Yeah right xcon! You have a great idea, it will be the first step to a simple interface, but not all Linux users like simple thing and i also think that Entech will not hear the voices of some users... there is no way: Linux is born as a text like system and the graphic integration is actually some sort of 'optional'.
We are in a world where once per month a 3D board appear on the market and the graphic engine of Linux refresh itself only once per year... it's not a good thing.

good observation. it's not linux when you make the insides more complicated to make the outsides stupid-proof or at least exceedingly 'convenient'. but things can get better nonetheless... rpms are the way!! there is a quick res util in mandrake, i can't remember what it is now but it does a few things that only powerstrip does... like allow to adjust the refresh at the bottom level, one scanline at a time...

but here's a generic approach: remember the "don't zap" option in XF86Config-4 where you disable the ctrl+alt+(+)(-)? that means the keypresses can pass the X server to be caught by other apps. so do BOTH!! trap them, and yet pass them along, so they're a preconfigured hotkey in the window manager... suppose the WM reads your XF86Config-4 upon loading and of course changes to that config file aren't active until the x server is restarted, which also kills the WM... it ought not to get out of tune with itself... so long as the WM can detect what res X was in when you started the WM it can predict what a [ctrl]+[alt]+[+][-] will do and adjust the icons, panel, open windows, virtual desktop layouts accordingly. then have x move the viewport to the top left and reinit anything else, like maybe the mouse. i can't wait to learn C...

Thanks xcon, but i do not have fully understanded your message but now i'm at the campus and here i can't use Linux because i do not have installed it.

ah,, that's not your fault I'm not talking about operating XF86, I'm talking about altering it in the source code. but don't listen to everything I have to say, i mean i was up all night trying to get my openGL to work in Wine and it was a tremendous failure. rpms are great but i need to learn to bypass some flawed install script... it errors out at a point where it needs *.css and there aren't any .css there. i think i'll just remove the documentation from the build altogether... LOL

Ok xcon, now i know you are a big linux expert; you speak in an easy way about difficult things, congratulations!
I hope in the future you will contribute in making linux more easy to use ;-)

lol i'm no expert in anything except "101 ways to crash Windoze" and i'm just trying to keep things in perspective here, revealing the truth about my mid-range newbie status... I can't be misrepresenting myself, now that would be uncool but i also hope i can make linux better thanks

What you could do is add a script to "xinit", giving you a
menu of posible screen resolutions you could choose from.
then the script would change FF86config to match the changes made. the advantage of this method is that instead of having to reboot your box, you can just restart X..

NGraphiX

It's a good idea BGraphiX for the problem of the selection of resolution but in changing resolution XFree86 gives many problem also with regular drivers; problem as tilt screen with many colored lines and pixel, problem as desktop area bigger than resolution, so it will activate scrolling.

Thanks anyway: when XFree86 will fix these things i will use your advice! :-)

what about the "screen" definition? in my XF86cfg, at the bottom after all is defined, it makes the final designation to be "screen1" and "display 1" or "adapter 1" so why not set up 3 or 4 different "screen x" subsections, each has all the modes you want and the biggest one is that screen's desktop area?

what I mean is: when i set default color depth to 32 when i810 chipset AGP only goes to 24bpp, the X server doesn't start saying "no usable screens found" so now I have to find out what happens when you define 2 or more screens... different resolutions where screen 1 has 800x600, 640x480, 512x384; screen 2 has 1280x1024, 1152x864, 1024x768. I bet if i took the time to read the XF86 docs i could save the time and trouble but i'm at school now so i can't try it and i have homework to begin that's due in 1.5 hours!!!

Cool xcon, a good idea, but i have one doubt: how can you change the screen? Is there any keys combination? Probably it will work: if XFree86 finds one screen per resolution, PROBABLY it will set correctly, because there is no change in the single screen... wow xcon, now i do not have Linux here at the campus city, but, i think that YOU possibly have found a way to set CORRECTLY all the resolution!!! Cool, really cool!

and here it is, the quick fix-- sort of. This requires a restart of the X server altogether, and the good news is: you can put options in the login manager menus to change it outside. here's the document:

XF86Config Manual Page

and here's how you get not-so-quick switching:

set up multiple screens like i said, screen sections. just copy the ordinary 'screen 1' and edit the copies... no typos that way! make 2 or 3 with your default desktop size different for each and inside each screen specify as many resolutions as you want. the different screens (with their max sizes) now choose the desktop area, and the modes within each screen choose the usual monitor output resolution. now you can call X with the -screen option to pick the one you want... even though 'screens' are supposed to link a certain card to a certain monitor, they can link the same card again and again to the same monitor with different modes defined. Or else I'm dead wrong.

So this is where a really experienced Linux user gets to take over, because I'm at the edge of my domain. Create as many new kdm, xdm, gdm (or whatever) entries for Session Type as you created screen sections in XF86Config-4. Name each one after the desktop size, so in RedHat your KDM login-to-window-manager menu will look like this:

Default
previous
KDE
GNOME
failsafe
Desktop 1024
Desktop 1152
Desktop 1280

NOW! Instead of those last 3 menu items calling up startkde or whatever, they'll only call a little script that either

1) edits XF86Config-4 to change the preferred screen in the ServerLayout section;
2) edits the xinit script to call next time and subsequent times with the -screen n option;
3) renames a file like /etc/X11/desknnnn, where nnnn is your horizontal resolution (e.g. 1024) and the xinit script automatically looks for this file to see what it's named, then bases its -screen n on that.

it doesn't matter which of these is used. once the script is done, the X server stops and restarts (just like when you log out of KDE and INIT respawns the server so the graphical login reappears) and that's when your new 'screen', with its desktop size preference, is active. If not, that is, if it reuses the server that's running, then CTRL+ALT+BKSP will make it a sure thing.

I'll try this as soon as I get back to the house... still at school almost 11 hours later!!

Xcon i have noted all your message, thanks for your idea! I'll try it as soon as possible, then i will start to program in Linux :-)

It sounds like you guys are really advancing quickly with these ideas. That's great. I'm pretty ignorant in this area, but I encurrage you guys to keep doing what you're doing.

BTW, my problem turned out to be graphic-card specific, so I resolved that and I can change resolutions fine now.

-Mike

hey all i have the same problem and ive run outa places to turn for help. im currently running slack 8.1 on a gateway solo 2100 laptop. 2.4 kernel. i have xf86 running but i cannot get the size to change no matter what i do. ive edited the /etc/X11/XF86Config file . ive even written one my self. i also tried the keypad toggle .. but that does not work.. i have also copied working xf86configs from other distros i have used...no luck .pleas send any form of help all will be greatly appreciated.. if any would like to talk about this in real time i idle on #linuxnewbies as cinter thankyou

cinter, are you sure that /etc/X11/XF86Config is the file that your system is using? I know that is the standard file, but is it possible that Slack is looking somewhere else for the config file? I ask this because the OS I'm using uses another file in the same directory with a -4 after the name.

Just to make sure I understand the problem here, you cannot alter the screen size and it is too big (or small?) Or is it just the resolution you need to adjust?

-Mike