Is it just me, or is it darker in here?

[Sortevik]

... so I came home from church and happily booted into Ubuntu, a practice that has been becoming very commonplace these days. (Not turning on my computer after church - I do that anyway. Booting into Ubuntu is the fun part.)

My monitor is borked!

The horizontal position was way over to the right, and the brightness was all the way down. I fixed the horizontal position, but even though my brightness is all the way up, it seems super dark, still, and it's killing my eyes.

Is there any way I can turn up the brighness inside of Linux?

Also... my monitor is a ViewSonic 17" CRT (as far as technology goes, well, it's a running joke with my friends that I'm stuck in 2004. I've never used a SATA disk drive, I've never used PCIe, and my monitor is still the kind that makes a great dead weight for exercising with). It's worked wonderfully so far in the short time that I've had it (I got it from my school for free).

I'm gonna boot into Windoze (aghck! noooooo! I don't wanna!) and see if it's the same, but I'm pretty sure that it'll be the same. I'll edit my post once inside Windoze and let you all know what's going on.

-Sortevik

EDIT: I'm in Windoze. It's still... dark in here. Somebody, please help!

[mrrangerman43]

Is there any way I can turn up the brighness inside of Linux?

If you are using a Nvidia card and have the Nvidia drivers installed, you can open up the Nvidia X server settings control panel and play with the gamma. That may help some but it sounds like it's time to start looking for another monitor, viewsonic is a good monitor I have two. A 21" a bugger to move it's abou 80 lbs. and a 17" niether of which are used any more. Well that's not totaly true, I have the 21" on my sparc system. I only just started playing with it again just a day or so ago. Well if you get another monitor, if you have the money go LCD I have two 19" LG's which I hope to replace with a 23" wide screen.

[Sortevik]

Yeah, I had this feeling...

I'll be on a monitor search, then. What's a good size to get? I've always had a 17", and I don't have Tons of Cash to Spend.

-Sortevik

[mrrangerman43]

Are you a gamer, or just for everyday usage? If your a gamer you want a low refresh rate, under 8mil,sec hi contrast like 1000:1 or higher brighteness of 300 or higher. A LCD 19" is not bad I'd look at samsung, you can get a fairly good one for low $200.00 US dollars and even under if you shop around.
If all else fails there's nothing wrong with a ctr just big and bulky.

Edit: Something like this would work, LINK (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001080)

[mrrangerman43]

One thing I forgot to mention, a 17" LCD is 17" of viewable space corner to corner, not like a CTR which is like 15.5" so a 17" LCD is like a 19" CTR for viewable space. So to save a little money if you ared use to a 17' CTR a LCD 17" would be a big change. But if you can, the 19" or bigger is the way to go.

[loopback48]

I think you'll find that the 19" wide panel I pretty much standard. Of course you can find 17" LCDs but you won't be happy. And the price is not that much different.

I went out to just look. And ended up purchasing a 22" wide panel LCD. It was on sale for under 300 bucks. Best buy I ever made.

Don't even bother with the 24". Too rich for my blood.

[saikee]

It is my experience if you ensure the scanning frequencies (HorizSync and VertRefresh rate in xorg.conf) matching the monitor manufacturer's setting and pick the correct video driver you can have a perfect picture.

The brightness setting is usually configurable by the monitor, even for a CRT.

LCD and CRT monitors scanning frequencies are very different and not all distros, especially the old ones, can do an exact match.

Getting your hand dirty is a way of life in Linux because you never feed drivers to it, remember? So something got to give and it is up to you to kick some asxe.

[retsaw]

This sounds like it could just be a bad connection, you have checked that the monitor is plugged in properly right?

Before buying a new monitor, you want to be sure it is the monitor and not the graphics card so to check, either connect the monitor to another computer or connect a different monitor to your computer.

[loopback48]

17" CRT? Come on now. Time for you to take the plunge and come out of the dark ages. I think this is God's way of telling you to upgrade to a LCD. At least that's what you should tell your wife if she ask.

Live boldly! Spring for that nice 19" wide panel LCD. Come on, I know you want one.

[mrrangerman43]

loopback48

This was taken from his first post,

Sortevik
I'm sixteen years old, and I'm a Windows geek. (Stop laughing; not all of us were introduced to the Ways of Truth as early as you were.)

Mom and Dad will be the ones to convince unless he has his own money. Time to get out the sad eye look, It never worked for me, (but I'm ugly as a mud fence).:eek:

[blackbelt_jones]

I literally spent 5 times as much on my lcd montor (http://www.proview.net/Product/Product_Page.aspx?sn=459&pi=2011&ii=2778) than I did on my computer, and for me, that was a great choice. For a nongamer using Vector, dual booting Slackware, a cheap computer plugged into an expensive monitor has been overall a much better experience than when I had an expensive computer plugged into a cheap monitor. I don't get accelerated 3D animated graphics, but I get beautiful resolution for images, avi-mpg-wmv files (occasionally my system can't handle them, but that's the exception, not the rule), and my desktop backgrounds (called up randomly from a big directory each time I start Fluxbox, are glorious. It also looks great on my coffee table. It cost me almost 300 dollars at Circuit City, and I paid an extra 80 or so for the very best service contract. For the next four years, I can drop this bad boy off the back of a moving truck, and I'm covered!

On the other hand, my other PIII is connected to another awesome monitor, a 21 inch radius Prescision View crt monitor that I bought from a Garage sale that a mac user was holding out in the sticks. It's an oldie, and it takes a minue to warm up and get true color. (It's also the single heaviest bit of hardware I've ever carried. I'm a big strong guy. I'm not used to not being able to carry things, and the first time I started to lug this thing to my friend's SUV, I was half there before I realized that this thing was really pushing down on my whole body with a lot of force. But it's a great monitor, with a big beautiful display. TEN DOLLARS!

With a good monitor (and Linux) a cheap computer can produce a glorious experience (unless you want gaming, or a fancy 3D desktop... that'll cost ya, cpu/ram-wise). So my advice is to you is to a) spend a lot of money or b) be really lucky, and find the right garage sale. Either one will do.;)

[Sortevik]

@mrrangerman43: No, I'm not a gamer. My gaming experiences involved a Gravis Eliminator Aftershock USB controller, Project64, some N64 ROMs, and kicking myself afterwards for wasting so much time. ^^_ I just got Halo for my PC, but it's for Windoze, unfortunately. That monitor you linked to is beautiful, but it's way out of my price range. And yes, I'm still at home, and the economy where I live is awful (thank you Jennifer Granholm), so it's hard to find a job in my town, which is why I don't have one. So I have to pay for it myself with all my tons of not-money, or I have to persuade my parents that I need one. You never know...

@retsaw: At your prompting, I checked... my monitor cable is nice and tight. I'll hook my computer up to another monitor later, but I'm pretty sure it's the monitor.

@loopback48: Yeah, you might have something there... God does work in mysterious ways. Now I just need Him to drop a new monitor on my doorstep. That would be nice...

@blackbelt_jones: So I'd be better off with a slower computer and a more awesome monitor, eh? I've never head that before.

Guys, I'll be doing some serious thinking based on the info you've given me. Also, I'll be doing some serious begging (my mom wants me to code her a webpage for the family business. Perhaps she can write off the expense of a new monitor? I will promise increased productivity and hope for the best).

I'll let you all know if something happens.

-Sortevik

[blackbelt_jones]

@blackbelt_jones: So I'd be better off with a slower computer and a more awesome monitor, eh? I've never head that before.



Well, let me backpedal just a little. I believe that I'm better off. Your milage may vary. Also, keep in mind that I have two really cheap computers sharing the workload that one expensive computer used to carry. I'm amazed and delighted at how well this has worked for me so far. It'll work better when I get around to learning how nfs works.

Also: I believe that one reason why I'm getting such great performance out of these P3s is that I've installed two hard drives in each of them. This boosts performance, by creating an extra swap partition. If you've got an old computer, and an extra hard drive, install it. Even if it's only a couple of GB, install it for the swap.

[Pafnoutios]

And yes, I'm still at home, and the economy where I live is awful (thank you Jennifer Granholm),
Oh yeah. That sucks. I'm glad I moved away from there.
Did you check the contrast setting on your monitor? Brightness only affects the level of the black. Contrast will change the amplitude of white-black.

[mrrangerman43]

Sortevik

And yes, I'm still at home, and the economy where I live is awful (thank you Jennifer Granholm), so it's hard to find a job in my town, which is why I don't have one.

As you can see by my location I live in the same state as you do, so I know what your talking about. Not to be a doomsdayer but I fear it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Back to the problem at hand, if you find that it is your monitor and not a video card or just a bad setting. And you find you need another monitor and the funds just aren't there, I have a 17" CTR you can have, it's not a LCD but it is in good condition and works well. If you live within 30-40 miles of the Flint Saginaw area we can make arrangements to have your Dad meet me some place to pick it up.

God does work in mysterious ways. Now I just need Him to drop a new monitor on my doorstep. That would be nice...

Yes God could drop off a new monitor at your door if He chose to do so, but He likes to be a blessing through people.

If you don't want the monitor it's perfectly fine, no offence taken.

Let me know
Dan

[panther3e]

I to am in Michigan and I believe it is going to get worse as well.

As far as a monitor goes there might be a store in your area that sells used computer equipment. In my area there are a couple of them and some times you can get a decent price. Sometimes that is a better way to go besides ebay.

[Sortevik]

@mrrangerman43: Thank you very much for your offer. I'd gladly accept, but today, while helping a geek friend move, I was given a 19" CRT monitor that works fine. I have moved out of the Dark Ages... now I'm in the mid-1800s or so. ^^_ However, it's massive... it weighs every bit of forty pounds. It has earned the moniker "The Monitor of Incredible Hugeness."

Anyhow... I booted into Ubuntu, and it wouldn't let me switch out of a 640x480 resolution. I rebooted into Windoze, and it let me configure the resolution up to 1600x1200. I then rebooted into Ubuntu, and now it lets me set it up to 1280x1024. Any way to get it higher in Ubuntu?

Specs:

Ubuntu 7.10
KDS Visual Sensations 19" CRT Monitor
Intel Integrated Graphics of some sort

Thanks for everything!

-Sortevik

[saikee]

The resolution is governed by

The display capability of the monitor as specified by the manufacturer
The amount of memory and capability of the graphic card
The availability of a suitable driver

It is the common denominator of all three that dictates what you can have for the display resolution.

[mrrangerman43]

Sortevik

Glad to hear you have a better monitor, do a search on this site on changing resolution or xorg.conf. I say that because there is a ton of threads that cover this subject, and searching will help you learn what to look for and what to change.
Your going to have to do some research on the monitor you just got to find out what the Horizontal and Vertical Refresh Rate are for it. Also if you didn't know, another good place to search for linux related stuff is www.google.com/linux . If all else fails and you can't figure it out, make a new thread, give it a good title one that discribes what the problem is, and post it in the proper forum. This helps others that may have the same problem you are having find answers to their problem.

Once again I'm glad to hear you have a better monitor.

[Sortevik]

Aha! I have arrived at a solution, and I figured it out on my own!

I clicked System - Administration - Screens and Graphics. I changed the monitor to Generic 1600 X 1200 monitor. Then I logged off, logged in, set the resolution back to 1600 X 1200, and now it works great!

-Sortevik

[saikee]

Actually I believe you could have saved a reboot by pressing

crtl+alt+backspace

It will boot up Xwindows with the amended xorg.conf setting. That is how I test the xorg.conf settings myself.

[Sortevik]

Yeah, that's what I did. Thanks, though.

By the way, I love that about Linux... you can Ctrl-Alt-Backspace instead of rebooting most of the time. It's super fast and efficient.

-Sortevik

[JohnT]

By the way, I love that about Linux... you can Ctrl-Alt-Backspace instead of rebooting most of the time. It's super fast and efficient.
Now if we could only do that with life.:p