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

[R. G. Newbury]

On 02/15/2011 11:48 AM, James Miller wrote:
> 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?

Firstly you will have to fix the problem of the system booting into a 
'lo-res' mode. You should be using the nvidia driver. If there is an 
/etc/X11/xorg.conf file, you can check that the proper driver is set to 
load. If there is no xorg.conf, read the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file, to 
see that was used and loaded.
You may need to add 'rdblacklist=nouveau' to the kernel line in 
grub.conf to get that driver out of the way. I have no idea how nvidia 
drivers are installed under ubuntu, but I assume the proper driver files 
exist in the repos. (ie. you can use apt-get install nvidia or somesuch).

Read /usr/share/doc/NVIDIA-GLX/README.txt at Appendix E, concerning Dots 
per Inc.
You may have to force a proper DPI setting. This is an overall setting, 
not directly related to the point size.
If your desktop is messed up, then it this that needs to be fixed. (and 
only then fiddle with the font size settings in the desktop settings 
area...been there, it was not pretty...)

When all that is correct (at it is not clear that things *outside* of 
myth are correct), then you can look at myth itself.

I had the same problem, and it turned out to be the DPI setting. It was 
REALLY hard to install when you couldn't read the prompts!!

              R. Geoffrey Newbury