but have you tried just typing:
system-config-display --reconfig
as root?
(I'm fairly new to Linux so don't hate me if what I'm telling you is something extremely basic that you've already tried, but I find sometimes simplicity works best)
Hope this works for you
Oakems

[Oakems]

Did my advice not work?

[Maryyy]

I had the same problem. I simply fixed it by deleting xorg.conf file. Back it up first, should anything go wrong, then run the tool again, should work.

[Oakems]

Sor, has none of these things worked for you?

what happened when you typed 'system-config-display --reconfig' from a terminal as root? If this did not work try booting into run level three and trying it there.

Do you know the make and type of your monitor?

Post back when things don't work so that other people with the same problem as you are in the know. Plus this makes it a lot easier for other people trying to help you, as they will know that the problem has not yet been resolved.

[sor]

Thanks for your prompt replies! Great forum, helpful participants!

But today we are having a national holiday (Portugal, Europe), I am writing from home and I'am returning to my school tomorrow only (where the problem lies), then I will surely try out your suggestions and post back the outcome.

[sor]

I tried both suggestions, unfortunately failing to get the problem solved.

With the --reconfig option, the situation remains exactly the same: error messages and no start of the GUI window for display setup. I also tried --forceui as option.

As to xorg.conf, which I searched in /etc/X11, the file does not exist. May be this is why: since system-config-display does not start, xorg.conf is not created.

Now I am considering inserting a sample xorg.conf into /etc/X11 and see whether it is well adopted by the system, but this I can only try out tomorrow. (I will also take note on the model of the CRT monitor under use.) Also, I still need to try the suggestion of launching system-config-display in runlevel three (although I thought this tool only would work graphically...).

Comments? Suggestions?
Thanks.

[Maryyy]

Yes, generating a basic xorg.conf seems to be the only solution.
You can make your work a bit easier by running Xorg -configure to set up a basic xorg.conf file. Even if it fails (as it does in Vbox), it creates xorg.conf.new in /root. Then copy it over to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and edit according to your needs. Not much, but I hope it works.

[Oakems]

Here's a copy of my Xorg that you can use as a template if you have nothing else. You'll need to change the info on it to fit your system of course.

I'd try booting into run level three and typing "system-config-display --reconfig" first though. After that has been typed it should take you to a screen where you can select your monitor type and your desired resolution. It's important that run level three is booted into and not just switched to from the command line or it will not work.

Hope you get it fixed

# Xorg configuration created by livna-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AIGLX" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# keyboard added by rhpxl
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
ModelName "Hansol Electronics Mazellan900P"
HorizSync 30.0 - 96.0
VertRefresh 47.0 - 150.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

[sor]

At last the problem is solved!

For system-config-display to work, it was indeed required to generate previously an xorg.conf file. That way, the entry Display even shows up in the Gnome menu as initially expected.

So in the console I typed:

Xorg -configure
mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And then the configuration options became available, so that the system's graphical resolution could be tweaked as wished. No manual editing of xorg.conf was even needed in this case.

Thanks Oakems and Maryyy!

[Loki1950]

@sor it might be a good idea to edit the subject line of your original post and add the solved there that way others with the same problem can see it immediately.

Enjoy the Choice