How do I get my screen resolution change to ''take''?

I have my new system up and running with Debian, kernel 2.6.24. Unfortunately it is totally unusable on my 17'' monitor at 1280 x 1024 resoultion. I go into the control center/ peripherals/ display, and change to 1024 x 768. When I click on apply, KDE restarts, but back in the 1280 resolution. If I reboot, it still doesn't change. I notice I don't get a prompt for the root password.

First, we need to make sure that the right driver is installed. Please post the details on your video card and your version of this section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
When you change resolution in the KDE utility, clicking "apply" is not re-starting KDE. It just blanks the screen while it attempts to re-configure.


How is this relevant?

OK, I su to root and put in /etc/X11/xorg.conf It comes back permission denied.

I am using the on board video on a PCChips AG13+ MB. It is a NVIDA MBC61 single chip.

You can view the file using "more". To edit it, you will need an editor such as nano, kedit, kate, etc.

If you just type in the file name, then BASH thinks you are trying to run (execute) the file

OK

Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "vesa"
BusID "PCI:0:13:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-64
VertRefresh 43-60
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

As I said before, I am using the on board video on a PCChips AG13+ MB. It is a NVIDA MBC61 single chip.

I have Kate and have been using it some for text editing.

OK--you will need either the "nv" or "nvidia" driver. At least the first one should be available using the package manager.

Once the driver is installed, then you just need to change "vesa" to the appropriate name. Also, check your monitor specs for the Horizontal Sync (28-64 seems too low.)

Thanks for getting back with me. I am still struggling, nothing is working. There is more to this than finding a link at nvidia.com and giving it to apt get. I guess that would work, if the link was there. Nvidia doesn't list a link to what I need. They said all the needed drivers are in the latest kernels. The kernel I am using is a 32 bit one downloaded last Saturday from Debian. It is getting late, I will let everything go until tomorrow.

You are not going to install the nvidia driver by linking apt-get to the Nvidia site.

If a suitable driver is in your repositories, then you can get it using apt-get (or Synaptic).

If you want the "nvidia" proprietary driver, you'll get that from the Nvidia site. They have an excellent install script that automates everything.

After you have your video driver installed, kde has a great program called krandrtray that allows you to right click on a tray icon and change the resolution on the fly.

The easiest solution to your problem would be to change the line
toYou don't even need to install the NVidia driver if you don't want to. (I would )

Downloading the driver from NIVIDA doesn't seem to be an option. As I said, they don't give a link, they just say all the drivers are already in the kernel. So it looked like General Failure's suggestion might be easy enough for me to be able to do it. ''The easiest solution to your problem would be to change the line....''

I su to root, and open /etc/X11/xorg.conf in Kate, and delete the 1280 mode. I then go to file and save.

''The document could not be saved, as it was not possible to write to file:///etc/X11/xorg.conf.
Check that you have write access to this file or that enough disk space is available.''

I have a similar problem and cannot fix it. Trying to reset 1024 to 800x600 but it seems to take on the standard fixed when loaded. Maybe this is a fault in Debian 4?

According to this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...OTC-GOOGLEBASE
the video is Geoforce 6100

For that you want this:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d...32_169.12.html

Maybe we are getting somewhere now. I was sure I saw it was the N force chip on the Nvidia site last night. I don't quite trust vendors like Tiger Direct. The power supply described as having a ball bearing fan On the ClubIT website turned out to have sleeve bearings. I hunted up the PCChips website and it confirms the Geforce chip.

A bug means bad code to me. I think this could be operater error, or bad data. Somehow when I downloaded the kernel, I didn't get the right driver. With Fred having the same problem, I wonder if the problem is what is loaded on the Debian site.

Well I am downloading the file at the link you gave me.

OK, I downloaded it to my desktop.

dick@xantha:~$ su root
Password:
xantha:/home/dick# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run
sh: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run: No such file or directory

Do I need to have it somewhere besides the desktop?