new install of slack64 14.2 xfce display mode "funny-business"
 

ok... same install i mentioned before in my question about ssh
using xfce, and with an hdmi tv. unit boots up and goes into 1080p mode, which is a problem because the screen edges are off the screen, so no task bar. i use xfce4-display-settings and set it to a resolution where the screen edges are visible, and click the apply button. if the screen goes into power save mode, it comes back up as 1080p when i move the mouse. apparently "apply" doesn't really mean "apply"????
also, when booting, the framebuffer for the text on the screen has 4 or 5 characters missing at the left edge.

is there any way to fix this? is there something in the xfce setup that's overriding my settings made from xfce4-diplay-settings?

What video card do you have and what driver are you using for it?

it's an nvidia using the nouveau driver

There might be an easier fix other than convincing XFCE to use a video mode different from what the TV says it should use...

Go to your TV's picture settings and look for something like a "just scan" mode, propably hidden somewhere near the aspect ratio setting. Not every TV has it (my cheap LG has, my parent's more fancy Panasonic hasn't). With "just scan" instead of being slightly stretched the picture will end right at the screen border and the task bar will be visible again.

According to this post, you should be able to use xrandr to turn on underscan and then you'll need to find a value for the correct underscan border.

You might need to use xrandr -q to find the right port to configure. It would probably be either HDMI-0 or HDMI-1. Make proper adjustments to the command below. Then, for your hborder and vborder, you'll need to play with various numbers to find values that gets the screen properly oriented.