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How do I enable wide screen with SNAP and Panarama...

Started by NNYITGuy, 2011.01.31, 17:43:41

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NNYITGuy

Hi All,

I have this new netbook. Overall the netbook works GREAT!  Both Panarama and SNAP work but I can not get to the resolutions that I really want and know I can get with other operating systems... I have observed this widescreen 0.74 information in other searches, but have not found the actual widescreen driver or tool...

Where do I go?

TIA,
-Todd
Todd J Simpson (IT Consultant)
Business Automation Technologies
(Professional Products and Services.  Business to Business...)

melf

/Mikael

sXwamp


DougB

Note that the wide screen activator works with Panorama, SNAP, and even GRADD. The biggest problem with it, is that it is limited to Intel, and ATI chipsets.

ivan

I assume the wide screen referred to is 16x9 and not a more comfortable 16x10.  My 28 inch Hanns-G monitor is seen by the Snap drivers and operates at 1920x1200 16M without any problems.

ivan

Andi

To my understanding the so called wide screen activator is only needed for graphic boards with incomplete (you can call it buggy) graphic bios. It's necessary only when the desired resolution is not defined in bios. Standard resolutions like 1920x1200 are defined in better graphic bioses anyway and SNAP or any other driver can use it out of the box without any 'activator'. For not so usual resolutions f.i. 16:9 (1920x1080) or the new netbook with sometimes rather weired resolution maybe even on better graphic cards a special 'activator' is necessary.

DougB

QuoteTo my understanding the so called wide screen activator is only needed for graphic boards with incomplete (you can call it buggy) graphic bios.

Seems to be about 90% of them now. The screen is supposed to tell the driver what it can do, and the driver should inform the OS, but it seems that the drivers that we have, are not capable of doing that successfully (they look in the BIOS, which is usually far from complete, and they don't query the screen itself). Therefore, we need a support program (the wide screen activator) to get it right. IMO, that is a buggy driver, not a buggy BIOS.

rudi

Quote from: DougB on 2011.02.02, 18:59:07
they look in the BIOS, which is usually far from complete, and they don't query the screen itself

That's not the point. The VBE drivers don't know any details about the graphics chipset. Therefore they need the BIOS to switch resolutions (i.e. to put the card in the desired mode). If the optimal mode for a given screen is not implemented in the BIOS, then the driver cannot enable it. Even if it was able to determine what mode that would be.

Quote from: DougB on 2011.02.02, 18:59:07
IMO, that is a buggy driver, not a buggy BIOS.

A VBE driver needs a hardware independent way to set graphics modes. This is not a bug. It's the way it is. The alternative would be to support the card directly as we have it with SNAP / native panel programming.

If the BIOS of a notebook does not contain a method to set a mode that matches the panel built into the very same machine, then I would call it at least incomplete. But since there is not much demand for this feature (Windows drivers go directly to the hardware and DOS games are not common anymore), manufacturers get aways with it.


RobertM

Quote from: DougB on 2011.02.02, 18:59:07
IMO, that is a buggy driver, not a buggy BIOS.

In this, I disagree. VESA BE and DDC are a standard that is either supported or not. Not properly supporting it, yet having BIOS' that claim and report to is, to me, a bug in the video card BIOS implementation since it is claiming something it is not doing (namely supporting reporting it's video mode capabilities when queried). Now, if the video card drivers were not properly detecting that information, then the bug would lie in the drivers. But instead of reporting the information, the video card manufacturers are relying on their drivers to know what the cards they are specific to can do. Thus, many of these VESA compliant cards simply are not.

Now, a workaround that may be possible is perhaps to build a database of such stuff and include that with Panorama/SNAP and the widescreen activator? Kinda brings us to the same point that Windows users are at... limited video mode support with the Windows native drivers based off the few modes reported back by the card, until a driver with a list of the card's actual capabilities is loaded.

This problem doesn't solely affect OS/2 (or Linux), but also affects Windows unless a driver and a listing of supported modes is installed for the driver/OS to query. Of course, the effect on Windows installations has been minimized with new releases that contain the driver sets in the OS release...


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NNYITGuy

Thank you everyone who has participated! I have been running a good nearly perfect solution for over a week now.  I have a video resolution of 1360x768 (basedev=atombios.sys +13600768, BTW I would not have even tried the atom bios because I saw that and thought only Intel at first glance.  Thank you Melf!) that works with both the netbook LCD and the external Viewsonic VG2428wm or VG2028wm monitors.  I even change monitor output with the netbook keyboard FN + F2 interchangeably... Which is Great! Well now I can use my simple drug store reading glasses and see the netbook 12" screen to do work while on the go and then plug into my netbook DeskStation when at the office or at the hotel.  Awesome!

The only slight anomalies are:

1)That video is not perfect at repainting a screen in iether eCS WPS or in VirtualPC/2 once maybe every few days on a system that is used heavily.

2)Blue moon freeze of either screen when I do a WPS operation of selecting files then drag the folder with the selected files by the titlebar and I get a freeze of the entire WPS and have to C-A-D to reboot the system...

I am quite sure these two anomalies are video driver based and will document and test between Panorama and SNAP at a future date...

Thank you again everyone!!!

Best regards,
-Todd
Todd J Simpson (IT Consultant)
Business Automation Technologies
(Professional Products and Services.  Business to Business...)