Change resolution to 1024x600

totenparty · 06-11-2009, 11:34 AM

Hi everyone,

I like this live cd very much, but I have a problem I am a Linux noob and I don't know how to change the resolution to 1024x600.
Is there an easy way to do it? Can anybody explain it for me in easy steps?

FYI: I run the live cd in a VM with VMwarePlayer.

thank you and greetings
t.

Jeaninie · 06-11-2009, 12:12 PM

You /should/ be able to open up: system-preferences-screen resolution and change it there.

totenparty · 06-11-2009, 12:20 PM

Thank you for your answer, but I there is no menu entry for 1024x600 only for other resolutions. Maybe I searched in the wrong menu can you plz post a screenshot?

pixellany · 06-11-2009, 01:46 PM

That is not a standard format, and I would not expect to see it in a settings menu. What is the monitor?

The most common (but not the only) are:
4:3 e.g 1024x768 or 800x600
16:10 e.g. 1024x640 or 960x600
16:9 e.g. 1024x576 (nothing ending in 600)

totenparty · 06-11-2009, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

That is not a standard format, and I would not expect to see it in a settings menu. What is the monitor?

It's a Wind U100 Netbook.

pixellany · 06-11-2009, 02:06 PM

OOPS!!!
I just found that format on a Dell netbook (but what is the integer aspect ratio---128:75?)

Anyhow, if you can't simply make the right entry in /etc/X11/xorg.conf you may need a modeline.

What distro (version of Linux) and what options DOES it give you?

Jeaninie · 06-11-2009, 11:49 PM

This is interesting, since I've been having problems too! My resolution options wont go any higher than 640x480 which is ridiculously large. It used to be fine, but lately has decided to not work!

If you figure it out please let me know!

(ie. what is this "modeline"? and how does it work? because I have tried /etc/X11/xorg.conf entries.)

I'm running Ubuntu vs. 8.04 "Hardy Heron"

totenparty · 06-12-2009, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

OOPS!!!
I just found that format on a Dell netbook (but what is the integer aspect ratio---128:75?)

Anyhow, if you can't simply make the right entry in /etc/X11/xorg.conf you may need a modeline.

As I said, I am a noob I know how to change the resolution in Windows ;-)
Can you explain how to do that please?

Quote:

What distro (version of Linux) and what options DOES it give you?

My Distribution is "Incognito LiveCD 2008.1-r1" I only found the grafical menu in KDE there are only a few standard options, the only one with *x600 is 800x600.

Thank you for your help
t.

pixellany · 06-12-2009, 07:16 AM

I assume that you have installed Incognito to the hard drive. If you are running from CD, then it does not make much sense to be trying to configure something like this.

Both options I mentioned require editing the file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" This can be done with any text editor, but you must be running as root.

Here is an excerpt from a typical file (only relevant stuff shown):

Code:

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier  "ATIMonitor"
  VendorName "unknown"
  ModelName "unknown"
  Option "DPMS" "true"
  HorizSync    30-75
  VertRefresh  55-70
                      <---Add modeline here
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier  "Card0"
  Driver "radeon"
  BoardName "unknown"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier "Screen0"
  Device "Card0"
  Monitor "Monitor0"
  DefaultColorDepth 24

  SubSection "Display"
  Depth 24
  Modes "1600x1200" "1450x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
  EndSubSection 
EndSection

The first thing to try is simply adding the desired mode to the subsection for the Depth you are using. (You may find many different subsections for different depths---you can delete all except the one you actually use.

If this does not work, then try a modeline. Here is what I get using the "gtf" utility:

Code:

mherring@Ath:~$ gtf 1024 600 60

  # 1024x600 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 37.32 kHz; pclk: 48.96 MHz
  Modeline "1024x600_60.00"  48.96  1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622  -HSync +Vsync

The part we care about is shown in bold. Add this to the "monitor" section and then add the name of the mode in the screen section.

When I use a modeline, I typically delete (or comment with "#") all other modes.

anonym · 06-24-2009, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

I assume that you have installed Incognito to the hard drive.

This is not possible without some serious hacking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

If you are running from CD, then it does not make much sense to be trying to configure something like this.

This is correct. Any changes to xorg.conf would have to be applied every time you reboot.

The reason for this mess is the old xorg-server still used by Incognito due to instability with newer versions. There will likely not be any improvements regarding this until the 2009.1 release which will be based on Ubuntu instead of Gentoo Linux. These kind of things are taken much more seriously works better in Ubuntu.