I'm running ubuntu 6.10 edgy and gnome... for some reason i cant see the entire desktop... the right and bottom sides are cut off... if i switch my resolution that doesnt fix it

oddly enough, if i vnc into my desktop i can see the entire thing

This is speculation, but I've seen it happen before on laptop hardware. Your video drivers are incorrectly reporting the hardware's proper dimensions to the X server.

I've only, personally witnessed this on Nvidia video cards using the OEM Nvidia drivers, and with a Toshiba Satellite 6100 model laptop. The problem there was that it was giving back a slightly smaller number than actual, so I had a quater-inch wide strip on the right hand side of the screen that would not display anything when using X.

To me, it sounds like a similar issue.

I would recommend reviewing your x.org config files and checking the message boards on the manufacturer's site of your video card as a starting point.

awesome... the first resolution picked in xorg.conf for everymode wasnt supported by my card... fixed!