I am running SuSE 10.0, and I have an ATI Radeon 9600 video card with both an analog VGA and digital (DVI) output. Today I bought a flat-panel monitor for my PC, a Samsung 21" widescreen that can go up to 1680x1050. Previously, I had a CRT monitor running at 1280x1024 using the analog VGA output. I am using the DVI output with the new flat-panel and would like to use a resolution of 1680x1050.

When I boot into SuSE, the image comes up on the flat-panel monitor, but it appears that X11 is still using a resolution of 1280x1024. I've been having trouble changing the resolution. When I go into YaST's "Graphics Card and Monitor" settings, first it says "Cannot Deactivate All Displays - At least one display must be active." I didn't think this was a big deal, since display 1 is activated in the next dialog. When I try to change the resolution to 1680x1050 and test the setting, it says it failed. My /var/log/Xorg.99.log says "Fatal server error: no screens found". I find that a little odd, since there is indeed an image being displayed on the monitor.

I've tried installing ATI's latest fglrx and display driver. I've edited my xorg.conf so that the monitor has a HorizSync of 60-65 and a VertRefresh of 60. I also changed the display mode line to be as follows:

Modes "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

However, the flat-panel monitor still says it's in 1280x1024 mode, and YaST still says there is an error when I try to change the resolution. 1280x1024 is taking up the entire display, and since it is a widescreen display, things look stretched horizontally. Is there anything I'm missing in the setup?

The first thing I'd do is set the Horiz and Vert rates to the same ranges the manufacturer specified for the particular model you're using. Ordinarily, those rates are expressed as ranges (eg, 50-85) as opposed to a constant

Thanks - Turns out that was it. It was hard to find the horizontal & vertical ranges, since they aren't in the user's guide for the monitor.. I found them on someone's eBay listing for one of these monitors. Makes me wonder where they came from.