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Hi all, i`m a bit of a newbie when it comes to Linux, so forgive me if i come over as to much of a novice...
I have installed SuSe 9.1 in a Compaq M700 Laptop with 10gig HDD 285 Meg ram and P111 800 Processor.The video card says it`s an Ati rage Mobility 8 meg. My problem seems to be that the desktop is larger than the screen,hence i have to scroll up and down and sideways to see it all. I have tried a few different resolutions to see if it helps to no avail. I have been told this is a common problem but can find no info on how to fix this.
Any help would be appreciated..
Distribution: openSuSE Tumbleweed-KDE, Mint 21, MX-21, Manjaro
Posts: 4,629
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Start the Sax2 utility, either from yast -> hardware -> monitor/screen (AFAIR that's the path) or from the command line (a little testing for the use of upper/lower case might be needed = Sax2 / SAX2 / sax2 / SaX2). There should be a screen where you can tweak the size of the thing...
Thanks JZL240I-U for your input,i have been in Sax2 and tried a few different settings,eg: screen resolutions, but they either make the desktop larger in area, or smaller in type size. i did forget to mention that i got a message saying the X & Y settings were wrong,problem with that is i don`t know what those settings are. I know they are the screen dimensions eg: horozontal and verticle. I was told by a friend to measure the screen and put those measurments in but that doesn`t seem to help...
Thanks again for your help..
Euan B...
Distribution: openSuSE Tumbleweed-KDE, Mint 21, MX-21, Manjaro
Posts: 4,629
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That's not what I meant. There is a graphical tool in Sax2 with arrows like "-> <-" or "<- ->" to resize your display area. Just look for it. I don't know either what these "X" and "Y" settings are. Normally entering the correct manufacturer and type of your display should suffice.
You might try this as root:
Code:
init 3 {drops into runlevel 3 and kills the X-server}
mv /etc/xorg.conf to /etc/xorg.old {rename the cofig-file}
sax2
That would create a new /etc/xorg.conf to your specifications. There are also tools from xorg, the name of which I don't quite remember (xconfig? configx? there are at least two...).
Your virtual screen size is larger than your physical screen. I don't know anything about Sax but look for something called "Virtual Screen" and change it to equal your preferred res.
Failing that, you can always edit xorg.conf manually and change it there.
Distribution: openSuSE Tumbleweed-KDE, Mint 21, MX-21, Manjaro
Posts: 4,629
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Wow, that's a lot of options I never saw before, thanks for posting them, Fluxx. I just whish I'd find a sensible Howto or other description of the "whys" and "hows" in /etc/xorg.conf .
I just whish I'd find a sensible Howto or other description of the "whys" and "hows" in /etc/xorg.conf
xorg.conf has a man page 'man 5 xorg.conf'.
The Linux Documentation Project should have some howtos about X. The list of howtos is here (these are the online html versions, the main page should have links to download them for offline reading).
Distribution: openSuSE Tumbleweed-KDE, Mint 21, MX-21, Manjaro
Posts: 4,629
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@ioerror The man page is a good hint, thanks -- but just a manpage, not really an in-depth description of the whys and hows. Those other two links are dead ends, there is nothing on xorg(.conf) there.
The man page is a good hint, thanks -- but just a manpage, not really an in-depth description of the whys and hows.
Well, that's what man pages are for, they are a reference, the're not supposed to be tutorials. The xorg.conf man page fully describes the syntax of xorg.conf. There are plenty of other man pages about X (e.g. /usr/X11R6/man/man{4,5,7}).
Quote:
Those other two links are dead ends, there is nothing on xorg(.conf) there.
Well, I don't think many people would agree that TLDP is a dead end!
I just meant that there is nothing about xorg as I understood you were implying.
Ah, yeah, I don't think that they (xorg) have rewritten much documentation since the split from Xfree86, so there's nothing acutally called "xorg...whatever" on TLDP. Not yet at least. The official xorg website is www.x.org but I couldn't see any documentation on there.
Basically, X has the concept of a "Display". A display consists of, at a minimum, a screen, a keyboard, and a pointing device. Of course, a display might have more than one screen, mouse, etc. So, xorg.conf tells the X server what facilities and resources it should use. It's split into "sections", each of which describes a particular part of the configuration.
The main sections are:
Files: This is a list of files and paths that the server should look in for modules, fonts etc.
Modules: The modules that should be loaded when the server starts.
InputDevice: Each input device (keyboard,mouse,tablet,etc) will has it's own section describing the device (the protocol to use (e.g. IMPS/2), the device node (e.g. /dev/input/mouse0), the keyboard layout and so on.
Monitor: Each monitor has a section stating the details of the monitor. The horizontal sync, the vertical sync, and so on. There might be some custom modelines in this section, but they are mostly unnecessary these days, since the server has all the VESA modes builtin.
Device: This describes a graphics card, the driver to use, any special options, the BusID and so forth.
Screen: This describes an X screen. It states the monitor and device (graphics card) to use and lists the supported resoultions and depths.
ServerLayout: This is the top level section for the server config. It lists the Screens and InputDevices that will be used on this server, and any options for the server such as "Xinerama".
You might also see
DRI: This will specify the group and permissions to use for DRI, usually something like "video" and "0660".
So the "Display" will consist of the entire server layout. Of course, there might be more than one screen/mouse etc, the above is the minimum configuration.
Anyway, those links will explain all this in much more detail.
Distribution: openSuSE Tumbleweed-KDE, Mint 21, MX-21, Manjaro
Posts: 4,629
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Ahhhhh. You know what? With this post of yours I got more clarification than I got in 6 years worth of (albeit intermittent) reading. Again, thank you.
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Monitor settings
.
I wouldn't either. I just meant that there is nothing about xorg as I understood you were implying. So I didn't look at the XFree-things 
.
and thanks for the links.
