Newbie Alert!!!

B00H · 10-27-2005, 03:56 PM

Hi there,

I am completely new to Linux, slowly getting into the swing of things....

I have a dumb question to ask...

Can anyone tell me how to change the screen resolution on my box before going into kdm? The monitor I was using before had a high resolution, the one I am using now cant cope with it and will not go into kdm.

Can anyone help?

Booh
xx

Mega Man X · 10-27-2005, 04:25 PM

Hi B00H!

You may need to manually edit a file. The file is /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Open it up as root or you won't be able to edit it. Look at the "Section Screen". It should look like this:

Code:

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"NVIDIA Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600/GeForce 6600 Ultra]"
	Monitor		"CPD 4410"
	DefaultDepth	24
        ....
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		24
		Modes		"1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

The file is quite self-explanatory. Add your preferred resolution as the first option. (above, my first option is 1600x1200). Edit, save the file and restart the Xserver. That should do it

Tell me if any steps are unclear. I'm not sure how much you can with Linux, so this can either be too difficult or just enough

Regards!

P.S: always remember to backup stuff, just in case something goes wrong

karl.wilcox · 10-27-2005, 04:31 PM

Booh,

You could try a couple of things:

Run kdm anyway, then type CTRL-ALT-Keypad+ (i.e. the control key, the alt key and the '+' key on the numeric keypad) all the same time. This will cycle through all of the resolutions that X supports. (The same but using the '-' key on the numeric keypad goes in the other direction). If you get to a workable resolution for your monitor then you could run SaX, SaX2, XF86Config or whatever graphical configuration tool that you have for X.

As an alternative you try to modify your X configuration file directly (as root), this is in /etc/X11 and is called XF86Config or XF86Config-4. You need to find the section called "screen" and the option "DefaultColorDepth". This could be 16 for example, look this up in the sub-sections below and you should find a list of resolutions like "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480". X will try each of these resolutions in turn (and the keys above cycle through them). Try deleting the higher resolutions or moving them to the end of the list.

Hope this helps,

Karl

B00H · 10-27-2005, 04:47 PM

Hi there,

I tried editing the file but I dont think I did it properly

and it was still doing the same thing, the Ctrl, Alt + worked a treat.

Thanks for all your help - you are stars!!!!

Booh
xx