hello everybody, this is my first post and i hope that somebody can help me out here.

i had mandrake 9.2 on my system for a while, but never really used it. just the other day i decided to mess with it some more and upgrade while im at at, so i got mandriva linux 2006. everything is going great except i have to keep my screen resolution at 800x600 because if i have it on 1024x768 its larger than my screen. i looked up my monitor and the max res. is 1280 x 1024, so i shouldnt have any problems. and i really dislike 800x600.

does anybody have any suggestions?

many thanks in advance if anybody can shed some light on this.

In the Mandriva Control Center, make sure that you have your monitor properly defined, and that you have drivers that correctly support your video card (i.e. NOT the vesa driver). Once you have these properly configured, you should be able to change to whatever the maximum screeen resolution that the video card and monitor will both support. By default, Mandriva sets the video resolution to either 1024x768 or 1280x1024 and enables virtual, so that even if the hardware can't support the maximum resolution, it will at least be achieved in a virtual display (larger than the physical screen).

It would be helpfull if you listed your specific video card and monitor, so that others (like myself) can give you a more detailed answer. Depending on your video card, you may need to install a proprietary driver (ATI, nVidia).

thank you very much for your quick response.

my monitor is a Phillips 107s (crappy as can be)


if you search Google for 'Powerspec 8704 Specs', and click the second link down, thats the info on my video card. (sorry i can't post links yet)

ill play around in the Control Center for now, and see what i can come up with.

again, thank you very much.

hmmm, that's an odd problem. Can you post your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file? Maybe you don't have your modes/device set up right?

regards,
...drkstr

As a side note, if this monitor is particularly old, I have had to adjust some old monitors manually using the controls on the monitor itself. You may have a knob or a button that will shrink the picture down and another that will adjust it's position. I have had to do this on some old NEC monitors in the past but only if you have been a good person all your life should your problem be this simple.
I would also like to see your xorg.conf file.

yeah, adjusting the actual monitor was one of the first things i tried, and of course it wasnt that easy haha.

im still really new to all this so now ill try to figure out what a xorg.conf file is.

X is sorta funny about reolutions..

if your Screen modes are set as follows..

then the default screen size and resolution will be 1280 x 1024

however if your config file is setup like this..

Then your default screen size and resolution will be 800 x 600. the system will allow you to switch to the higher resolutions, but as you described the desktop will be larger than the screen size and you will have to scroll around to see the entire desktop...

So if I were you I would check your XF86Config file (or xorg.conf as the case may be)

Open your file manager and navigate to the root file system then folder "etc" then to folder "X11" then you should find a file called "xorg.conf" (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) copy and paste the text in that file here. It should look like what farslayer posted, a bunch of stuff about your monitor, keyboard, graphics etc. If you cannot find this file then your distro puts it somewhere else and you will need to find out where. I am running Debian Etch and this is where it is on my box. It may just be a matter of changing your resolutions around like farslayer showed you. We can probably be of more help if we can see that file.

Regards,

TuxSurfer

Gentlemen (debian users): Mandriva has a very powerful configuration utility designed for new users. No sence scaring people into manually modifying config files if they don't need to. The problem is more than likely a video driver issue. This can be resolved with the easy to use tools provided by Mandriva.

capthowdy1027: Launch the Mandriva Control Center, then click on the "Look at and configure hardware" button. Scroll down the list of hardware (after it finishes detecting), click on the video controller, and click the "run config tool" button. This will launch a program called XFdrake. Next, see what it has selected for "Graphic card". If it lists "vesa", we'll need to change it. Click on the button next to "Graphic card", and under Vendor, find S3, then UniChrome. Click OK, and select Xorg 6.9 with 3D hardware accelleration, then click "Test" on the main menu screen. This will launch a multicolor screen with a dialog box asking if it looks ok. If it looks ok so far, select yes before it times out. If it doesn't work, post back and we'll go from there.

If this worked so far, now you can configure your monitor. If it doesn't list the proper monitor, click the monitor button, and see if yours is listed. If not, try selecting "Plug'n Play" then ok. It will test and see if it can detect your monitor brand and refresh rates. If this fails, you will need to find the specs on your monitor, which should be in the included documentation. You will need Horizontal and Vertical refresh rates. Enter them by selecting "Custom". There are a few predefined rates that might fit the bill here. Be exact, though. Next, select the video resolution you want. It will only list modes supported by both the video card and the monitor (based on the refresh rates). Select the highest resolution desired and the color depth (usually 24 bit for any gaming or looking at photos). Click ok, and test again. If everything looks ok, select "Quit" and it will prompt you to save these settings. Reboot, and see if everything is working.

Let me know how it goes.

Simple and precise. Good directions GrueMaster.

Sometimes I wish Slackware had these kind of things so it wouldn't be so unattractive to newer users.

regards,
...drkstr

Very good GrueMaster. What we needed here was another Mandriva user. You may consider posting a "How-to" on this subject, your instructions are clear and concise. Like Darkstar's Slack-box I have no such utility. But I chose Debian because I like to do it manually anyway. I hope this fixes farslayer's problem.
~TuxSurfer

sweet, thanks alot GrueMaster. well, thanks everybody, but mainly thank you for giving me a answer i can understand haha.

time to switch over and see what happens.

I have done a lot with Xorg resolutions and I seemed to have found(it is in the docs too) that the desktop virtual res it set at the highest X and the highest Y of all the validated modes.