IF you red the title.....yes its correct, My eyes have been hurtin everytime attempting to use linux for more than 30 mins...I love linux so far but its VERY difficult to work with it when my resolution is 640x480 and my laptop screen supports 1024x768!
(I see a small 640x480 screen in the center and the rest of the screen is pitch black)



Heres my monitor specs if that helps:
12.1” Poly-silicon TFT Color LCD; internal display supports up to
16M colors at 1024 x 768
Trident CyberALADDiN-T

and I am running Topoligilinux on top of WINXPsp2, This resolution problem is in "Real mode"

I WOULD VERY MUCH appreciate your help.....(I am a broke student, but If you really need it I wouldnt mind donating something via paypal for helping)

THANKS!

It could be due to that the monitor wasn't selected correctly, which leaves it at default and then the resolution can't be increased either. Check the system setting for the monitor and select your LCD monitor type or a generic LCD mode of 1024x768. Then you can change your screen resolution.

TexasDevilDog, what exactly do you mean by checking the monitor settings? I have read most of the other posts relating to this problem on this forum, and I have playd around with Xorg.conf and the Xfree86.....But I am not sure I did those things correctly (given that my monitor resolution under linux realmode is still 640x480..)Topoligilinux. Also I did select 1024x768 in setup but its still at 640x480, when all the drivers etc...loads up at startup the screen is in 1024x768 but when it goes into X Windows (using startx) it goes back down to the 640x480 res...

Is there anyway I could like run a .sh file or some setup that will auto configure the monitor under Topoligilinux Realmode (which is slackware based)? Or perhaps I could just change some file to 1024x768?


Thanks for anyone who could help me out....
appreciate it

Hey ligerdude! have you tried editing /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 as root? there you can change the resolution by adding at the beginning (where it says resolution) the res you want.
Another way is to reconfigure monitor resolution, typing dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 always as root. There you will follow through the instalation options you had when installing until the choose resolution screen appears. I'm using Debian, but I think it'll be the same for you.
Regards, Mariano.

You're using a distro that's not very good for newbies and which runs on top of Windows. No wonder you're having trouble getting X to work properly - Linux was not made to run as a program on Windows. I'd say its your distro that sucks, not X-windows. See http://www.linuxforums.org/news/article-27314.html

If you read that article the author mentions he had a bit of trouble getting X working, he had to cd into /etc/X11R6/bin and run xorgsetup to try and get it working. Otherwise probably your only other option is to try and fiddle with the xorg.conf file directly.

These 'run Linux as a Windows app' distros have a bad reputation with a lot of people exactly because of these kinds of problems. If you really want to try out Linux without changing anything on your harddrive try a LiveCD like PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu LIveCD or Knoppix. However if I were you I'd just use a safe repartitioning program (the one in the PCLinuxOS Control Centre can safely shrink your Windows drive down and create space for a Linux partition) and then install a newbie friendly distro like Mandriva, Suse or Ubuntu. Or install Slackware (which is what Topoligilinux is based on) if you feel like doing things the hard way

hey malesandro, and tkedwards I will defintely try what you said when i get home after work!! thanks...I will post the results in like 2 days...


tkedwards, Em even this linux distro (Topoligilinux, based on slackware) installs on top of windows partition....I run it in real mode, meaning it runs like a regular distro...and the reason I cant use a liveCD or Install a actual linux distro is I have a Tablet PC, with no floppy, no CDROM no Nothing..... (there is a pcmcia based bootable cdrom drive but its like 300bucks! and toshiba makes money that way....err) so thats my problem....


also on a side note, my friend has a 600mhz 64mb ram vga display comp.....would freebsd with X run fine on this machine?

Again
I really appreciate it (cuz this has been bothering the ***%@! out of me for a very long time)

No CD, that's a bit of a problem. How did Windows get installed in the first place without a CD drive?

X will, the latest KDE or GNOME on top of that might be a bit slow. Try a lighter Window manager.

Well...On Toshiba Tablet PC's (like the one I have) Windows XP tablet PC editon comes Pre-Loaded, so you cant really mess with it.....that much. Toshiba cleverly made sure that the only compatible bootable external cddrive is ofcourse made by toshiba themselves (make some extra $$$, which i dont have) anyway..again i'll try what you guys told me and post the results in a couple of days..thanks alot!


on the note about FreeBsd.....would something like fluxbox or Xfce work? for a light window manager ? Thanks!

Yeah fluxbox and xfce would be good.