James G. Sack (jim) wrote:
Ralph Shumaker wrote:
..
Gus will probably give the authoritative answer, but I believe it may
involve changing
Modes "800x600"
to
Modes "800x600" "1024x768"
in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
..
Thanks jim. Life is a little better now that dialog buttons no longer
run off the bottom of the screen (well, less often). Upon seeing this
suggestion, I made the change and then forgot about it. Last night I
decided to shut my system down because of something a little wonky.
Booting up just now, I was delighted to see the higher resolution
(finally). I never asked about it, because it was merely an annoyance
to buttons off the bottom of the screen and web pages that were too
wide. (Fortunately, most web pages had the text portion narrow enough
where I could adjust the horizontal scroll bar to fit it in, but not all.)
I seem to always have off-brand monitors that are never listed anywhere
and Linux never seems to recognize them. As a result, I end up with
just basic resolutions. How can I find out what resolutions I can set
them to? Currently the one in front of me says Micron. On back, Model:
RM07L11 (or possibly the 0 could be O), Manufactured: October 1997, and
my tape measure reveals a 17 inch diagonal. (It *is* a CRT, just in
case that was not obvious.)
Micron monitor specs do not seem readily findable. It may be that it's a
rebranded item or just too old.
Sometimes your system knows more that you think, though. Have you looked
at (user configurable)
System > Preferences > Screen Resolution
or, equivalently, launching from the command line
gnome-display-properties
The above allows picking/testing a resolution and if you don't respond
in 15 secs, it cancels.
That used to display only 800x600 and 640x480 before I made the change
noted above. (Having recently added the third option 1024x768, it now
displays a fourth option, 832x624.)
Another tool is (root-password required)
System > Administration > Display
or, equivalently, launching from the command line
system-config-display
Here, the main "Settings" tab page shows resolution choices that your
system configuration thinks are available for your monitor. Well, maybe
it's not always believable -- mine includes 2048x1536 -- I wish. ;-)
This one still shows only the 800x600 and the 640x480 that I just mentioned.
The possibly more useful one here, is on the "Hardware" tab page, where
you can configure the monitor. If you happened to know that your CRT was
a rebranded XYZ-model-17, you might conceivably find such an entry in
the choice list.
The hardware tab reports "Unknown monitor". I happen to know nothing
about rebranding (apart from what it is).
The more likely operation is to force the choice of
Generic Monitor, 1024x768 capability
Most 17" models seem to be able to do 1024x768 at 60Hz. (Although I
believe there are some which only do 800x600).
"gnome-display-properties" reports 1024x768 at 75 Hz. (I added 1024x768
to /etc/X11/xorg.conf, but nothing about refresh rate.) Think it might
be safe to try a higher resolution?
I think that if I start making changes to the resolution, it may be wise
to do the editing with vim on console F2 or somesuch. That way, if
something doesn't work, I can switch back and choose undo.
I would be reluctant to get more adventurous than this with an old or
unknown monitor, as it is reported that monitors _can_ be damaged by
being sent incorrect frequency signals.
Anyway, if you do find a res you are happy with, you may still need to
set the xorg.conf if you wish to be able to switch via "Ctrl Alt +" and
"Ctrl Alt -". That's what I was talking about in my original post. This
list controls which settings are walked by the keyboard commands. Be
aware that the first item in the Modes list is the startup resolution.
Also be aware that at res settings below the highest in that list, you
get a "viewport" display that scrolls when you run the mouse off the edge.
To add more confusion..
- - - - - - - - - - - -
In harder to configure cases, it has sometimes been necessary to specify
frequency ranges in the xorg.conf file under the "Monitor" section. If
you are tempted to do something at that level, you may wish to solicit
advice from Gus, who gets all these questions dumped on him <heh>.
Regards,
..jim
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