D
PC Construction
- Thread starter Black Hole
- Start date
OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Thanks for the link, but have you read the warning in red?
For reference: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=249353
For reference: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=249353
Colsta
New Member
UPDATE: I started to write this in response to post #218 but got distracted before posting. I see some dialogue in the interim has covered some of my points. Nevertheless, here's my input unaltered.
Clearly your chosen combination of hardware/software has uncovered unwanted behaviour but your expectations for support need to be tempered against the reality of using Linux. Reliability and ease of use have improved greatly especially in the last 10 years. It's a fantasticly flexible and reliable server operating system and performs well in the embedded and appliance sectors (like our Humax PVR's). But Linux's suitability for desktop usage has long been open to debate (just Google "year of Linux on the desktop" to see what I mean). Here the sheer number of hardware combinations make installation out-of-the-box more challenging without some minor tweaking.
Most Linux users are technically inclined hobbyists and enthusiasts, much like those who work on the software itself that comprises the Linux eco-system. There is no one corporate entity "pushing" Linux adoption per se (although some organisations that have a vested interest in selling services around Linux like Red Hat sell support contracts). So there is no commercial imperative driving such and no-one ultimately accountable for fixing your problems other than yourself. Rather Linux is an evolution of individual efforts that happen to form a pretty cohesive and usable operating system that is made freely available to all. The trade-off for using Linux is acceptance of having to tweak parts of the system yourself and be comfortable combing forums for help and submitting bug reports for genuine issues. The reassurance comes from realising that usually you are not alone in having such issues and there's a good chance that fixes are already available somewhere. Linux users generally being more technically minded are comfortable doing this. In exchange for managing it's foibles, users also get free and open access to source code and are free to modify and adapt it as they wish (or in the case of feature support or bugs, petition others to do this for them). The strength lies in the community support as a whole and the individual's willingness to participate in such. If you think about it, this Humax site works along the same principles. Humax themselves aren't reponsible for the wonderful custom firmware and the work that has gone into extending the user experience. This is purely down to a handful of altruistic coders and the willingness of the community to shape development and help fix bugs. This is exactly how Linux development and support works and hopefully you can now see why you need to shake off the Windows mentality and get involved!
One other point to note is that Linux hardware support tends to trail Windows as it suffers from lack of pre-release exposure to hardware or manufacturer input. The delay comes from developers actually getting their hands on stuff and having time to play with it before working code can be made available. That said, in my 18 years of playing with Linux, I can say with certainty that support for hardware *will* happen and bugs *will* be fixed, but self-help and individual involvement is key to the success of this process. Otherwise Windows is there for those that don't have patience or desire a turn-key solution above all else.
Now to your screen resolution problem specifically: Personally I haven't encountered such problems since the early naughties when editing X config files to include specific monitor modes etc was a fairly common practice. Xrandr handles things pretty seamlessly now in my experience.
Have you tried using the Nouveau driver instead of the Nvidia proprietary driver? I would also try booting on another distro such as the latest Ubuntu/Xubuntu or Knoppix (legendary for auto-detecting loads of hardware) to see how they handle your setup. If they correctly detect your monitor then you can dig for clues as to what needs changing. I would also urge you to comb the Mint, Ubuntu & Debian forums for similar issues (Ubuntu & Mint are Debian derivatives) and the Arch Linux wiki is another comprehensive source of help. I also unearthed a discussion that seems relevant.
Good luck.
Clearly your chosen combination of hardware/software has uncovered unwanted behaviour but your expectations for support need to be tempered against the reality of using Linux. Reliability and ease of use have improved greatly especially in the last 10 years. It's a fantasticly flexible and reliable server operating system and performs well in the embedded and appliance sectors (like our Humax PVR's). But Linux's suitability for desktop usage has long been open to debate (just Google "year of Linux on the desktop" to see what I mean). Here the sheer number of hardware combinations make installation out-of-the-box more challenging without some minor tweaking.
Most Linux users are technically inclined hobbyists and enthusiasts, much like those who work on the software itself that comprises the Linux eco-system. There is no one corporate entity "pushing" Linux adoption per se (although some organisations that have a vested interest in selling services around Linux like Red Hat sell support contracts). So there is no commercial imperative driving such and no-one ultimately accountable for fixing your problems other than yourself. Rather Linux is an evolution of individual efforts that happen to form a pretty cohesive and usable operating system that is made freely available to all. The trade-off for using Linux is acceptance of having to tweak parts of the system yourself and be comfortable combing forums for help and submitting bug reports for genuine issues. The reassurance comes from realising that usually you are not alone in having such issues and there's a good chance that fixes are already available somewhere. Linux users generally being more technically minded are comfortable doing this. In exchange for managing it's foibles, users also get free and open access to source code and are free to modify and adapt it as they wish (or in the case of feature support or bugs, petition others to do this for them). The strength lies in the community support as a whole and the individual's willingness to participate in such. If you think about it, this Humax site works along the same principles. Humax themselves aren't reponsible for the wonderful custom firmware and the work that has gone into extending the user experience. This is purely down to a handful of altruistic coders and the willingness of the community to shape development and help fix bugs. This is exactly how Linux development and support works and hopefully you can now see why you need to shake off the Windows mentality and get involved!
One other point to note is that Linux hardware support tends to trail Windows as it suffers from lack of pre-release exposure to hardware or manufacturer input. The delay comes from developers actually getting their hands on stuff and having time to play with it before working code can be made available. That said, in my 18 years of playing with Linux, I can say with certainty that support for hardware *will* happen and bugs *will* be fixed, but self-help and individual involvement is key to the success of this process. Otherwise Windows is there for those that don't have patience or desire a turn-key solution above all else.
Now to your screen resolution problem specifically: Personally I haven't encountered such problems since the early naughties when editing X config files to include specific monitor modes etc was a fairly common practice. Xrandr handles things pretty seamlessly now in my experience.
Have you tried using the Nouveau driver instead of the Nvidia proprietary driver? I would also try booting on another distro such as the latest Ubuntu/Xubuntu or Knoppix (legendary for auto-detecting loads of hardware) to see how they handle your setup. If they correctly detect your monitor then you can dig for clues as to what needs changing. I would also urge you to comb the Mint, Ubuntu & Debian forums for similar issues (Ubuntu & Mint are Debian derivatives) and the Arch Linux wiki is another comprehensive source of help. I also unearthed a discussion that seems relevant.
Good luck.
Colsta
New Member
Over-driving CRT monitors could result in permanent damage. I would expect an LCD unit to just fail to display (not that I would be willing to blithely make changes without checking the supported modes of course).
OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Much appreciated, as always.
MikeSh
Well-Known Member
Windows has evolved over the years with new features tacked onto the existing system and presumably old parts modified/adapted to provide more up to date functionality; all fronted by a (mostly) clean and simple visual interface and to a large extent providing backward compatibility to older MS and third party software. So the nice pop-up list of resolutions that you get to see could have an 'interesting' amount of software behind it.
Or it might be as simple as it looks
D
Deleted member 473
But the legacy was swept away with Windows 8 and 10, wasn't it? The reliance on a 16 bit OS and the poor use of the first Mb of RAM vanished.
The real problem with Linux is the lack of commercial software.
The real problem with Linux is the lack of commercial software.
OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Oh yes, just spotted the "crt" conditional.
That of course depends on what you want to do; for my particular requirements there are good free tools.
OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
But with WINE or a VM, there is a work-around
D
Deleted member 473
Well good luck with that. I got hardly anything to work with wine and no graphics programs to work in a VM. It's superior to a tablet, though. Just.But with WINE or a VM, there is a work-around
Colsta
New Member
My sentiments exactly. Granted the alternatives to popular commercial Windows software are not always obvious or well publicised but I have yet to be left wanting after a proper search.
Colsta
New Member
What were you having problems with exactly? Have you checked your applications against the current Wine application database?
OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
What do you mean by a "graphics program"? I'll be trying to port CorelDRAW soon.
D
Deleted member 473
Picture editing, video editing.
OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Yep. I'll be trying to run Serif PhotoPlus and MoviePlus (eventually). Why, when I could use GIMP and ShotCut? Because I'm used to them.
D
Deleted member 473
As far as I remember, TMPGEnc, Paintshop Pro plus its video partner Video Studio, DVD Lab and EditStudio were the main culprits. Possibly VideoRedo too, plus I could not connect my satnav to update it.
OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
I don't have that problem, the new TomToms only update by WiFi.
D
Deleted member 473
Smart move, but hardly a general rule. My stand alone Garmin updates via an app that also optionally installs the maps on your PC.
The mechanism on my late Toyota was even more complicated. You had to use a USB FLASH drive in the car, which was primed with the data from the unit. You then inserted that in a PC to download the update, then went back to the car with that to update the unit. Being as putting all of Europe on the unit was going to take several hours, I never put more than the UK on it.
The mechanism on my late Toyota was even more complicated. You had to use a USB FLASH drive in the car, which was primed with the data from the unit. You then inserted that in a PC to download the update, then went back to the car with that to update the unit. Being as putting all of Europe on the unit was going to take several hours, I never put more than the UK on it.
OP
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Looks like I may become the beneficiary of yet another cast-off 2TB Barracuda, and a complete four-core Advent system unit (why did I bother building one???). Idea: repurpose the Advent as a NAS with software RAID (presumably it won't draw too much power while just idling, or maybe I could fit it with a cheap low-power processor/motherboard combination), and possibly even have it available for extra compute power (particularly off-loading video encoding etc).
(why did I bother building one???). Idea: repurpose the Advent as a NAS with software RAID (presumably it won't draw too much power while just idling, or maybe I could fit it with a cheap low-power processor/motherboard combination), and possibly even have it available for extra compute power (particularly off-loading video encoding etc).