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Re: issues with HP dv5000 laptop

From: cga2000 <cga2000(at)gmail.com>
Date: Mon Jan 14 2008 - 19:10:10 EST

On Mon, Jan 14, 2008 at 02:58:19PM EST, Adriano Bonat wrote:

er .. should I top-post so as to keep everything in sequence?

> I have the same notebook, when I was using Debian with KDM (etch)
> everything was ok, now I was testing Kubuntu and I have always in kdm
> that big fonts problem, after login, everything is ok.
>
> They say that the solution is specify a DisplaySize in your xorg.conf,
> but for me doesnt work.

I tried that and it made no difference as to what xorg actually sees.

$ xdpyinfo

.. still reports:

screen #0:
dimensions: 1400x1050 pixels (356x267 millimeters) resolution: 100x100 dots per inch

Xorg is apparently not even able to compute the resolution correctly.

Do you need help?

I measured my display and the result is more like 116x116 .. go figure.

In any case I don't see what might justify forcing the display size to value that ain't right in the first place.

> Regards.
>
> On Jan 14, 2008 5:47 PM, Preston Boyington <preston.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I have installed Debian (and Ubuntu) on this laptop several times and I
> > am stumped. If I use Debian 4.0r2 (currently "stable") I don't have any
> > problems with the font size in gdm, but if I directly install "testing"
> > from a netinst cd or do a dist-upgrade the fonts are gigantic.
> >
> > Imagine the circles that obscure your password while logging into your
> > session in gdm being about the size of ping pong balls. then when Gnome
> > initially starts the upper and lower bars are about a third of the
> > screen apiece. After a moment they will go to a normal size, but any
> > font in gdm and its' associated menu entry will be super-sized. This
> > makes it very difficult to change sessions.
> >
> > This problem also affected me when I was using Ubuntu based Geubuntu on
> > this same computer. I had thought that it was an issue with Ubuntu, but
> > now see that it might be something else (Gnome I would imagine).
> >
> > With the Ubuntu based systems I added and tried gdm, kdm, and xdm. Of
> > them only xdm presented the font in a manner that was normal (although
> > it was not overly attractive).
> >
> > I also had used b43-fwcutter while in the Ubuntu based distros and got
> > the internal wireless working. Currently on pure Debian I haven't been
> > able to get the internal wireless working (yet) and the pcmcia wireless
> > card will show wireless networks, but hasn't connected to any as yet
> > (will look into that in a bit).
> >
> > I am installing linux on this machine for a friend and any information
> > would be appreciated. This is an HP Pavillion DV5000 with the Intel
> > Centrino processor.

When I went from Red Hat 7.3 to debian sarge, it took me 3 months (!) before I could finally adjust my fonts to something sensible. At the time I used a complicated environment, with the Window Maker desktop, some gnome/gtk applications (gimp, mozilla ..) and some KDE/QT stuff such as LyX. All I wanted was to have the same fonts, at the same pointsize in all my applications (desktop menus, applications menus, application text).

I must have learned from this experience because when I upgraded to debian etch, the current stable release, much to my annoyance, I ran into exactly the same problems but this time it took me only a couple of weeks to end up with a satisfying environment.

If as I understand it you are a gnome user, the gnome "control centre" I think that's what they call it should let you customize your fonts on the fly.

If this fails, or if you don't have the gnome desktop installed, you could try the gtk-theme-switch package. It's a mini-gui app that has a half-hidden option that lets you change menu fonts on the fly .. and therefore immediately see the result.

Priceless.

Do you need more help?

IIRC the package has two different guis for GTK1 and GTK2.

If you use KDE apps and want them to be consistent with gnome in terms of font family & point size, you may have to install the KDE desktop so as to have access to the the KDE font customization options.

Otherwise you will have to locate the KDE config files, guess their syntax .. and edit them. Back up the originals just in case.

Unfortunately, it doesn't end here.

Another area you will have to investigate is fontconfig.

Try ..

$ man fc-list
$ man fc-cache

Lastly, if you use mozilla products, and you menus are not consistent with the rest of your stuff you may have to dig into their online doc and that should tell you the .mozilla files you need to edit to change your fonts.

Can we help you?

Good luck.
cga

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Received on Mon Jan 14 19:41:33 2008

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