Re: [SLUG] Geforce 256 + KDE 2 = Weird fonts (A fix)

[Paul Copeland <plc007@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

I am replying to my own post with a solution I have found.  I am doing this 
so that anyone who suffers from this problem will hopefully use this 
fix.  I am sorry if some feel this is a waste of bandwidth.

I  found this solution on the SuSE support database and it has fixed my 
Libranet display, so hopefully it will work with other distros.

The problem of tiny or giant fonts in KDE and Qt applications is because 
the monitors physical size is incorrectly detected by the X server on 
installation. For me this happens not just with Libranet but also Mandrake, 
SuSE and Lycoris. The monitor is detected as a Huge monitor so Qt fonts are 
selected to a size that would be readable on a very large monitor. When the 
size is scaled down to your real monitor size they are tiny little fonts 
that are unreadable, or huge blocky style fonts. In my case it is the 
combination of a Compaq MV720 monitor and the Geforce 256 card, because 
this problem never occurred using the monitor on an old 8 MB SiS card.

To fix this run "xdpyinfo" at the command line. Check to see if it lists 
the physical dimensions of the monitor. If it is there and incorrect they 
need to be fixed (mine said my Compaq 17 inch monitor was 67 inches).

Now as root edit XF86Config-4 (in /etc/X11). Insert the following line in 
the Section "Monitor" part of the file,

DisplaySize 350 245

Insert this text above the line that says "Option "DPMS"" (without outside 
quotes). Please note the numbers are the length and height of the monitor 
screen in millimetres

Now save the changes and restart the X server. KDE and Qt apps (like Opera) 
should now have readable fonts.

Also note my Compaq monitor was not correctly detected on Libranet so for 
this to work I skipped the monitors auto detection and just chose a generic 
1280x1024 monitor.  On other distros the Compaq monitor was either detected 
or could be selected.

I hope this may be useful to others, it is the first time I have been able 
to give back a tutorial to a Linux fix.

Best to all
Paul Copeland

At 05:05 PM 24/09/2002, Paul Copeland wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I recently installed Libranet Linux (Debian based and moderately newbie 
> friendly) and came against a problem I had with SuSE 7.3, Mandrake 8.0 and 
> Lycoris.  When the installer detects a nVidia Geforce 256 card the fonts 
> in KDE are shocking, either huge or tiny.  GNOME does not seem to suffer 
> nor does IceWM (standard desktop in Libranet, although Opera running in 
> IceWM does).  In Lycoris the fix is to select a Geforce DDR card and then 
> there are no problems.  But in Libranet I can't select such a card, and 
> besides that is not the card.
>
> Has anyone else had this problem with a Geforce 256 card or any other 
> card?  Is it a flaw in KDE 2 that is fixed in KDE 3.  I tried ASP Linux 
> with KDE3 but it automatically installed the nVidia drivers, so it was not 
> a comparative test.
>
> Any ideas would be appreciated
>
> Paul