change resolution
 

i know that pressing Ctrl + Alt + +/- changes the zoom in a particular resolution.

is there a way to change the res itself? coz divx movies aren't playing properly in 1024x768 (interlaced) but look fine in 800x600. is there a way to change it without editing XF86Config everytime i wanna watch a movie.

what i've done is add a "Modes" line in the screen sections for the default colour depth i use. i comment/uncomment one of the two depending on what i'm doing.

Here is one way you can do this ...


make a copy of your XF86Config file with the Mode set the way you want it in /etc/X11 named XF86Config1

now you can start a server on another virtual display like this...


startx -- :1 -xf86config XF86Config1

Or something like this..

startx -e mplayer dvd://1 -- :1 -xf86config XF86Config1


:)

Switch back to the first server with ctrl_alt_F7 and back to the second with ctrl_alt_F8

start up as many as 6 servers if you want.

that works well. thanks.

i ran one on :1 (i know i could've made it :0 ). i tried to start a 2nd server with :2 in but it gave these errors: i'm sure that the command is correct coz it worked to startup the X session i'm using now. only made :1 -> :2

edit:
the screen goes blank and appears as if going into gui mode but then drops back to console.

That is strange, I have started 6 xservers before to see if it would work.

Maybe it's a limitation of the driver or maybe a frame buffer issue.

XF86
 

Their are a few different ways to change you're resolution size with XFree86 4.x with Slackware.

A. run /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86cfg (the graphical configuration utility)
B. run /usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config (the text based configuration utility)
C. edit /etc/X11/XF86Config after making a backup first.

good luck, all the best.

@DavidPhillips: is there any way i could find out which one is causing the problem? here's the error i get when trying to start an x session in 1 (:1) after creating one on :0
@Mainframe: i've already got 1024x768 and 800x600 running using two different XF86Config files as DavidPhillips' posts above indicated. the issue now is trying to get 2 x sessions running at the same time.

I just tested mine and it works, I have this card

# lspci |grep nV
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX/MX 400] (rev a1)


I found a couple of other postings on the web with your same problem, but they did not say which cards they have. However I did notice that your log file shows the driver is NVIDIA and mine is using the NV driver, so they are different.


# cat /var/log/XF*.0.log |grep NV

(II) NV: driver for NVIDIA chipsets: RIVA 128, RIVA TNT, RIVA TNT2, Vanta,
GeForce4 410 Go 16M, Quadro4 500 GoGL, Quadro4 550 XGL, Quadro4 NVS,
Quadro4 580 XGL, Quadro4 280 NVS, Quadro4 380 XGL,

well, i installed the nvidia driver so i changed the 'nv' to 'nvidia' like the readme said. when i use 'nv' it works, 2 x sessions are created. if i use a combination then comp normally hangs.

MPlayer
 

Try MPlayer. You can slapt-get it or download it from http://www.mplayerhq.hu/. I run it on Slack 9.1 with the nv driver and everything is well.