Help setting resolution

[BillM]

Hello,

I have the "Out of Range" problem with a new monitor, and would like help
setting a lower resolution.

Here's some background.

I've been a happy Knoppix 3.8.1 user since installation on a Dell Pentium II
in March 2005. However, the monitor burnt out Saturday, and I wanted to treat myself to an LCD, but the salesman said I'd have to buy a video card to go with it. So instead I bought the 17" Compaq CRT that he said would work.

It doesn't.

The machine boots up fine, but when it flips to the KDE desktop, the screen
goes black and the Out of Range/Use lower resolution message comes up.

I searched the Knoppix help for "resolution" but couldn't find an answer. (The CD player doesn't work, so I can't do it from the Knoppix disk.)

So here is where I am now. I hit Tab when the Lilo flash screen comes up, and that takes me to what looks like a boot prompt. I type in

Linux                       Linux(2.6)-1
boot: knoppix screen=720x400

and I get

Linux                       Linux(2.6)-1
boot: knoppix screen=720x400
No such image. [Tab] shows a list.

Hitting Tab just shows the prompt on an new line.

Any ideas what the right command is? Thanks for your help!

--Bill

[unclebubbles]

Try the same code with 800x600

[BillM]

Try the same code with 800x600

Thanks, but no such luck.

[BillM]

Thought I'd post in case others had the same problem.

My new monitor was "Out of Range" and the solution was to lower the resolution.

I booted up with the Knoppix 3.8.1 live CD and entered

knoppix screen=800x600

into the boot prompt and hit return.

So far so good, now how to save the new resolution setting to the hard disc? Poking around here, I learned that the settings are in the files /etc/X11/XF86Config and XF86Config-4. Opened those up with the Konqueror, and sure enough, that's where the data is kept.

Then I navigated with the Konqueror to the same files on my hard disc. Yep, there was the info for the old monitor.

I thought it would be best to copy and paste from the CD to the HD, rather than type it in lest I miss a line. So I gave myself permission to do this by opening the Console and navigating to /etc/X11 on the HD at the same time making backup files in case I seriously screwed up.

su
chmod 666 XF86Config
chmod 666 XF86Config-4
cp XF86Config backupXF86Config
cp XF86Config-4 backupXF86Config-4
exit

Then I used Konqueror to copy both files from the CD and paste them into the HD, rebooted and crossed my fingers. Heh, Linux is great, isn't it?