How to get 1920x1080 (almost) native resolution on Dell 22w LCD

A Dell Optiplex GX280 with onboard Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset

There are two ways:

1. Use a modern Linux distro like Ubuntu - it detects the hardware properly and
works out of the box at full 1920x1080 resolution

or

2. Use a 'modern' MS Windows OS and cast your mind back to the early days of fiddling with Modelines in an Xorg.conf like you had to do in the early, early, early Linux days...

WinXP or Win7 didn't work even with Dell OEM or Intel drivers. The best it would do ouy of the box is 1400x1050 - it appears that the 1920x1080 mode I'm trying to achieve is disabled in the BIOS.

The XP solution. (probably have to do something similar to with win7 but on GX280 vintage gear probably not worth it) Anyway, get the real Intel driver in ZIP format.
Unzip it and edit the

.\win2k_xp142550\Graphics\igxp32.inf file

Go to the section
[NonEDIDMode_AddSwSettings]

Change the value of TotalDTDCount from 0 to 1
HKR,, TotalDTDCount, %REG_DWORD%, 1

Change the value of DTD_1 to set a FAKE but VALID screen resolution
Here's what I used
HKR,, DTD_1,%REG_BINARY%, 02,3A,78,20,71,38,2D,40,58,2C,45,00,DD,0C,11,00,00,1E,37,01

I'm using 1912x1080 - the BIOS doesn't know about the resolution and will not block it.

02 3a 80 18 - the 1920x1080 version
02 3a 78 20 - the 1918x1080 version

For details of what this is about is best explained here:
http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/custom-resolutions-on-intel-graphics/

Then, manually install the driver with the igxp32.inf file...

Reducing computer's power consumption

This software http://miserware.com/products_micromiser.html
has saved about 40% (0.022381kWh) since I installed the software. Pretty impressive
numbers so far...

gone a bit blip mad

blipping blipping blipping so no new updates. Oh ya earned 1.60 euros so far on ubetoo - woo hoo first pint's on me once I get 10 euros in the account :P

Oh ya, doesn't look like the rink is going to happen this year - not enough snow!!! Can you believe it? Nice one UK for taking all the snow.

Started the AudioFumes DJ Blip thing

hopefully to feature a wide variety of interesting music http://blip.fm/audiofumes

Gaaa...has it been that long

My last post was in July??? What the hell have I been doing?

new track up "In Equity"

give it an ear or two at
http://www.reverbnation.com/c./poni/4929555
http://randrworld.com/mcliffe/
http://garageband.com/artist/mikecliffe

Flash plugin for fIrefox on Jaunty is soooo sloooow

A fresh install of a machine with Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) and Firefox 3.0.12 (I know, 3.5 is out...maybe later) anyway....Flash was extremely slow to the point of not being usable at all.

The first site I visited with flash, FF prompted to install missing plugins. Unfortunately
I let it and FF+Flash went slow.

Fixed it by removing all Flash related packages and plugins

Exit Firefox and make sure there is no package manager running.

List the mozilla packages with: dpkg --list *moz*
and remove anything that is named flashplayer-mozilla and swfdec-mozilla

$ sudo dpkg --purge swfdec-mozilla
$ sudo dpkg --purge flashplayer-mozilla

List flash packages with: dpkg --list *flash*
and remove adobe-flashplugin, flashplugin, flashplugin-nonfree, libflashsupport

$ sudo dpkg --purge flashplugin-installer
$ sudo dpkg --purge flashplugin-nonfree
$ sudo dpkg --purge flashplugin-installer
$ sudo dpkg --purge adobe-flashplugin


$ sudo apt-get autoremove

Check if you've got any stray libraries around...delete this one for sure.

$ locate libswfdecmozilla

Install the flash plugin.

$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

Then enjoy fast Flash and Firefox.