I installed Debian Lenny with KDE 3.5.10 last week. My graphics card is nVidia geForce 5950 Ultra and my monitor is an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454.
I've installed the nVidia driver 173.14.09-5 using synaptic. I've used this driver with OpenSUSE and Ubuntu and I've had no problems getting the monitor detected correctly and setting a suitable resolution - 1600x1200 @ 85mhz. All did was install the driver and the nvidia settings. Restart. Open a terminal as root, type "nvidia-settings" change the resolution and save it to xorg.conf. Restart the x server and everything worked without a problem.
I have struggled to do this with Debian Lenny. When I tried to open the nvidia settings as above I get an error message:

No protocol specified

ERROR: The control display is undefined; please run `nvidia-settings --help`
for usage information.

Ok, my monitor isn't identified. I go into Control Centre/Peripherals/Monitor & Display and my graphics card is identified ok, but my monitor isn't.
After numerous attempts and in desperation I eventually copied a backed up xorg.conf from a previous OpenSUSE install to /etc/X11 and that worked witout a hitch for a few days.
I've just started my machine and saw a message as it was booting that the xorg.conf file was being replaced. (?)
So I'm back to square one. Default resolution 1920x1446 @ 85Hz, the screen off to the right and top and the 'nv' driver in use!
I've wasted hours on this without success.
If anyone can help I'd appreciate it.

I wasn't aware the nvidia driver could be installed only using synaptic, since the kernel module needs to be compiled..


aptitude update
aptitude install module-assistant build-essential
m-a update && m-a prepare
m-a a-i nvidia
aptitude install nvidia-glx

now provided your xorg.conf is correct, it should work..

http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

nix2ways

I had some problems with my last install of Lenny and getting the display right. I am not familar with your problem exactly but i can tell you this. I am not sure just when but they change the way the xserver is setup now and it does not even need the xorg.conf file sometimes. I never persued it far enough to discover the exact method now. I was able to set a default setting in xorg.conf and have it work. The (dgkg --reconfigure xserver)? process does not do much any more.

This is page has the info I used to set mine. It may help.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi....8.9-1-699229/