Re: what VESA/vga AM I useing?

From	"Nuno J. Silva (aka njsg)" <njsg@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.misc, alt.os.linux.slackware, alt.os.linux.debian
Subject	Re: what VESA/vga AM I useing?
Followup-To	comp.os.linux.misc
Date	2014-10-23 08:22 +0000
Organization	Datemas.de http://www.news.datemas.de
Message-ID	<m2adrj$icl$1@news.datemas.de> (permalink)
References	<m2a5ur$e5b$1@dont-email.me>

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

Followups directed to: comp.os.linux.misc

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["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.misc.]
On 2014-10-23, not.socialnetwork@gmail.com <not.socialnetwork@gmail.com> wrote:
> The worst kind of bugs are those that pretend to self-fix;
> like some kind of hidden disease, to appear later and kill you.
> --
> Only after an unknown sequence of applications [and sleep mode]
> did my prefered distribution slip into a fuzzy-display-mode, for certain
> programs, eg. xpdf, certain-text-of <mozilla>...
>
> Frustrating attempts to trace the bug of the *xorg* system, caused me
> to switch to an earlier/forked version of the distribution; with the
> needed wastefull <re-setting all your preferences>. 
> It's worst than moving house!!
>
> After settling in to the better system, I wanted to check something on
> the previous bad-display-system.  For booting I selected "vga=ask"
> and then selected one [that seemed familiar] from the menu of 
> vga/VESA.

These are the vga/VESA modes, typical at least when using video cards
with computers that have a PC BIOS.

The thing here that sounds weird to me is that X will still make its own
choice of which video mode to set once it starts up, the video mode you
set here will *not* be inherited by X, or at least that was how things
were last time I checked it.

> Now I've been using it for 12 hours and the damned-thing won't
> go-wrong. So I fear that I MAY have chosen a *magic* vga/VESA
> selection, which avoids the original problem.

I'll say there's still some room for a problem (corruption, something)
caused by the text consolve vga/VESA mode, it may be indeed a problem
with the initial choice.

>
> Of course I'd rather *understand* why/what's happening, but
> if that's not possible. I need to know which of a zillion vga/VESA
> choices displays without the complex/unsolved problem.
>
> ls -l /etc/X11/xorg.conf*
>   shows that none of these was updated by the latest reboot.
>   
> Any help on this frustrating problem is much appreciated.

There could have been changes in the X system *or* in the
kernel. Nowadays, part of the graphics stack is in the linux kernel.

>
>== TIA
>
> PS. how do you easily set the RTC back by 7 minutes, 
> without decoding the absurd `man'?

You should just need to
1. set the current system (software) clock to the desired time
date [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]

that is, for 2014-10-23, 11:10:

  date 10231110

(And that should be enough to set the date, just check if it is ok by
running "date".)

Now you need to sync the software clock with the hardware clock:

  hwclock -w

(from the hwclock help, "-w, --systohc set the hardware clock from the
current system time")

(Apparently, you can also set the hardware clock directly with hwclock,
if you prefer.)


-- 
Nuno Silva (aka njsg)
Helsinki, Finland

Thread

what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? not.socialnetwork@gmail.com - 2014-10-23 06:07 +0000
  Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? "Nuno J. Silva (aka njsg)" <njsg@invalid.invalid> - 2014-10-23 08:22 +0000
  Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? not.socialnetwork@gmail.com - 2014-10-23 12:04 +0000
    Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Joe Beanfish <joebeanfish@nospam.duh> - 2014-10-23 13:25 +0000
      Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? not.socialnetwork@gmail.com - 2014-10-24 06:14 +0000
  Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? ebenZEROONE@verizon.net (Hactar) - 2014-10-23 21:45 -0400
    Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? "Nuno J. Silva (aka njsg)" <njsg@invalid.invalid> - 2014-10-24 06:56 +0000
    Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Unknown <dog@gmail.com> - 2014-10-26 03:07 +0000
  Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? "Chester A. Arthur" <deadprez@whitehouse.com> - 2014-10-23 22:18 -0500
    Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-23 22:09 -0800
      Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? "Nuno J. Silva (aka njsg)" <njsg@invalid.invalid> - 2014-10-24 07:07 +0000
        Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-24 00:02 -0800
      Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-10-24 12:46 +0000
        Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-24 05:39 -0800
          Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2014-10-24 09:31 -0500
            Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-24 08:37 -0800
              Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2014-10-24 12:09 -0500
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-24 09:30 -0800
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2014-10-24 12:44 -0500
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-24 10:15 -0800
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-10-24 18:38 +0000
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-24 11:09 -0800
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2014-10-24 21:31 +0100
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-24 12:53 -0800
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Chris Vine <chris@cvine--nospam--.freeserve.co.uk> - 2014-10-25 13:56 +0100
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-25 05:12 -0800
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2014-10-25 09:24 -0500
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-10-26 00:15 +0000
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2014-10-24 14:17 -0500
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-24 12:55 -0800
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2014-10-24 16:23 -0500
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2014-10-24 22:33 +0100
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-10-24 18:28 +0000
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-24 10:43 -0800
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-10-24 22:52 +0000
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Eef Hartman <E.J.M.Hartman@gmail.com> - 2014-10-24 18:57 +0000
          Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-10-24 17:04 +0000
          Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Eef Hartman <E.J.M.Hartman@gmail.com> - 2014-10-24 17:09 +0000
            Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Allodoxaphobia <knock_yourself_out@example.net> - 2014-10-24 21:02 +0000
              Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2014-10-24 16:30 -0500
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Martin <m@abc.invalid> - 2014-10-25 14:40 +0200
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-25 04:50 -0800
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2014-10-25 09:17 -0500
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2014-10-25 13:26 -0800
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2014-10-25 16:49 -0500
                Re: what VESA/vga *AM* I useing? Martin <m@abc.invalid> - 2014-10-25 19:54 +0200

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