How do I set my refresh rate? (Mandrake 10)

eaglesfan17 · 09-11-2004, 05:15 PM

I'm a complete newbie to Linux and need to know how to set my resolution, refresh rate, etc....any suggestions?

DrOzz · 09-11-2004, 05:23 PM

well i am sure someone will tell you how to do this "graphically" in mandy,
but since i do not use mandrake, nor do i make these changes in a GUI,
i'll show you how to do this command based :
this stuff will be done as a root user, and also since i don't know what MDK10
uses, the file may be called /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 or
/etc/X11/xorg.conf and if you have both, then you will edit the xorg.conf.

so open up the file in any text editor of choice and first look for the
monitor section, which looks similiar (if not the same) as this :

Code:

Section "Monitor"

    Identifier  "My Monitor"

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY.  REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

    HorizSync   31.5 - 64.3

#    HorizSync  30-64         # multisync
#    HorizSync  31.5, 35.2    # multiple fixed sync frequencies
#    HorizSync  15-25, 30-50  # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY.  REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

    VertRefresh 50-90

EndSection

so as you see above you will make the changes to HorizSync and
VertRefresh to have the values for your monitors frequencys..

the next section will be for your resolution and color depth, and again it
looks similiar (if not the same) as the following :

Code:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Screen 1"
    Device      "** NVIDIA (generic)                   [nv]"
    Monitor     "My Monitor"
    DefaultDepth 16

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes       "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes       "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes       "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
EndSection

so as you see here DefaultDepth holds the value of 16, meaning
i use 16bit color depth, and since that is the value, it will then look to the
section for 16 bit which is :

Code:

Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes       "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection

which i taken from above, and as you see "1280x1024" is the first one
listed, in which that is what my resolution will load up as ...

i hope i explained this enough for you