So again I go searching for answers, and again I'm forced to appeal to the group. I got Slack 9 installed last week, and I'm having trouble with my video modes in X. I can't get anything less than 1600x1200 to run. If there's a 1600x1200 mode in the list, no matter which is listed first, it'll take it, and if it's not listed, I get the "no usable screens" error when starting X. I'm using a laptop, and that high of a video mode makes things very difficult to read. My card is an ATI Mobility M4 AGP that runs the Rage 128 chipset. I got my monitor specs straight from Dell and have the HorizSync and VertRefresh listed correctly in XF86Config. I also tried putting a custom Modeline in my monitor definition, but the X-log tells me that hsync is out of range. I'll be happy to post any config files and/or log output if it'll help. Thanks!

--Misha

Go ahead and post your XF86config file. I had to tweak mine quite a bit to get things working properly. I will say that I found everything I needed by searching this forum. (This board is a fantastic resource)
What type of screen do you have on your laptop?

Thanks for your reply! I'm running a Dell Latitude C800 with LCD screen capable of 1600x1200 at 32 bit color. Don't know where Dell got it from, but I did find some specs on the dell website:
http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems...n/ug/specs.htm

Here's the XF86Config that I'm running right now. Note that even though the 1024x768 is listed first, X still runs in 1600x1200.

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "AlwaysCore"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "record"
Load "extmod"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "glx"
Load "xtrap"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "speedo"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "imps/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 31.5-90
VertRefresh 50-70
ModeLine "1024x768/60Hz" 65 1024 1032 1176 1344 768 771 777 806 -HSync -VSync
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>]
#Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>]
#Option "Dac6Bit" # [<bool>]
#Option "Dac8Bit" # [<bool>]
#Option "DMAForXv" # [<bool>]
#Option "ForcePCIMode" # [<bool>]
#Option "CCEPIOMode" # [<bool>]
#Option "CCENoSecurity" # [<bool>]
#Option "CCEusecTimeout" # <i>
#Option "AGPMode" # <i>
#Option "AGPSize" # <i>
#Option "RingSize" # <i>
#Option "BufferSize" # <i>
#Option "Display" # <str>
#Option "PanelWidth" # <i>
#Option "PanelHeight" # <i>
#Option "ProgramFPRegs" # [<bool>]
#Option "UseFBDev" # [<bool>]
#Option "VideoKey" # <i>
#Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "ati"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "Rage Mobility M4 AGP"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Virtual 0 0
Modes "1024x768" "1024x768/60Hz" "1600x1200"
EndSubSection
EndSection


Section "ServerFlags"

EndSection

I've been looking all over for answers and can't find a thing. Thanks for any help you can give!

--Misha