5.4 X Window Configuration

As the Sony Vaio GR370 has the ATI Mobility Radeon video card, it is recommended to use the Vesa driver for XFree86. The configuration illustrated below was for XFree86 Version 4.1.0.1, with Debian installed. The Debian tool xf86config did not configure the monitor/card properly, and I had to manually configure everything.

Illustrated below are the sections of the XF86Config file which will get XFree86 to work correctly on your system:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Vesa"
        Driver          "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "LaptopLCD"
        HorizSync       27-115
        VertRefresh     50-160
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "StandAlone"
        Device          "Vesa"
        Monitor         "LaptopLCD"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           16
                Modes           "1400x1050"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen          "Standalone"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Redhat Linux automagically configures X-Windows for you. Though you may need to edit the XF86Config file to get your desired resolution. The driver that Redhat configures is svga as well as accel. You can view how Redhat configured X Windows for a Vaio GR390 at http://www.prongs.org/linux/sony/xfree86-redhat.txt.