Bug 150614

Summary:	Installation default Refresh Rate runs "Monitor out range"
Product:	[openSUSE] SUSE Linux 10.1	Reporter:	Terje J. Hanssen <terjejhanssen>
Component:	Installation	Assignee:	E-mail List <bnc-team-screening>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID	QA Contact:	Klaus Kämpf <kkaempf>
Severity:	Major
Priority:	P5 - None	CC:	sndirsch, snwint
Version:	Beta 2
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	SuSE Linux 10.1
Whiteboard:
Found By:	Other	Services Priority:
Business Priority:		Blocker:	---
Marketing QA Status:	---	IT Deployment:	---
Attachments:	10.0 'hwinfo --monitor'

Description Terje J. Hanssen 2006-02-13 21:34:43 UTC

This is not a new problem, as it has existed on all Suse Linux versions I've tried since 8.1, even that it should be fairly easy to fix it and avoid it. It has caused much problems and frustrations, especially for novice user trying to install Suse Linux. I've also posted this previous for the Suse Linux Professional free support, without any change done. I've also tried Debian and Ubuntu installations, and they don't have this problem, at least not on my hardware.

Example:
My monitor is a Viewsonic 19" LCD model VP191b professional series. It manages an optimum screen resolution of 1280x1024 at Maximum 75Hz refresh rate.
On Suse's Installation's boot splash screen, <F3> default shows a screen resolution of 1280x1024, which is obviously correct enough, but it hides however which refresh rate that is used, which I've figured out is set so high as 85Hz.

Therefore, by continuing the installation with this default 1280x1024 screen resolution that looks to be ok, soon runs the "Monitor out of Range", showing only this monitor message box and nothing else but a black background screen.

That is, the installation has to be reset to boot from scratch. The "tric" that has had to be done, is to set <F3> temporary to a lower screen resolution of 1024x768 to come through the installation. At the later hardware configuration the correct monitor model VP191b is found automatically and set the correct 1280x1024@75Hz for it. (At previous 9.x versions however, this monitor model wasn't available, and one had to manually configure a VESA LCD 1280x1024@75, to not run the monitor out of range before finishing the installation).

Suggested solution:
As I said, this frustration problem should be fairly easy to avoid. The solution is to set a Lower to Medium (Not High) refresh rates for the screen resolutions during the installation. That is 65-75Hz for 1280x1024.

Comment 1 Michael Gross 2006-02-14 12:28:15 UTC

Attach `hwinfo --monitor' - analog LCDs will not be fed with more than 75Hz as no model would support this. Hence, if you choose LCD@1280x1024 as screen model, such a thing would not happen. Furthermore, you can _test_ your X11 configuration and if it does not work, after 30 seconds it will fall back to the settings were they can be changed. The probelm seems that your screen was not detected correctly...

Comment 2 Terje J. Hanssen 2006-02-14 14:32:40 UTC

Created attachment 68360 [details]
10.0 'hwinfo --monitor'

As requested I attach the output of the 'hwinfo --monitor' command as a text file.

To repeat:
1. "The Monitor out of Range" occures ONLY during Installation, just after the first boot splash screen, using the automatic suggested 1280x1024 screen resolution <F3>
Does really the installation process use any specific monitor model already at this point?
What I know is that the refresh rate used here just runs my monitor out of range.

2. In the later Hardware analyze, the correct VP191b monitor model is found with 1280x1024@75Hz set correct. 

For previous Suse 9.x versions, VP191b was not availble, and I just had to select generic LCD 1280x1024@75Hz and 16 bit color depth with SaX2 just afer the hardware analyze. At this point I saw that 85Hz else would have been used with montior out of range as a result.
Now, testing again with SaX2 on the installed 10.0 Suse, LCD 1280x1024@75Hz and 16 bit color depth of course did work perfect.

Comment 3 Michael Gross 2006-02-14 15:33:28 UTC

Steffen and Stefan:

> just after the first boot splash screen, (...)
> Does really the installation process use any specific monitor model already at
> this point?

hwinfo or at least some parts of it are run before the installation itself, but I don't know how much information is used then. As hwinfo reports the correct settings for this screen, there should not be a problem even if this is done that way. Are the freuencies hard-coded here?

Comment 4 Stefan Dirsch 2006-02-14 15:51:00 UTC

Unfortunately there's nothing we can do here. :-( AFAIK the frequencies used for the different framebuffer resolutions is hardcoded (in the graphics card). If this is 85 Hz for 1280x1024 and your monitor does not support it (many TFTs don't), you're lost and need to use a different resolution with different frequencies, which are supported by your monitor. BTW, up to now I saw these problems only on pretty old graphics card, e.g. ATI Mach64.

Comment 5 Steffen Winterfeldt 2006-02-14 16:35:12 UTC

Exactly. And there's no way to know the frequency the BIOS will use either,
so I can't show the vertical refresh rate.

Comment 6 Hans Meier 2006-04-28 07:06:32 UTC

I've also just encountered this problem. I think a lot of users have LCD monitors connected via analog inputs, and what they will see instead of the installation process starting is just a message saying "out of range" or something.

It must be possible to set the refresh rate of the framebuffer to a maximum of 75Hz somewhere. If not, another solution must be found, because the users won't care about a framebuffer not being able to set the correct refresh rate. What they will see is that it just isn't working and they will be annoyed and probably angry at Suse Linux / Linux in general and stick with Windows.

Therefore I'm reopening this (IMHO serious) bug.

Comment 7 Stefan Dirsch 2006-04-28 07:13:40 UTC

Could you please read comments #4 and #5? Thanks.