I have just installed VectorLinux 4.0 on an old laptop of mine.

I am having trouble with the display settings. I want to run 800x600 with 16bit color. How would i set this? The XFreeConfig? The problem is that the graphics look really pixelated. Its hard to read the text and view files. Is just plain ugly looking. I ran win98 on t before at those settings and they worked fine.

The laptop is an IBM ThinkPad 380ED - PII166/48/3GB. the graphics is NeoMagic Magic Graph 128ZV. Hence i am using vector because of its old computer friendliness. Maybe i need to get drivers from somewhere? Try out tpctl?

TIA

Nathan

perhaps just a font problem?

if so, check out this site http://brendan.sdf-eu.org/articles/a...ing_slack.php; vector-linux is based on slackware so it should still work well

post a link to your screenshot so we can see what the problem looks like

also, www.tldp.com has some stuff on XFree86 De-uglification and that is actually the title of the tutorial available there

the command from configuring X is xf86config

It is also not showing the whole desktop area. about 1/4 of it is not showing (cut off at the bottom)

I would do a print screen, but how? The print screen button, does it put it in the clip board so i can paste it into a graphics prog? New to Linux here so i don't know all of the nuances yet.

This screen shot is from vectors site: http://vectorlinux.com/snapshot4.png

Mine looks the same except the workspace bar thing is right below Xwordpaf ans vasm and it only extends to the right to where spherical object in the background ends. Its like its zoomed in to the upper right corner.

thanks,

Nathan

Edit:

Maybe i need to get an older version of xf? The version i am using is 4.3.0

never had to configure a laptop panel in linux, but i have seen that problem in windows. the problem (i think) is that the display is not recognized properly. it thinks it is only 800x600 when it is really 1024x768. i dont know how to configure a panel in the xf86config file, but i think that is what is needed

hope that helps and maybe someone can take it from here.

Aha! I figured it out...just adding this in case anyone searches with the same problem...

When i was running x86config, it saved to /etc/X11/XF86config but the x-window was reading from a file calle XF86config-4. Opening the XF86config generated by running xf86config tool and saving this as XF86config-4, thus overwriting this file. Restarted X and works great now!

Thanks!

ahhh the infamous -4 config file

glad you got it working

My problem is I'm running Debian (Woody) on a Thinkpad 380ED. The resolution looks fine, but I'm only displaying on about 1 1/2" in from each of the sides. I tried regenerating the XF86config-4 file, but same problem. Other problem I'm having is I am booting up in X, and don't know how to change it to boot to the shell. Run Level default is 2.

Any ideas?

What is your hardware?

One thing that i missed is that there is actually 2 NeoMagic cards in the config database. The second one, near the end (350?) is the one you need if you have the same card as i did.

Also, once you complete the config, make sure it is saved right to get around the problem that i had with the -4 file.

Thanks for searching before posting! A new Precident has been set!

Nathan

I Posted this in another thread, but may one of you could also help:

The graphics are not pixelated, the res is good, but didplay is not filled entirely.

I did some searching and this is part of a link I found concerning the display I am using. Not my words, but part of another posting somewhere else:
"The screen is too small to even fit some KDE configuration dialog boxes, forcing you to use a virtual desktop larger than the physical screen (I hate that scrolling), or forcing you to try gymnastics with the window sizes, etc.
...While configuring KDE, I was quite desperate to get more screen real estate. So I switched the task bar at the top to disappear out of sight when not used, and likewise to the panel at the bottom. I also set the panel to small size. All this can be done by clicking on various checkboxes in the ``Applications'' section of the KDE Control Centre."
So, apparently on some displays, the screen is not filled entirely. I Ihave tried playing with the "Virtual x y" parameter in the "SCreen display" portion of the "XF86Config-4" file to see if there is a way to make my virtual display size larger.

So, right now I have 2 problems:
1. Not being able to boot directly into an shell. The reason I want to do this is to fool around with the "XF86Config-4" file, since you can't change this obviously while in X. You can, but it doesn't make sense without stopping X. So, what I need to do is to use "CTRL/ALT/BACKSPACE" to stop X and eventually I get out, if I hit the keys just right
2. Being able to run full screen versus partial screen.

Also two questions:
1.Looking at the posting I copied above, do you know which checkboxes are being referred to to get rid of the task bar and the panel?
2. Supposedly, by hitting the "CTRL/ALT/+" and or "CTRL/ALT/-" keys you can cycle through display resolotiions. This doesn't seem to work for me.

Sorry for all of these questions, but I have tried searching for the answers and haven't been able to come up with them.