resolution problems
 

im running red hat 7 and am having a bit of trouble getting the proper resolution on my monitor.

i set up everything properly in Xconfigurator, but my desktop appears bigger than the screen. so, for instance, my panel is on the right side of the desktop, so i have to scroll over to it with the mouse. it seems like the computer thinks that my monitor is really big. is there any way that i can get the picture to fit my screen?

--user--

re-do Xconfigurator and make sure you answer no to 'do you want a virtual screen larger than your monitor.'

In most cases by default that oversize virtual screen feature is only used with the lower resolution settings that are currently available. When I press CTRL-ALT and the Plus key all simultaneously it goes to the next lower screen resolution setting which in my case is 1024 x 768. In 1024 x 768 mode I get the oversize virtual screen where when I move the mouse all the way to one side the hidden portion of the screen is moved into view. When I press CRTL-ALT PLUS again it drops to 800x600 in which even less of the screen is in view at one time. Doing it again takes me to 640 x 480 and doing it yet again brings takes me back agin to the 1280x1024 where I started.

So anyway, In most cases that oversize virtual screen is not used by default on the highest resolutin setting currently configured. I have seen a Red Hat 7.2 installation result in only one screen size being available and it was using the oversize screen by default. I was able to correct the problem somehow.

Red Hat and most Linux disros give you a choice of three programs to use for configuring those kinds of things. Xconfigurator is one of them. They all do pretty much the same thing except than only one of them can be used when X-Windows is not installed at all. All three programs edit the XF86Config file for you. I believe Red Hat 7.3 may have used a slighlty different file by the way. Some people prefer to edit the file themselves instead with a text editor. In my file there is a line that says:

Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

That controls what modes are available when CTRL-ALT PLUS is pressed. I do not know which line contols that oversize virtual screen setting. If you use that weird oversize virtual screen or for a while you may eventually lean to like it! I have used all versions of Red Hat from 7.2 thru 9 but have not used 7.

still no good
 

i tried what both of you said, but #1)there was no option to have a larger virtual screen, and #2)the ctrl alt + doesn't work for some reason.

When you installed Red Hat 7 was the installation program able to probe and identify both your video card and monitor? Did you have to make some kind of safe generic choice and then tell it what horizontal and vertical refresh rates would work? On Red Hat 7.2 it it set it up like that for me when I had a monitor and/or video card that it was not familiar with. RH 7.2 had a problem probling some of my hardware. It would lock-up when attempting to probe my hardware. I somehow got everything to work anyway.

With RH 7.2 the Xconfigurator program would lock up on my computer but still ended up creating a new XF86Config or XF86Config-4 file for me. I seem to recall having run the program several times and made different choices each time. Each time I ran Xconfigurator I then printed out whichever of the above two files it had changed. At times I had the CTRL-ALT-PLUS thing working and at other times I got rid of the oversize virtual screen. In the end I seem to recall having compared the files and chose the best settings from each and then manually edited the file. I hope I am remembering correctly what happend and what I did back then.

With the newer versions of Red Hat the monitors and video cards on each of my computers were automatically identified by Linux. That resulted in them being configured slighly better automatically. Do you have some reason for wanting to use RH 7 instead of RH 8 or RH 9? If your computer meets the hardware requirements for RH8 or RH9 you might want to try that instead. It may work better for you. Linux does not always properly support hardware until it has been around for a few months.

The fonts used in web pages and in some Linux programs look much better on my computer with RH 8 and 9 than it did with RH 7.2 or 7.3. For that reason alone it might be work using RH 8 or 9 instead.

In what I just said above I want to clarify one detail. By making different chices when configuring my monitor and video card I was careful to not use any vertical or horizontal refresh rate settings that exceed what my monitor is designed for. Using refresh rate settings that are overly conservative are ok if you do not know the correct settings, but using too high of of setting might damage your monitor. In many cases RH can probe your hardware and if is familiar with it, will povide the appropriate allowable ranges. I did not mess with that setting, I only changed some other settings.

asdf
 

when Xconfigurator probed for everything, it couldn't find my monitor, but right now i'm using a different monitor, which it could recognize, but it does the same thing with the screen size. as for OS version, i simply got redhat 7 with "linux for dummies". i dont have an internet connection set up on linux so i cant DL the latest version, but next time i'm in borders or staples, i'll be sure to pick it up.