ScreenMode Prefs problem

I got into problems using Screenmode prefs=

- I did use the monitor tab & ther i, added a 1600 x1200 85 Hz mode which is the max for my Vision Master Pro permits.

This mode however does not appear in the first tab of screenmode Prefs, where you select the screenmode to be used.

In trying to get that result, i had the misfortune to select in the monitor tab the "automatic
selection" checkmark (upper left) . After Rebooting, i now have only the original Amiga PALscreenmodes available and i don't have acces any more to the 'monitors' tab
to reverse the situation. Nothing happens when you click on it. :(

When i boot all seems to go well (as usual (boing ball etc), but the WB shows up on a low definition screen.


I did save my Update5 partition yesterday, and if needed i will reverse to that,
I guess however
- that not having access any more to the monitors tab is not what is intended
- that copying a number of settings from my back-up shoould do the trick.

I did note however that there were more settings than i expected (envarc:sys/screenmode.prefs) that changed symultaneously today. notably amidock setting.

All help appreciated.

Maybe just copying back the file ENVARC:Sys/screenmode.prefs from your backup might help here.

I did that: it has no effect

I also copied the amidock prefs: no effect either

I finally made a list lformat="%d %t %p %n" ALL
on the sys:prefs drawer & sorted the output/

no other file was changed today ????

You need to copy the DEVS:Monitors icon for your gfx card back over too - that's where all the screenmodes are stored.

Thank you verry mucj, OK now.

Back to where i started from:

How do i add a new monitor mode (1600x1200 85 Hz) and use it?
(I have added the mode in the 'monitors tab')

ISTR a *cold* reboot might be necessary for the OS to see the new modes.

That was not sufficient.



This is what ACube told me (in fact i want to buy a new flatscreen monitor & wanted to know what were teh limits of my SAM440ep)

"
The M9 onboard chip can display much higher resolutions:

- 1600x1200 in DVI
- 2048x1536 in VGA

I think OS4 cannot retrieve your monitor characteristics though the DDC
query. Maybe your monitor doesn't support DDC correctly. If you use a
DVI->VGA adapter DDC cannot work.
There are 2 solutions or you set the resolutions you want manually with
Prefs/Screenmode or you need to use a VGA cable like the one we have:
https://acube-systemsbiz.serversicuro. ... -vga-cable-extensio"

I do use a DVI to VHGA adapter. At least i expected to be able to use the 1600x1200 in this mode by manually setting this mode.


What is the DDC query here?
Is it because of this that the new manually mode set does noet appear in the first tab?

I found some info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_Data_Channel
"DDC2 is not exclusive to the VGA connector, as both DVI and HDMI connectors feature dedicated DDC2B wires."


From all the above i still get that in my present setup the 1600x1200 85Hz mode should be accessible (& usable) 'manually', but how?

If it isn't working through the monitor tab of Screenmode prefs (and I don't see why it wouldn't) you can add it manually to the tooltypes of the monitor in DEVS:Monitors. It might be that OS4 is rejecting it due to the characteristics of the mode making some of the parameters out of range of the spec of your monitor. Check the min/max H and V sync are set correctly.

Verification: The added mode is visible in the montor's tooltypes.

It does not appear however in the Screenmode prefs tab "available modes"
Can the mode be imposed not using the screenmode prefs?

Edited:
I tried to add an other mode 1280x1024 60 Hz

This worked.

After restarting the "available modes" showed 3 modes
1280x1024 CLUT8 , RGB16 & ARGB32

If the mode is out of the official spec of your monitor, you can create it in Picasso96Mode

I have a 1440 x 1200 mode created that way. Originally created for my ols CRT, where it kindof worked and allowed occasional testing on very large screens. It does disply on my LCD screen but very poorly)

Picasso96Mode is quite complex though, but this is the kind of thing it's for, ie advanced specialist setup

Are you sure that your monitor accept resolutions beyond 12280x1024 ?

If it accepts this resolution, but not bigger, I think you have the same problem that me. the monitor, my HP 1740 don't displays more than 1280x1024.

With modern monitors I have more resolutions.

open a shell and enter:

dumpdebugbuffer ram:buffer

check the file in ram: and it should have something like:

Scanning bus 'DVI-I 1'
0000: 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 4C 2D 5E 05 33 32 4D 45 ........L-^.32ME
0010: 08 13 01 03 80 33 1D 78 2A EE 91 A3 54 4C 99 26 .....3.x*...TL.&
0020: 0F 50 54 BF EF 80 81 00 95 00 B3 00 81 40 71 4F .PT..........@qO
0030: 81 80 A9 40 95 0F 02 3A 80 18 71 38 2D 40 58 2C ...@...:..q8-@X,
0040: 45 00 FE 22 11 00 00 1E 00 00 00 FD 00 38 4B 1E E..".........8K.
0050: 51 11 00 0A 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 FC 00 53 Q..............S
0060: 79 6E 63 4D 61 73 74 65 72 0A 20 20 00 00 00 FF yncMaster.......
0070: 00 48 31 41 4B 35 30 30 30 30 30 0A 20 20 00 DA .H1AK500000.....
EDID V1.3
ManufacturerID SAM ProductID 055E
SerialNo 1162687027 Manufactured week 8 of 2009
Input type digital
Display gamma 2.20
Maximum Image Size 51x29cm
PowerManagement Standby no Suspend no ActiveOff yes
Monitor Name SyncMaster
Serial Number H1AK500000

Established timings:
800x600@60
800x600@56
640x480@75
640x480@72
640x480@67
640x480@60
720x400@70
1280x1024@75
1024x768@75
1024x768@70
1024x768@60
832x624@75
800x600@75
800x600@72

Standard Timing Identification:
1280x800@60hz (16:10)
Not Found: 1280x800@60hz (16:10) - calling CVT(RB=1)
1440x900@60hz (16:10)
Not Found: 1440x900@60hz (16:10) - calling CVT(RB=1)
1680x1050@60hz (16:10)
Not Found: 1680x1050@60hz (16:10) - calling CVT(RB=1)
1280x960@60hz (4:3)
1152x864@75hz (4:3)
1280x1024@60hz (5:4)
1600x1200@60hz (4:3)
1440x900@75hz (16:10)
Not Found: 1440x900@75hz (16:10) - calling CVT(RB=1)

Mode 1920x1080@60hz 67khz
DotClock 148500000hz
HTimings 1920 2008 2052 2200
VTimings 1080 1084 1089 1125
Image Size 510x290mm
Flags progressive +hsync +vsync

Monitor Range Limits:
Horizontal frequency 30 - 81khz
Vertical frequency 56 - 75hz
Pixelclock 170Mhz

If not then your monitor desn't return dcc info properly.
If you have the manual for the monitor then it should have a list of supported screen modes and frequencies so you can set up the tooltypes manually.

Also read SYS:Documentation/Picasso96/Screenmodes.doc for useful information on resolutions.

Also, you can add "+RB" or "-RB" on a screen mode like:
MODE=...x...@..+RB

It can help in some cases.

@broadblues & Elwood
I am not trying to push my present monitor: i just want to be sure when buying a new LCD monitor) (I will go for a 1920x1080, made my mind up at leaast for that) that my SAM4400ep is up top the task.
I guess i will buy a 16 pin female PCBconnector to female VGA connector cable as suggested by ACub. This should give me a max resolution of 2048x1536 .
I hope i won't have to look closer to Picasso i suppose to use the 1920x1080 mode. If yes OK i'll make the plunge.

@Ribdevil 1600x1200 85Hz is the max for my monitor as stated in specs i found on the internet.


@ Severin i followed your suggestion and get this


msr = 0x00001030
rtg.library PPC440ep optimizations enabled
Scanning bus 'dvi'
I2C_GetAck: timeout!
I2C_GetAck: timeout!
I2C_GetAck: timeout!
failed.
Scanning bus 'vga'
I2C_GetAck: timeout!
I2C_GetAck: timeout!
I2C_GetAck: timeout!
failed.
Scanning bus 'crt2'
I2C_GetAck: timeout!
I2C_GetAck: timeout!
I2C_GetAck: timeout!
failed.
Scanning bus 'monid'
failed.
it8212ide.device 53.15 (19.2.2012)
lsi53c8xx.device 53.15 (19.2.2012)
sii0680ide.device 53.15 (19.2.2012)
sii3112ide.device 53.15 (19.2.2012)
sii3114ide.device 53.15 (19.2.2012)
sii3512ide.device 53.15 (19.2.2012)
Mode 320x 240x 8@60 is not supported at the given frequency
Mode 320x 240x24@60 is not supported at the given frequency
Mode 320x 240x16@60 is not supported at the given frequency
Mode 320x 256x 8@60 is not supported at the given frequency
Mode 320x 256x24@60 is not supported at the given frequency
Mode 320x 256x16@60 is not supported at the given frequency
Mode 320x 240x 8@60 doublescan 30.850khz out of range
Valid ranges are vsync 59 - 71hz, hsync 30900 - 70100hz
Mode 320x 240x24@60 doublescan 30.850khz out of range
Valid ranges are vsync 59 - 71hz, hsync 30900 - 70100hz
Mode 320x 240x16@60 doublescan 30.850khz out of range
Valid ranges are vsync 59 - 71hz, hsync 30900 - 70100hz
Mode 1600x1200x 8@60 74.953khz out of range
Valid ranges are vsync 59 - 71hz, hsync 30900 - 70100hz
Mode 1600x1200x24@60 74.953khz out of range
Valid ranges are vsync 59 - 71hz, hsync 30900 - 70100hz
Mode 1600x1200x16@60 74.953khz out of range
Valid ranges are vsync 59 - 71hz, hsync 30900 - 70100hz
No CMI8738 found!

I have SAM440ep-mini and I use 1920x1080 60hz resolution via DVI.

But I can not recommend it.
When compositing is enabled one can use only 16bit display on WB and also then one runs out of VRAM (64MB) very easily.
32bit works, but even a single application often gets the system out of VRAM.

And it seems HW acceleration does not work reliably if less than half of the VRAM is free.

And low VRAM situations tend to cause crash or lockup pretty fast.

As an end result, I'm considering moving to lower resolution but with more colors.

Related thread: the thread
(remember to use the reduce blanking (+RB) with fullHD display)


(monitor detection never worked for me fully, not with any monitor and with any OS, manually as much as possible is my way...)

@JosDuchIt

Ok, no dcc info being received and as I have no idea what a "Vision Master Pro" is I suspect it's VGA only. I suggest you get a better dvi -> vga adaptor. cheap ones that are under 2 or 3 euros from places like amazon, discount shops etc are not worth the money, look for one around 5 euros and I recommend you buy directly from amazon and not their marketplace sellers as you can then return it for free if it doesn't work properly.

Quote:
Yes it's VGA only so I think JosDuchIt is using a DVI-VGA adapter so DDC cannot work.

@Elwood


You are right. I did use a DVI to VGA adapter. I now bought a HP2211x LCD monitor. With the old vga connection the problem was still there: the modes of the new monitor were not detected (and you couldn't revert to the manual modes.)
With the DVI cable the screen modes were detected and OS4 opened on a 1920x1080 RGB16 screen. :)

I'll report if i run into problems.