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[strider]

Finally, the feature I have waited for since I had the XO is here !
It is now possible to switch resolution and use full screen apps in another resolution than 1200x900.

If you want to achieve this you'll need the latest build of the Geode driver, you can maybe build it on Fedora from the latest GIT snapshot ( see here  : http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-geode/ ). I haven't tried this so don't go and break your system if you don't what you're doing.

I have used a method that is MUCH simpler, all you need is a DebXO installation (see forum or wiki for install instructions) and make sure you have DebXO 0.4.
Then go here : http://lunge.mit.edu/~dilinger/debxo-0.5/ or download directly the latest driver here :
http://lunge.mit.edu/~dilinger/debxo-0.5/xserver-xorg-video-geode_2.11.0-0.3_i386.deb
and install it with dpkg on your xo.
Reboot , or run depmod -a on a tty then restart X and voila !
You can switch resolution with xrandr -s <num> or let the applications do it by themselves.
I have successfully run gens (Sega Genesis emulator) , ScummVM (Lucasart games) , zsnes (Super Nintendo), xmame (Arcade)  and they all gain A LOT from running in a lower resolution.

I'd like to send a HUGE thanks to Jordan Crouse for fixing the driver and to Andres Salomon for packaging it and making it easy to install.

[Directive0]

Newb alert:

Would this or some variant thereof work under Ubuntu?

[strider]

I tried under Ubuntu 8.04 and it didn't work. You might want to try with Ubuntu 8.10 which has a more recent version of XServer

[mavrothal]

Finally, the feature I have waited for since I had the XO is here !
It is now possible to switch resolution and use full screen apps in another resolution than 1200x900.

Yes it is really nice to have additional resolutions. Works nice with DebXO, albeit needs some appearance fixing of fonts, windows, applications etc, but is fun to have with games.
However, I was a bit disappointed that flash performance did not improve at all, even in the lowest resolution. I would think that screen rendering would be faster and maybe flash too, but no. Too bad,  I was hopping to change my signature...

PS: and no,... will not install on teapot's Ubuntu Intrepid either.

[Zazzo]

I successfully installed this driver under sugar with

Code:

rpm -vU ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/updates/10/i386/xorg-x11-drv-geode-2.11.0-1.fc10.i386.rpm

However, my xorg.conf still only has a mode line for 1200x900 and hence that is still the only resolution I can use.  What do the mode lines for other resolutions need to look like?

[Tjelfe]

Changing the screen resolution is even possible in 767.
After installing the latest driver add the following lines to Your .xsession

Code:

xrandr --newmode 800x600 0 800 0 0 0 600 0 0 0
xrandr --addmode default 800x600

Repeat this for any resolution You need i.e 640x480 or 960x720.

You can now swith the resolution by entering

Code:

xrandr --output default --mode 800x600

Even though this works there might be a smarter way. Any suggestions are appreciated.

CU
Tjelfe

[anthill]

I just found a developer on Launchpad who seems to be maintaining Geode drivers... stay tuned!

[anthill]

Yes!  I've got the Geode 2.11-4 drivers working on Teapot's Ubuntu 8.10, and resolution switching works!

First, visit Martin-Éric Racine's personal package archive (PPA) at Launchpad:

https://launchpad.net/~q-funk/+archive/ppa

Then, either follow the instructions to add his PPA to your system software sources (including the launchpad authentication key), or cut to the chase and just download the intrepid xserver-xorg-video-geode .deb package:

https://launchpad.net/~q-funk/+archive/ppa/+packages
https://launchpad.net/~q-funk/+archive/ppa/+sourcepub/714124/+listing-archive-extra


Install the downloaded package (it will update on its own if you added the package source) and you are good to go!  X screen rotation is quicker and counterclockwise, and you can set resolutions as you like!

Getting more screen modes available might require some loosening of the very specific /etc/X11/xorg.conf restrictions.  The newer driver is less buggy and seems to require less hand-holding.

[mavrothal]

Wow! Super find anthill.
Just downloaded the geode 2.11.4.1.1 deb file installed with gdebi by double clicking and then generate this file in the terminal as sudo

Code:

sudo nano /usr/bin/xrandr_resolutions

In the file that opens add these lines

Code:

*!/bib/bash
xrandr --newmode 640x480 0 640 0 0 0 480 0 0 0
xrandr --addmode default 640x480
xrandr --newmode 800x600 0 800 0 0 0 600 0 0 0
xrandr --addmode default 800x600
xrandr --newmode 1024x768 0 1024 0 0 0 768 0 0 0
xrandr --addmode default 1024x768

Save and exit (I guess more modes can be added if you want). Then

Code:

sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/xrandr_resolutions

Type xrandr_resolutions in the terminal and verify that the resolutions show in Menu>Settings>Settings Manager>Display. Test them by clicking.
Now in Menu>Settings>Settings Manager>Autostarted apps add a new one with the name and description that you like and the command xrandr_resolutions so the resolutions will be added everytime you start your session.
The new modes show right up in your Display control panel and you just click and enjoy

Edit Alternatively you can just only add the xrandr lines in the xfce4_startup file and forget about the rest!( sudo nano /usr/lib/xfce4/scripts/xfce4_startup ). I just prefer to have an easy and independent way to invoke and inactivate hacks.

[anthill]

I just got the NES emulator fceu working in perfectly-fitted 320x240.  The problem you'll run into quite quickly with the new Geode drivers is that the Simple Directmedia Library (SDL) didn't support XRandR until lately... like a few weeks ago lately.  As of today the fixed libsdl 1.2.14 isn't even in Debian unstable.

I had to download the binary SDL-1.2.14-1.i586.rpm from libSDL's website, convert it to a .deb using alien, extract the library file libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.3, and install it by hand.  The Ubuntu package manager has no idea... 

It shouldn't be dangerous though, the libSDL people are good about keeping the library stable.  The improved full screen performance is totally worth it

[mavrothal]

extract the library file libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.3, and install it by hand. 

Like, cp to /usr/lib 
How is the sound, ALSA is also using this library.

[anthill]

 Yes, I copied the new library file to /usr/lib, and changed the two libSDL symlinks to reference it (0.11.3) instead of the package manager's version (0.11.1).  Here's what my /usr/lib looks like now.  Of course doing this could break your computer, &c &c.

Sound works fine!

Code:

olpc@OLPC:~$ ls /usr/lib/libSDL* -al
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     20 Nov 25 17:17 /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0 -> libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 426488 May  8  2008 /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 457556 Oct 19 06:09 /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 643330 May  8  2008 /usr/lib/libSDL.a
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    794 May  8  2008 /usr/lib/libSDL.la
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     20 Nov 25 17:16 /usr/lib/libSDL.so -> libSDL-1.2.so.0.11.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    654 May  8  2008 /usr/lib/libSDLmain.a

[mavrothal]

Suspending with other than the default resolutions in teapot's Ubuntu, results in a corrupt screen after wakeup. Resetting the screen resolution to anything solves the problem.
Is a simple solution but still annoying...
Looks like pm scripts are not aware of multiple resolutions (or xrandr of Teapot's pm scripts )
Nothing obvious I could find.
Any ideas?

[anthill]

Maybe something similar to what this bug describes? non-refreshing of buffer leading to bitrot?

[FuguTabetai]

I'm also running Teapot's 8.10 and wanted to get xrandr working.  I can't find any of the links to the 2.11-4 geode driver deb though; they have been removed from the repository.  I did some searching around and found a 2.11.7-1~hardy2 that I could force install (dpkg -i --force-conflicts FILE -- it was conflicting with xserver-xorg-core conflicts with xserver-xorg-video-2
and would not install.)

That didn't go very well, because now I can't load the geode driver due to dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//geode_drv.so undefined symbol: miZeroLineScreenIndex.  So I suppose the version of the xorg xserver that I have is too old. 

It doesn't look like any of this is very easy to do now without the package built for Intrepid. 

So switching to DebXO 0.5 might be an option - but I have a setup with Ubuntu that I like a lot for ebook reading (FBReader) and I finally got Japanese input working on the system, so I'm a little hesitant about switching everything over to a new OS.  Any pointers?