weird graphics issue
 

so, i have been attempting to install debian Lenny on my HTPC for the last few days, but it always seems to have the same issue. It sets the desktop resolution at 1920x1080 (same as monitor) but it keeps the appearance of being stuck at vga resolution (windows are much larger than screen, huge icons, gigantic text, etc) It also seems to be doing something strange with the graphics output, because it always is detected as 1080p by my monitor, and it cannot output any non HDMI signal, even though my tv can use a DVI signal through the HDMI cable. This has happened with four separate ISOs ( AMD64 cd 1, AMD64 DVD 1, i386 CD, and now the KDE version) and it did the same when i did a network install with the install.exe tool
Does anybody know how to fix this?
thanks.

did you try old fashion vga cable?

It would help to know what graphics hardware you are using.
Post the output of:

yes, but it will only output the HDMI signal.

I am using a 2gb HD 4850 x2.

When X absolutely fails to make sense of anything, it throws out everything at some point and tries 640x480@60Hz. That's what ancient MS-Dos consoles on 8088 based pcs ran, and the bios starts up like that.
I have 1200x800 on this laptop. I trapped the output of the first boot of X. X reported something like
-- mode 1200x800 - That's ridiculous, who ever heard of a mode like that? Delete that for starters. . .
Hmmm, it seems we have no valid modes. Let's get clever. We'll ASK the hardware and see if it has any ideas
-- It seems the hardware will do 1200x800 - let's cobble up a guess on that (X has a short memory)
Rolling up a Mode for 1200x800 - Picture appears

Get some driver for it. I am going to guess it has this stored somewhere, and if you remove that, you will find a way forward as it has to think it out again