newbie needs help on adjusting screen/color res

montinarayan · 03-25-2006, 12:33 PM

Hi, everyone,

First, I'm a Linux newbie. I bought "Linux Made Easy" by Rickford Grant, and it came with Xandros 3. I've taken the bold step of plunging into the world of Linux, but now I'm a bit fearful. After a few installation attempts, it looks like I've got Xandros working, but now the screen colors and resolution look weird. The colors don't look nearly as sharp as they were when I was using Windows, and the display looks oversized, sort of like it's designed for the visually impaired. My monitor is a Dell 1905FP, and my system is a Dell Pentium 4, 1GB of RAM, 140GB of memory. Did I do something wrong with my installation. Can re-installing Xandros damage my hard-drive? Am I screwed? What do you recommend for a newbie to get a nice display like the one I had using Windows? Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Monti

liaty · 03-25-2006, 03:43 PM

Sounds like you may need to run xorgconfig. It runs from the command line and asks questions anout your hardware. The information that is very important is the refresh rates for your monitor. Ruuning this should sort out the screen problems if you know your hardware. Get your refresh rates for your monitor before you start

montinarayan · 03-26-2006, 12:36 PM

Hi, ran the xorgconfig and it asked a lot of questions, and I think I provided the right answers. I did this again, and I'm not sure if I should have done that. The colors on the display are only 16-bit, and this is a lot less then the colors on the display when I was using Windows. Here are some specs about my monitor:

Dell 1905F on 82865G integrated graphics device
optimal resolution is 1280X1024 at 60Hz
i810 processor

Any advice?

liaty · 03-26-2006, 03:20 PM

O.K. Did you get the screen to the correct resolution. i.e. 1280x1024 ?

Is your mouse functioning correctly?

If so and all that is needed is the colours, no need to run xorgconfig just edit xorg.conf (this is the file which xorgconfig creates). To do that open terminal and log in as root then do:

cd /etc/X11 (note that X is X not x), then do:

vi xorg.conf (if xorg.conf is not there run):

whereis xorg.conf

in the section "screen" change DefaultDepth to 24, if you are unfamiliar with vi, to insert text press esc then i. to save and quit, press esc again then type:

:wq then press return.

Try this. But if you are needing more than the colours changed, just reply back for a step by step of xorgconfig.