Page 1 of 1

A newb's two problems [solved]

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 1:33 pm
by Convert
Hi,

So my Pi2b boots and is usable, but two problems emerge, one of them through PROBABLY my own clumsyness.

#1: the monitor is capable of displaying 1920 x 1080 @60Hz. Philips 223V, specially bought for the occasion. But only a lesser part of that sheer wealth of that monitor's real estate is used. I already found out that in /boot/config.txt the line hdmi_mode = 4, where it should be 16. A texteditor was found (Menu -> Accessories -> Text Editor) to change this. Now comes the problem: I cannot save the modified file! A little notice appears telling me that "'config.txt 'already exists. Overwrite?". I click 'Yes'.
And then hell breaks lose as a scond notice appears, telling me "Can't open file to write" and 'OK' is here my only choice.

What am I to do? which steps to take? Please enlighten me or point me to where it has been dealt with ad nauseum.

#2: everything is in black and white and 50 shades of grey. Probably my clumsiness, but I don't have a clue HOW I managed to achieve this, but more to the point, how to get those colours back?

Regards
a Convert

Re: A newb's two problems

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 2:08 pm
by pcmanbob
Convert wrote:
Sat Jun 16, 2018 1:33 pm
Hi,

So my Pi2b boots and is usable, but two problems emerge, one of them through PROBABLY my own clumsyness.

#1: the monitor is capable of displaying 1920 x 1080 @60Hz. Philips 223V, specially bought for the occasion. But only a lesser part of that sheer wealth of that monitor's real estate is used. I already found out that in /boot/config.txt the line hdmi_mode = 4, where it should be 16. A texteditor was found (Menu -> Accessories -> Text Editor) to change this. Now comes the problem: I cannot save the modified file! A little notice appears telling me that "'config.txt 'already exists. Overwrite?". I click 'Yes'.
And then hell breaks lose as a scond notice appears, telling me "Can't open file to write" and 'OK' is here my only choice.

What am I to do? which steps to take? Please enlighten me or point me to where it has been dealt with ad nauseum.
to edit config.txt you need to use sudo.

so open a terminal window and enter the following at the command line

Code: Select all


sudo nano /boot/config.txt

then enter your changes , then do ctrl & o to write out the file and ctrl & x to exit nano.

now you can reboot your pi to see if the change works.

#2: everything is in black and white and 50 shades of grey. Probably my clumsiness, but I don't have a clue HOW I managed to achieve this, but more to the point, how to get those colours back?
I have no idea how you have achieved this, so cant offer any advice on how to fix it.

Re: A newb's two problems

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 4:18 pm
by W. H. Heydt
The Pi *should* get the monitor geometry from the EDID data. If you have a black border around the desktop, all you need to do is uncomment (that is, remove the '#' and any spaces from the beginning) the line "disable_overscan=1". This can also be done using the desktop comfiguration utility (which is a wrapper for raspi-config).

As for being all grayscale...no idea, but you might try a different cable to see if that changes anything. Also, look through the OSD (or the manual) for the monitor to see if there is a setting that can cause that.

Re: A newb's two problems

Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2018 8:01 pm
by Convert
OK, thank you guys! I now have a full screen output. Gorgeous, if not in 50 SoG.

Code: Select all

sudo nano /boot/config.txt
just worked fine.
Had to reenter it a few times as I kept having a difference of 96 pixels, both H and V, so set the overscan_hdmi_xxx ALL to -48 and it looks much better now.

Next issue is to chase after those missing colours...

A Convert

Re: A newb's two problems

Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2018 8:11 pm
by Convert
Hi, again.

Fixed the B&W issue somehow by fiddling with the monitor's menu for its internal settings, and lo' and behold!, colours are there again.

A Convert