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Slackware 10.0 and Video—Day 21

© Copyright Darrell Anderson.

One thing that has been frustrating me is manually auto-centering my LCD display when I rebooted from Windows into GNU/Linux. Apparently the two environments differ and are somewhat offset from one another with respect to the screen display. This is a simple one-button solution, but a nuisance nonetheless. The problem is with X because my two NT4 and MS-DOS/WFWG 3.11 partitions need no adjustment. Additionally, the text mode of all my GNU/Linux boot screens need no adjustment. I don’t know why X cannot auto-adjust, but is there a way to modify the X configuration file to remedy this offset?

There is, but I discovered the remedy mostly by accident. The solution includes an ugly and awful program known as xvidtune. This program crashed about every 30 seconds on my both my Mandrake 9.2 and Slackware 10.0 systems. I don’t know what widget tool set was used to create the tool, but the interface is ugly and amateurish. Yet, this is one way I discovered to help generate “modelines.” A modeline is a configuration option within the xorg.conf file that adjusts the display. Eventually I was able to obtain a modeline setting that is close to ideal centering, but I noticed a difference of a couple of pixels when I switched between operating environments. Thus, I still needed the manual push button approach.

After some more twiddling and I finally had both environments centered exactly the same.

There are several online modeline generators. The challenge with using these tools is knowing all of the parameters of the video card and monitor. However, often I received confusing results. Thus, I did not know if I should use the results. I’m guessing part of the problem is these algorithms are based upon CRT monitors and not fixed resolution LCDs. X has no problem providing the requested display size (1280 x 1024 in my case), but does have a problem centering the display. That is all I want fixed.

More importantly, this entire nonsense indicates X is not ready for prime time. This process is ridiculous. If the Windows and Mac people can deal with this problem then so should GNU/Linux people. Having to manually adjust the display is nuts. I needed about an hour each on two different days to twiddle, restart X from a crashed xvidtune, and reboot to Windows to check the difference between the two systems. There is no way I see typical computer users fiddling with xvidtune to center a display. Especially when in almost every article I read about the issue the author warned about possibly damaging the monitor. I have nothing nice to say about configuring X. I am not alone—visit any discussion forum and notice the amount of configuration questions regarding X.

I notice hdparm version 5.7 provides incorrect total sector information about my hard drive. Version 5.4 installed in Mandrake 9.2 provides the correct count, as does other tools I use. Fdisk shows the correct number too.

Unlike many other scripts, Slackware does not come with any sample hdparm startup script code that can be uncommented for those people who want to improve hard drive performance. Thus, I added the following to rc.local:

Because I use a hard drive bay, I’d like to figure out how to add some code to check if a second hard drive is installed and adjust the parameters as necessary. However, probably this is not safe because I use some older hard drives for my backup scheme and I would need to test each drive before I could add appropriate hdparm parameters. After I learn some bash I might be able to grep some hdparm -i info to run hdparm on the fly for second drives, but that is for another day. Probably not worth my time since I use those extra drives only short-term for backups.

I also am a long-time Num Lock key user so I added the following to rc.local:

Seriously, this Num Lock business drives me crazy. Mr. Torvalds disables Num Lock regardless of a user previously configuring the BIOS to enable Num Lock. Shame! The X developers also overrule the BIOS setting. Shame! Fortunately, KDE provides an option to re-enable the Num Lock. Additionally, there is a KDM (K Display Manager) option to keep the Num Lock key enabled. However, there is a transitional moment when one logs out and before the DM appears or disappears. Guess what? X takes over during that moment and the Num Lock key is disabled. Worse, when I toggle between different X session screens, I have no idea what state my Num Lock will be because this toggling also toggles the Num Lock key. Aargh! I want the kernel, X, and any other software to honor my BIOS setting. I want Num Lock enabled and left alone—by everybody!

My confidence with GNU/Linux and Slackware grows, but all of this under-the-hood fiddling is exhausting. As a do-it-yourself type I like knowing what is going on under the hood, but I wish I could investigate at my leisure and not investigate as the primary route to providing myself a productive system. I often feel as though I am the Queen in Alice’s Wonderland—covering less distance the faster I run. Yes, I am learning, but I want to migrate! Then again, my migration is philosophical, not technological. Thus, there is no need for a hasty migration. My NT setup allows me to be productive and does not crash. Still, the phrase user-hostile sometimes seems more appropriate than user-friendly.

Slackware has a reputation of being software that has not changed in the last decade. I tend to agree. Slackware has the potential to be much more, but perhaps the maintainer does not want that. Perhaps the maintainer and existing customer base is happy with the current design. Slackware does lack some user-friendliness, but now that I am becoming more familiar with Slackware I suppose that depends upon the definition of user-friendliness. To the newbie, distros such as Slackware are user-hostile because there are few friendly tools or hand-holding. The experienced GNU/Linux user probably loves Slackware as is. Right now I tend to be in between, experienced enough to eventually punch my way out of the paper bag, but also experienced enough to know that some additional tools would go far to help my migration.

On the other hand, I am amazed at the flexibility and power of GNU/Linux, and Slackware does not get in the way of that design. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend distros such as Slackware to the individual who wants a quick or painless migration.

Finis.

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