Ubuntu or anything with gnome or kde tends to have a lower than the maximum resolution graphics options.

I have a 17" screen laptop which allows me to go up to 1440 by 900 pixels. I also have a big screen 20.5" monitor I can plug the laptop into that goes up to 1600 x 1050. I have yet to find a distro that lets the screen resolution go up to 1600 x 1050, other than Windows XP or Vista.

Knoppix allows 1600 x 1050, but that's only from the boot menu, not from the actual gui program. If the High res isn't specified before the whole CD or DVD boots, than graphics are desigend for the seeing impaired (like 800 x 600) or some shit like that.

I'm sick and tired of that. If anyone can tell me the basic script for changing and testing resolution or some graphicaluserinterface (gui) linux program that allows testing like Windows "Display properties" I'd appreciate that.

Hi:

It sounds like you are going to need the proprietary driver. Depending on your distro the steps are different. Let us know what graphics card you have and we can give you a little more info. To determine your graphics card you can use

"lspci > ~/lspci.log" without the quotes

and post the contents of the new file labeled "lspci.log" that is in your home directory here. If you are running Ubuntu 8.04 or higher you can go to System --> Administration --> Drivers and enable the driver that matches your video card. i.e. if it is an Nvidia graphics card you will see an option to enable the "Nvidia Accelerated Graphics".

Not sure about other distro's you are probably going to have to compile the source or find a pre-compiled installer.


Let us know if this works!

Please also let us know the distribution and the architecture (x86 or x86_64).

Sure enough.

ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics RS780M

64 bit
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...roduct=3866477

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/l...ux-radeon.html

Is this what I need? I want to install it in both Puppy, Ubuntu 8.10, 8.04, Gnome & KDE and possibly Sabayon Gnome.

ATI Catalyst™ 8.12 Proprietary Linux x86_64 Display Driver
For Intel® EM64T and AMD64 Platform Architecture

In the old Knoppix 5.3.1 I could easily get 1600 x 1050 on my older PC without installing any additional drivers, but this new one really sucks.

I really want something for high speed graphics to run thegimp and photo edit at way faster speeds.

Thanks for your advice.

Hi studpenguin:

Looks like that's what you are going to need. Just remember to get the one that goes with your architecture. You'll need 64bit for 64bit OS and 32bit for 32bit OS, depending on which version you install. For Ubuntu 8.10 and 8.04, and Kubuntu 8.10 and 8.04 you can just activate the driver without doing any extra work. It will auto install once you tell it too.

After you install the operating system of choice, open a terminal and run the following code to find out if it is a 32bit or 64bit.

code: "uname -a"
example output: Linux darkstar 2.6.27-11-generic #1 SMP Fri Jan 23 13:58:13 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Even though you have a 64 bit processor you might need the 32bit version. Example: with Knoppix and Puppy there isn't a 64 bit version (see below), only 32bit, you will need the 32 bit version even though you are on a 64bit processor.

Does that make sense? Sometimes I confuse myself.

There *is* a 64 bit version of Knoppix.
"This version of Linux is a 64 bit debian based release for the 64 bits AMD machines, remastered from the excellent work of Klaus Knopper"
See: http://www.applia.fr/contents/knoppix64.html for more info.

Your old one may not have had a propriatery graphics card in it, so therefore, did not need propiatery drivers. Using propiatery drivers will give you accelerated 2d graphics and 3d graphics.

Let us know if you need any more help!

ubuntu 8.10 in gnome terminal after installing a bunch of package upgrades:

studpenguin@ubuntu:~$ uname -a

Linux ubuntu 2.6.27-11-generic #1 SMP Fri Jan 23 13:58:13 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Hi studpenguin:

You want the 64 bit package. With Ubuntu you can go to System --> Admininistration --> Hardware Drivers and you may be able to install it just by clicking on the driver and clicking activate. There has been issues reported with the app crashing when you did this with certain graphics cards. I did not have this problem with an Nvidia 7150 and Ubuntu 8.10 x86_64. If all else fails you can download the package manually and install it.

If that doesn't work and you are sure your monitor supports a higher resolution you can manually edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. From a Terminal or console run:
code: sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Find the section that says display and change the resolution.
You may also want to change the refresh rate.
CTRL + o then Enter to save
CTRL + x to exit
CTRL + ALT + Backspace to restart display
If that doesn't work you can use the above command (sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf) from a console (CTRL + ALT + F1) to change your resolution back.

If you need anything else let us know!

My situation is weird. I did a lot of downloading of recommended package updates

from Administration--->synaptic package manager

A lot of them KDE related, but I still use Gnome.

I followed the recommendation to activate driver too.

Anyways there's 2 ways to diddle with my screen size

system--->preferences---->Screen resolution

and then there's "system settings" icon ---> . Anyways the "system settings" display option recognizes both of my monitors (the vga analog cable connected to my laptop and the laptop monitor itself)

Hi studpenguin:

There should be an "Nvidia X Server Settings" under System --> Administration for further customization of your X11 server settings. This utility is probably the best for setting up your dual display and your resolution. If it's not installed try:

code: sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings

Let us know if you need anything else!

Ati/fglrx

ATI/AMD FGLRX Graphics driver is currently activated

"
Tested by Ubuntu developers:

3D-accelerated proprietary graphics driver for ATI cards.

This driver is required to fully utilise the 3D potential of some ATI graphics cards, as well as provide 2D acceleration of newer cards."

Thank you Ubuntu developers.

I just did another clean install of ubuntu 8.10 64-bit and this time I don't know why but installing the driver won't make the big desktop monitor go up to 1600 x 1050 resolution. It's still maxed at 1440 x 900. When I follow your instructions and type:

in the terminal it spits out this output:

I'm confused about this output.
I don't see how I'm suppose to edit it so there is an optimum refresh rate or for that matter even change the resolution.

foriamroot

typing: "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf" does not give me the option to change the resolution, at least not in a way you describe:

There is no section that says "display" here that I know of:

I even tried adding a section to that file "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf"

and it's still maxed at 1440 x 900 (which is great for my laptop monitor, but crap for my main monitor)