Desktop the size of a slice of toast

terrus · 09-03-2005, 06:46 PM

Hi,
I just installed redhat 4 on my Dell inspiron laptop and the desktop is very small. the only other desktop resolution option is even smaller than the one i have at present. any suggestions?
thanks

XavierP · 09-03-2005, 07:30 PM

What size is the desktop? Do you have the correct driver for your card? What is your card? What is your laptop model?

terrus · 09-03-2005, 08:04 PM

i have a dell inspiron 8100 and my video card is nv geforce
currently my desktop is 400 X 600 pixels. i guess i could try downloading a video driver for linux? dunno

XavierP · 09-03-2005, 08:09 PM

Go to www.nvidia.com and install the driver from there - they have Linux drivers for their cards. Make sure that you have the kernel sources installed. You should be able to get them from your install cd - kernel-source-<version>.rpm is the likely name of it. If not, get the package from the Red Hat website.

terrus · 09-04-2005, 12:48 AM

there are two types of drivers for linux and i dont know which one I want. the graphics drivers or the nForce drivers? (newbie here). When I donwload it, I dont know how to run it.

terrus · 09-04-2005, 02:13 AM

So i ended up doing the graphics driver because it seemed most appropriate. My screen still looks the same way. I tried tinkering with the settings and it seems to not be detecting my monitor. Any suggestions?
thanks for the help so far.

syg00 · 09-04-2005, 02:35 AM

I (have to) use Dell laptops at work - wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy.
They use shared memory with the Intel graphics chip - have a look at here for some info and a fix.

On my Inspiron 1100 I was able to find a BIOS upgrade that fixed the issue - last week I started to look at the Boss' Latitude D505. No BIOS upgrade, I'll have to set up the 855patch for it.
You probably have the same problem - checkthe Dell site for a BIOS flash, and see if it resolves it, else you're up for the patch.