[SOLVED] blurred text

[peter_overduin]

I have a problem that I cannot solve.
I have 22" monitor and nVIDIA graphics card.
With the native nVIDIA driver and several versions (including latest) of the official nVIDIA drivers I finally got the machine to understand my screen:
edit in xorg.conf with DisplaySize, Option "DPI" "90 x 90", resolution to 1680x1050 and some other magic lines there.

Now when I check the DPI, displaysize and the 1680x1050-size are all OK.
(Happens both in GNOME and KDE).
I also set the font size to the same 90dpi, but can't check if this happened.

After doing all this the fonts stay blurred and hardly readible.
It is not a matter of installing better fonts, 'cos the quality is too low. I installed Tahoma, etc., with trying out several settings with anti-aliasing and hinting, but the quality stays "just readible" at best.
I even tried some BIOS-settings.
I use Debian Etch, but also Ubuntu and Fedora Core give the same results.

When I use the generic VESA driver all seems well, and I am happy to use that one, but I cannot get the screen to 1680x1050. It ignores my settings in the xorg.conf and messes up my screen size, dpi and resolution.

I have the idea it is an X-server problem or an nVIDIA driver problem or the combination of the two.


Can somebody help me to:
- either get my nVIDIA driver to perform in some mysterious way
- or help to get the VESA driver to give me the proper resolution

Thanks!

[devils casper]

HI and Welcome !

Which Linux distro are you using right now? Post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf file here. Post the output of this too :

su -
/sbin/lspci | grep -i vga

[peter_overduin]

Thanks for your reply.
The answer to the grep command is "unknown id: /sbin/lspci

I use Debian Etch.

I attach my xorg.conf

Thanks again for your time.

[devils casper]

Did execute exact command?

/sbin/lspci | grep -i vga

I will look into contents of xorg.conf file and post back in a moment.

[oz]

If by chance you are running an LCD monitor, you'll get sharper fonts by using subpixel smoothing and full hinting.

[peter_overduin]

Thanks for looking into it.
I did it again /sbin/lspci | grep -i vga very conscienciously with the same result: he can't find it.

It is indeed an LCD screen, but the quality is way too low to give improvement with anti-aliasing and hinting. It changes a bit, but it is still way too blurry to be useful.

[IsaacKuo]

One potential problem is that the LCD monitor needs to "auto-adjust" to properly line up the pixels. The method of activating the "auto-adjust" option depends on the model of LCD monitor. For example, with a Dell LCD monitor you press the "+" button to do the adjustment.

If the adjustment isn't correct, then everything may be blurred and/or the borders of the screen might not be lined up exactly right (some edges might be chopped off and/or some edges might not reach all the way to the edge of the display).

[peter_overduin]

Thanks Isaac,

the monitor auto-adjusts.
Forcing it again brings no improvement.
In win XP it is very sharp, as well as with the VESA driver.
The problem with the VESA driver is that the resolution, screen size and dpi is wrong, which messes things up and making the fonts again not good.

[devils casper]

Post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf file here.

[peter_overduin]

Hai casper,

I included the file earlier, but I will post the contents here (I hope it goes well):
I measured the display size with a ruler, and calculated the dpi from the 1680x1050 pixels and the display size.

Thanks for your help!


# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Thu Feb 14 18:20:37 PST 2008

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
FontPath "/usr/local/share/fonts"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
HorizSync 28.0 - 84.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 60.0
Option "DPMS"
DisplaySize 474 296
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "vesa"
Option "NoDDC"
Option "USeEdidDPI" "false"
Option "DPI" "90 x 90"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1680x1050"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1680x1050"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1680x1050"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1680x1050
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1680x1050"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1680x1050"
EndSubSection
EndSection