How to change/force display resolution

[Luca]

Hello,

I'm a newbie to Android-x86, so pardon me if I ask a question that has already asked several time in this group. Yet I cannot resolve my issue with the answers given previously.

I installed on a brand new Beelink BT3X (Intel Apollo lake Celeron J3355, Intel HD Graphics 500),

Everything works fine, except audio over HDMI, which I fixed following these instructions:

https://hernaaan.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/how-to-fix-hdmi-audio-in-android-x86-if-it-doesnt-work-out-of-the-box/

(BTW is that still the best approach?)

This box is connected to a 4K display. Video playback is OK, at least with SD or HD video (I haven't got a 4K video to test).

The problem is that 2D graphics (i.e. UI rendering) in 4K resolution is evidently slow and most applications (notably games) have issues (i.e. lost frames / events)

I tried to lower the resolution inserting some video options at boot, but none of those worked (following for eg. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!starred/android-x86/brADSLn0Tjo)

The other posts referring this problem seems to give instruction valid for older GRUB configurations. I tried to adapt them to the current GRUB2 configuration, but apparently the options aren't picked up. I'm attaching the screenshot of my attempted configuration with an inserted option of video=1280x1024.

Sorry I this is a silly question but I don't know how GRUB2 works. I tried with many options like vga= or UVESA_MODE= but none did work. The only option that seems to be picked up is nomodeset; this actually make the system starts with 1920x1080, but then every HW acceleration is disabled: I cannot even play an SD video!

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks

[NovHak]

Hi Luca !

I'm not very familiar with that operation since I didn't have to do that myself, but it seems you're modifying the GRUB boot configuration file at install time, which is a good thing to do if you want your changes to persist. I suppose you're not showing the whole configuration file, so the place where you're putting the kernel parameter may be concerning a nondefault menu option. That's why I would advise that you put your kernel parameter on the setparam line, let's say just before the 'quiet' parameter, so that in the end it looks like this :

setparams 'Android-x86 9.0-r2' '/android-9.0-r2' 'Android-x86 9.0-r2' 'video=1280x1024' 'quiet'

I hope this will help, but I have to say that I usually only change the kernel command line in a non-persistent way and on an already installed system, so I can't say it will work...

[luca.a...@gmail.com]

Hi NovHak!

thank you very much for you reply. I tried your suggestion and indeed I made a little step forward, but still no-go.

Il 06/04/2020 15:01, NovHak ha scritto:

it seems you're modifying the GRUB boot configuration file at install time,

Not really. The screenshot I posted refers to the normal boot of the installed Android-x86 9.0-r2; I went on the (E)dit option to modify boot options. I'm using EFI boot.

which is a good thing to do if you want your changes to persist.

Well this is different from my experience. Changes made this way aren't persisted across boots. Indeed a subsequent question would be: how to persist them.

I suppose you're not showing the whole configuration file,

Actually that's all.

so the place where you're putting the kernel parameter may be concerning a nondefault menu option. That's why I would advise that you put your kernel parameter on the setparam line, let's say just before the 'quiet' parameter, so that in the end it looks like this :

setparams 'Android-x86 9.0-r2' '/android-9.0-r2' 'Android-x86 9.0-r2' 'video=1280x1024' 'quiet'

My progress are: with 'video=1280x1024' on the setparam line, as you suggested, the screen goes initially to that resolution (when in console mode) but as soon as the system attempt to switch to graphic mode, it freezes.

I also tried to put on the first line the option gfxmode=1280x1024 instead but this produces no effect. The same with gfxpayload.

Thanks again!

Luca

[luca.a...@gmail.com]

Hi NovHak!

thank you very much for you reply. I tried your suggestion and indeed I made a little step forward, but still no-go.

Il 06/04/2020 15:01, NovHak ha scritto:

it seems you're modifying the GRUB boot configuration file at install time,

Not really. The screenshot I posted refers to the normal boot of the installed Android-x86 9.0-r2; I went on the (E)dit option to modify boot options. I'm using EFI boot.

which is a good thing to do if you want your changes to persist.

Well this is different from my experience. Changes made this way aren't persisted across boots. Indeed a subsequent question would be: how to persist them.

I suppose you're not showing the whole configuration file,

Actually that's all.

so the place where you're putting the kernel parameter may be concerning a nondefault menu option. That's why I would advise that you put your kernel parameter on the setparam line, let's say just before the 'quiet' parameter, so that in the end it looks like this :

setparams 'Android-x86 9.0-r2' '/android-9.0-r2' 'Android-x86 9.0-r2' 'video=1280x1024' 'quiet'

[NovHak]

Maybe that's because 4:3 resolutions aren't managed properly, I don't know actually. I'm using the default 1280x768 for my config (qemu). I tried 1280x1024 and well it doesn't crash but looks weird, the bottom bar of Quickstep doesn't display all elements...

[Chih-Wei Huang]

luca.a...@gmail.com <luca.a...@gmail.com> 於 2020年4月6日 週一 下午11:22寫道：

>
> Hi NovHak!
>
> thank you very much for you reply. I tried your suggestion and indeed I made a little step forward, but still no-go.
>
> Il 06/04/2020 15:01, NovHak ha scritto:
>
> it seems you're modifying the GRUB boot configuration file at install time,
>
> Not really. The screenshot I posted refers to the normal boot of the installed Android-x86 9.0-r2; I went on the (E)dit option to modify boot options. I'm using EFI boot.
>
>
> which is a good thing to do if you want your changes to persist.
>
> Well this is different from my experience. Changes made this way aren't persisted across boots. Indeed a subsequent question would be: how to persist them.

Mount the EFI system partition, find android.cfg and edit it.

> I suppose you're not showing the whole configuration file,
>
> Actually that's all.
>
> so the place where you're putting the kernel parameter may be concerning a nondefault menu option. That's why I would advise that you put your kernel parameter on the setparam line, let's say just before the 'quiet' parameter, so that in the end it looks like this :
>
> setparams 'Android-x86 9.0-r2' '/android-9.0-r2' 'Android-x86 9.0-r2' 'video=1280x1024' 'quiet'
>
> My progress are: with 'video=1280x1024' on the setparam line, as you suggested, the screen goes initially to that resolution (when in console mode) but as soon as the system attempt to switch to graphic mode, it freezes.

This is the correct cmdline.
I can just guess you're using a invalid resolution for your graphic card.
Please try more standard resolution like 1024x768 or 1920x1080.

BTW, what's your GPU?

> I also tried to put on the first line the option gfxmode=1280x1024 instead but this produces no effect. The same with gfxpayload.

--
Chih-Wei
Android-x86 project
http://www.android-x86.org

[luca.a...@gmail.com]

Yes! It worked out!

I was just using a wrong resolution!

Thank you, guys!