CV-50 LCD screen

Sadly, SuSE 9.1 installation does not auto-detect the LCD screen dimensions. The graphical display driver, XFree86 4.3.99, will have incorrect settings. SuSE will then boot-up into a `corrupt' and unreadable login screen.

If this happens to you, press CTRL-ALT-F2 to enter a text-shell (which does not require X to be working properly). Login as root. SuSE 9.1 comes with XFree86 4.3.99 (a pre-release version of 4.4). The culprit seems to be the monitor settings in /etc/X11/XF86Config. This is my configuration...

Section Monitor

  Option       CalcAlgorithm CheckDesktopGeometry

  DisplaySize  158 95

  HorizSync    28-96

  Identifier   Monitor[0]

  ModelName    800X600@60HZ

  Option       DPMS

  VendorName   -> VESA

  VertRefresh  50-76

  UseModes     Modes[0]

EndSection

Section Modes

  Identifier   Modes[0]

EndSection

Section Screen

  DefaultDepth 16

  SubSection Display

    Depth      15

    Modes      1280x768

  EndSubSection

  SubSection Display

    Depth      16

    Modes      1280x768

  EndSubSection

  SubSection Display

    Depth      24

    Modes      1280x768

  EndSubSection

  SubSection Display

    Depth      32

    Modes      1280x768

  EndSubSection

  SubSection Display

    Depth      8

    Modes      1280x768

  EndSubSection

  Device       Device[0]

  Identifier   Screen[0]

  Monitor      Monitor[0]

EndSection

...as you can see, I have got rid of all the mode definitions. I have also only defined one mode inside the `Display' subsections, which is 1280x768. At this time, I cannot get any other mode to work. `1024x600' should work, and the manual implies that `1024x768' and `800x600' should also work.

A big quandary is the `displaysize' option. The CV50 has a small LCD screen with a very fine resolution, just over 200 dpi. Normal fonts are unreadable. Setting `displaysize' allows some programs to automatically change the fonts to a more readable size. Sadly, some programs overcompensate. One such program is `synaptic', which is a graphical frontend to the `apt' package installer. As a result, `synaptic' will crash, by trying to use overly large fonts in a window which is too small. Getting rid of the `displaysize' option, or setting it to a different dimension, will result in fonts being a more `normal' size i.e. unreadable on a CV50 screen! However, at least you can then start programs like synaptic. Personally, I chose to use `aptitude', a text based menu-style frontend to `apt'.