Ok basically the resolution everywhere else is picked up fine. I'm on Kubuntu 6.06, using the nvidia driver. But really annoyingly just on the login screen the display seems to default to 1600x1200 unless i'm mistaken. Which causes my nice KDM themes to start shooting off around the screen. So i'd love it if one of you linux gurus could tell me if this will fix my issue:

This is my xorg.conf file:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "NVIDIA Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600 GT]"
Monitor "SyncMaster"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
depth 24
virtual 1600 1200
modes "1280x1024@60" "1280x960@75" "1280x960@60" "1400x1050@60" "1280x1024@75" "1600x1200@65" "1152x864@75" "1600x1200@60" "1024x768@60" "1024x768@70" "1024x768@75" "832x624@75" "800x600@60" "800x600@75" "800x600@72" "800x600@56" "640x480@75" "640x480@72" "640x480@60"
EndSubSection

Right. So now if i change the "virtual" to 1280 1024 from 1600 1200 will that be safe and ensure my login screen displays @ 1280x1024 as it should?

Yes. You might also just comment it out.

That doesn't seem to have worked. Though it should have. It still scrolls as though it's a bigger res than the native 1280x1024, though slightly less i think. Xorg.conf file now reads:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "NVIDIA Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600 GT]"
Monitor "SyncMaster"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
depth 24
# virtual 1600 1200
modes "1280x1024@60" "1280x960@75" "1280x960@60" "1400x1050@60" "1280x1024@75" "1600x1200@65" "1152x864@75" "1600x1200@60" "1024x768@60" "1024x768@70" "1024x768@75" "832x624@75" "800x600@60" "800x600@75" "800x600@72" "800x600@56" "640x480@75" "640x480@72" "640x480@60"
EndSubSection

Just a thought: Did you change any of the kdm settings in KDE control center? You're just having this issue in kdm, not afterwards = on the desktop, right?

Exactly. The desktop resolution is fine and that's 1280x1024@60Hz. And the screen that comes on when i hit enter to login is the right res too. The only one that's wrong is the kdm screen. I've only just installed kdm so i haven't changed it at all. Maybe i should?

I thought at first maybe the vga=xxx value was wrong in /boot/grub/menu.lst, as on load up the resolution is wrong, but then i remembered that that's before X starts so that's a separate issue to the one i'm having with kdm.

This problem is now solved. To solve the odd res during kdm (despite the right res being listed in xorg.conf first) i simply deleted all other resolutions except the correct one in xorg.conf. There is also a handy guide for fellow (K)Ubuntuists here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fi...esolutionHowto

And for the odd resolution during boot up following Grub, i edited the menu.lst on a safe and temporary basis to try the different resolutions. It's simple. You select an entry using up/down on the Grub menu on bootup. Then press 'e' to edit that entry and add/alter vga=xxx. On reboot this change is gone. Guide for other (K)Ubuntuists to do that here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FrameBuffer

Hope this helps someone doing a forum search