Screen Resolution - GNOME, KDE (Linux newbie)

[rdcuff]

Greetings -

I am relatively new to Linux but have worked with various Windows flavors for 25 years now...

I've recently installed Debian Etch on an IBM NetVista PC that has the Intel integrated video memory.

I am using an AOC 7F monitor that Windows properly recognizes at resolutions up to 1280x1024 and "32-bit" color depth. Specified horizontal sync rates are 30-72, and vertical refresh rates are 50-130, so says the manufacturer.

The GNOME desktop only offers the 640x480 resolution, however, which is frankly useless. I then installed the KDE desktop, hoping this issue was GNOME-specific, but now it appears the issue is more with with the xorg configuration file since KDE behaves the same way as GNOME.

I have already run the dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg utility...repeatedly...attempting to come up with configuration options that will give me screen resolution choices. The Xorg config utility correctly offers me the relevant screen resolution choices, but these then are not offered either in GNOME or KDE.

I have also attempted to manually insert the HorizSync and VertRefresh settings into the xorg.conf file as well.

Depending on how much I force settings in the configuration utility, XServer in some instances aborts without loading GNOME or the login manager.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks - Richard

[geniuz]

Ok I didn't quite get everything you said...did you or did you not try editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change the resolution ?

If you haven't, in you're terminal try typing:

gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Then you should see something like this on the bottom:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nVidia Corporation NV40.2 [GeForce 6800 LE]"
Monitor "HWP"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x1024" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

change the first resolution in modes (where it says 1280x1024 in my case) with the one you would like and restart your computer, or just log out and log back in...

If this doesn't work there might be an issue with your VGA-drivers, do you use Nvidia or ATI ??

[rdcuff]

Ok I didn't quite get everything you said...did you or did you not try editing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change the resolution ?

Haven't tried that specific step yet.

If this doesn't work there might be an issue with your VGA-drivers, do you use Nvidia or ATI ??

Neither - I have the Intel integrated video on the motherboard...and that's what's recognized when I run the xorg config utility.

Thanks for the suggestion - that's one specific suggestion I haven't tried yet.

Richard

[rdcuff]

change the first resolution in modes (where it says 1280x1024 in my case) with the one you would like and restart your computer, or just log out and log back in...

Already says 1024x768 etc. there. Except neither KDE nor GNOME offer with any of those choices.

BTW - the path to the config file was different than you indicated -- it was /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Still looking for ideas -

Richard

[rdcuff]

change the first resolution in modes (where it says 1280x1024 in my case) with the one you would like and restart your computer, or just log out and log back in...

If this doesn't work there might be an issue with your VGA-drivers, do you use Nvidia or ATI ??

BTW - I have the Intel 845 chipset, so I got the 915resolution package, went through the steps for it -- which went straightforwardly enough, but still no luck when it came time to load the desktop.

I can copy in the logfile if that would help... if you could point me to it...

Many thanks -

Richard