[mythtv-users] text in certain fields became too tiny after X glitch

James Miller gajs-f0el at dea.spamcon.org
Tue Feb 15 16:48:07 UTC 2011


This problem refers to a mythbutnu 10.04 FE/BE machine that has a pretty 
low-resolution (800x600 max), 31" CRT monitor hooked to it. I'm using the 
mythcenter SD theme, btw--the only theme I've found that displays sanely 
on this low-res monitor.

I recently added an hvr-1600 capture card to the system which, I 
subsequently discovered, conflicts with the nvidia graphics card I have in 
this machine. I found the fix for that conflict (adding vmalloc=256M to 
the kernel's boot parameters) and was able to get the video working more 
sanely. But I'm now left with certain artifacts: parts of mythfrontend are 
being displayed with text that is way too small to read. A more detailed 
rehearsal of the issue follows.

So, I got the hvr-1600 card and put it into the machine and booted up. I 
was greeted, on appearance of the gui, with a pop-up window telling me the 
computer had booted into low-graphics mode (apparently unaware that my 
monitor will only do low-graphics mode anyway). I presume the vesa driver 
is used when the machine runs in this mode. That presented some problems 
in that many of the dialogs with which I was presented were simply 
illegible: I think the text must have been something like 6 or 4 points 
and, on a monitor this big and with such low resolution, there was simply 
no possibility of reading it. I got past that dialog and once mythfrontend 
came up, things looked fine for the most part. But when I went to add and 
configure the new capture card, some of the pop-up dialogs with which the 
system presented me were also in very small type--though just big enough 
to read at just the right distance from the screen. So I was able to add 
and configure the card, then research the low-graphics issue and implement 
the fix listed above.

I assumed that, once I would be able to get the nvidia driver to load, the 
tiny text issue would resolve itself. I find, however, that it persists. 
Most of the text is of a legible size--the same size as it's been since I 
set up this system. But certain elements display in tiny text and are 
nearly illegible. Pop-up windows, for example, such as appear when I do 
channel scans in mythsetup, are in this tiny text. But also certain 
elements of mythfrontend suffer from this problem, e.g., the clock in the 
upper righthand corner in the program guide; it's just way too small to 
read except at about 3 feet from the screen.

I should point out that, from the time I set up this machine until I added 
the hvr-1600 and experienced the video issues I've described, no text 
displayed in the tiny font that now plagues certain components of the 
display. The clock in the upper-right of the program guide and all pop-up 
dialogs were in a normal, legible font size. So this issue was apparently 
precipitated by the machine reverting to low-graphics mode. And it now 
persists, even though the graphics issue that apparently triggered it has 
been resolved.

Can anyone offer suggestions about how I might get those elements that 
display in a tiny font to display in a more normal-sized font?

Thanks,
James


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