Wohoot! I’ve finally managed to get my 1440×900 widescreen monitor working with the open-source radeon (r300) driver instead of ATi’s proprietary fglrx driver. Turns out I just needed the right “Device” section:
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. M22 [Radeon Mobility M300]"
Driver "ati"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "DDCMode" "true"
Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS, TMDS"
Option "MergedFB" "true"
Option "MetaModes" "1024x768+1440x900"
EndSection
and, especially, a special modeline for the 1440×900 mode:
Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes"
Modeline "1024x768" 76.16 1024 1080 1192 1360 768 769 772 800
Modeline "1024x768" 64.11 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 795
Modeline "1440x900" 100.000 1440 1456 1464 1480 900 916 924 940 -hsync -v
sync
EndSection
and then the right display settings:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies, Inc. M22 [Radeon Mobility M300]"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900" "1024x768"
Virtual 1440 900
EndSubSection
EndSection
Even better, AIGLX compositing just works with the open-source drivers; so after installing Beryl I have all the fancy window effects without the hassle and complication of running the Xgl server that you have to use with the fglrx drivers. Admittedly, 3D is somewhat slower with the open-source drivers than it was with the ATi drivers, but it’s not as if I use 3D stuff a lot.