XFree86 in -current, still no luck on the laptop

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Hello again,


Despite the hints I got, it is still impossible for me to get XF4.4 
running on my laptop. Peter Hessler suggested to put `Option 
"MonitorLayout" "LVDS"` in the Device section, which didn't work out for 
me (logfile says that this option has been ignored.) He also suggested 
to plug in an external Monitor - that gave me a picture on the external 
Monitor, but didn't help getting a picture on the TFT either. :( The 
screen always stays blank there, and the console where I start X shows 
two dots per line, about one dot per second ... looks like this:

..
..
..
.(etc)

That goes on a while until it gives up. I tried `xf86cfg -textmode`, `X 
-configure`, Googling for config files that work for others, using their 
modelines, using sane modelines I found in the XFree86.0.log after 
having it probe around, etc pp. I'm totally stuck. Unfortunately, I have 
no way of getting my old working XF86Config back either (but that one 
didn't contain anything special, though - it just worked, generated by 
xf86cfg, with no custom modelines or anything.)

When I ran xf86cfg with the external monitor attached, it crashed when 
choosing Configure/Screen (iirc ... it's the configuration window with 
the single monitor in it), right-clicking and choosing "Configure".

This does NOT happen on my regular desktop PC where the nv driver is 
used - there, XFree86 works fine and dandy, even xf86cfg feels quite 
stable on it.

The laptop I am trying to get this to work on is a Dell Inspiron 7500 
from May 2000, with a 15" TFT display (IBM ITSX93, ideal resolution is 
1400x1050@60Hz, 16bpp) and an ATI Rage Mobility P graphics card.

I found the following strange log entries:

(WW) ATI(0): Inconsistent panel horizontal dimension:  1400 and 1401.
(--) ATI(0): 1400x1050 panel (ID 6) detected.
(--) ATI(0): Panel model IBM ITSX93.
(--) ATI(0): Panel clock is 107.859 MHz.
(II) ATI(0): Using digital flat panel interface.

(Why the 1400 vs 1401 thing? Could this be a bug in the driver, 
something off-by-one'ish?)

(II) ATI(0): Engine XCLK 124.453 MHz;  Refresh rate code 12.
(--) ATI(0): Internal programmable clock generator detected.
(--) ATI(0): Reference clock 29.500 MHz.
(WW) ATI(0): Extraneous XF86Config HorizSync specification(s) ignored.
(!!) ATI(0): Conflicting XF86Config VertRefresh specification(s)
              ignored.
(II) ATI(0): Maximum clock: 230.00 MHz

This doesn't make sense either - I have only one HorizSync/VertRefresh 
entry in my XF86Config, respectively. Not having them doesn't help 
either. Does it auto-detect something it wouldn't tell me about, without 
letting me override it?

After that, I get loads of messages similar to these:

(II) ATI(0): Not using default mode "800x600" (exceeds panel dimensions)

That is clearly a lie, since my panel supports 1400x1050 - some others 
are "true", though, e.g. when it talks about 2048x1536 and such.

(**) Option "TargetRefresh" "60.0"
(**) ATI(0): Target refresh rate is 60.0 Hz
(--) ATI(0): Virtual size is 1400x1050 (pitch 1408)
(**) ATI(0): *Default mode "1400x1050": 155.8 MHz, 81.5 kHz, 74.8 Hz
(II) ATI(0): Modeline "1400x1050"  155.80  1400 1464 1784 1912  1050
              1052 1064 1090 +hsync +vsync
(**) ATI(0): *Default mode "1400x1050": 122.0 MHz, 64.9 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) ATI(0): Modeline "1400x1050"  122.00  1400 1488 1640 1880  1050
              1052 1064 1082 +hsync +vsync
(**) ATI(0): *Built-in mode "Native panel mode": 107.9 MHz, 76.2 kHz,
               72.4 Hz
(II) ATI(0): Modeline "Native panel mode"  107.86  1400 1400 1408 1416
              1050 1050 1051 1052

"TargetRefresh" is something I tried, but that didn't help (according to 
other log files I have, the default is 75Hz.) Setting either of these 
modes explicitly doesn't help either.

Another ineffective option I tried was ``Option "panel_display" "True"''

Since log and config files are rather large, I decided not to post them 
here in their entirety. I'd mail 'em off-list to anyone who wants to 
look at them, of course, and further suggestions on how to fix this or 
get more helpful information out of X would be highly appreciated.


Thanks in advance,

Moritz