I just finished installing a Debian "Sarge" desktop (latest release) on my Mac Mini and I only get two res.settings that are far two big for my La Cie 22".
800x600 aprox for the highest.
My folders are the size of golf balls...(lol).
My question is if and how I can edit the config file
to bring it back to a reasonable resolution.
Thanks,
Michel
Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (Sarge)
Mac Mini 1.4ghz
1g ram
La Cie crt 22" Electron Blue

This is a problem I've seen many times on Debian Sarge and still can't find the root cause
However, I have a solution which works for me...

With your favourite editor, open etc/X11/XF86Config.

Go down to the bottom of the file, where you will see a bunch of lines of screen definitions, along the lines of "800x600" "640x480". There will be anything up to about 6 different groups of lines there, each headed "Section "Screen"", and each associated with a particular colour depth. It should look a bit like this:

<snip>

Section "Screen"
Identifier "NV"
Device "NV"
Monitor "ViewSonic P810"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
EndSection

<snip>

Now just add "1024x768" or whatever resolution you want (within the capability of screen and display adapter!) to each "modes" line, immediately before the "800x600":

<snip>
Section "Screen"
Identifier "NV"
Device "NV"
Monitor "ViewSonic P810"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
EndSection
<snip>

Then restart X and it should be OK.

As I say, I've seen this loads of times, if anyone knows why or how to avoid it happening it would be nice to know....

HTH
Jimbo

Just posted the response and realised, there may be another issue, equally annoying and common, if you have an ATI video card. If that is the case, you may need to use the driver supplied by either ATI themsleves (on their web site http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html) or (if you're on Fedora) by rpm.livna.org

Good Luck

Jimbo

Thanks a lot for the help. As I recall, it is an ATI card. I'll try it with the driver on the weekend and if that doesn't do it I'll edit the config and keep you posted.
Michel

Use dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 as root at a command prompt choosing the advanced option and just keep hitting the Enter key taking the defaults already present. When you get to the driver choose either ati or radeon depending on which flavor of ATI card is in the mini, once at the monitor page dialog according to this page use 30-121 for the horizontal and 50-160 for the vertical refresh rates and lastly at the resolutions dialog page use the up/down arrow keys to move in the list and the spacebar to select the highest resolution that X will use. Now restart the X server and hopefully Sarge's X supports the video card in the mini and it works properly.

I have an ATI Radeon 9600 card and the VESA drivers work well (using the dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 as indicated earlier), though, manufacturer ones work nicer. I can be of further help if needed (just post :-) )

Regards,

Well, guys, I don't know what I've been doing wrong all along, and while I'm *sure* I tried dpkg-reconfigure somewhere along the road, it never worked for me before

However, just this evening, I am building a new server with an ATI Radeon 200 Xpress onboard video, using Debian Etch, which has moved to Xorg, but still I got "golf-ball" sized icons. Tried to use my normal fix, as per the response above, and 1024x768 is already in the xorg.conf file. Hmmmmmm, that's a show-stopper, what to do now?

So, I tried the dpkg-reconfigure mechanism, as oulined above, after which synaptic loaded some more x-org files, did a reboot, and its now working fine.

HappyTux, you know what you're talking about! Profolio, listen to "Da Man"!!

Thanks guys...
I'll try it when I come back to a suitable environment (read DSL and printer).
As of yet, I'm not to enamored with "Sarge". I was hoping to get something going on the Mac besides OS X. Apart from the screen res.
which is minor, it can't detect my Mini's modem for which I rely on for dialup on the weekends (that's why I'm writing this on a painful 28kbs). Another peeve of mine is "sudo" login. I can't
seem to login as su when I open a session yet every time I try to config someething it asks me for my password. I run a Puppy at home and I love it because I'm always in sudo mode whatever.
Anywho...thanks for your patience and tips.
Michel