can´t alter display resolution on new dapper install

[Paul S]

anthony baldwin said the following on 05/30/2007 07:14 AM:
> My wife bought a new computer, with xpmedia edition, and asked me to 
> install Linux for her to give it a try.
> (She´s used windows forever, but has seen my use Linux since we married, 
> and noted how
> I don´t have any of the viruses, crashes, etc., and wants to give it a 
> shot.)
> 
> I partitioned the drive and installed dapper (since that´s what I´m 
> still using, being slow to
> adopt upgrades until bugs are worked out), and everything went lovely, 
> except,
> the display is set at 640 x 480.
> Her graphics card and monitor should allow at least 1024 x 768.
> I can see these options in the xorg.conf,
> but don´t seem to be able to modify the value in the systems preferences 
> application,
> even in administrator mode.
> 
> any assistance would be deeply appreciated.
> 
> tony
> 

You don't say what video card and driver you are using, so my idea may 
not work for you.

Try opening a terminal and typing "xrandr -q" to get a listing of all 
the available resolutions that are enabled in your current xorg session. 
    For me, I see something like this:

paul :~$ xrandr -q
  SZ:    Pixels          Physical       Refresh
*0   1280 x 1024   ( 382mm x 302mm )  *75   70   60
  1   1280 x 720    ( 382mm x 302mm )   60
  2   1152 x 864    ( 382mm x 302mm )   75   70   60
  3   1024 x 768    ( 382mm x 302mm )   75   72   70   60
  4    800 x 600    ( 382mm x 302mm )   75   72   70   60   56   47
  5    720 x 480    ( 382mm x 302mm )   60
  6    640 x 480    ( 382mm x 302mm )   75   72   60
  7    640 x 400    ( 382mm x 302mm )   75   60
  8    512 x 384    ( 382mm x 302mm )   75   60
  9    400 x 300    ( 382mm x 302mm )   75   60
  10   320 x 240    ( 382mm x 302mm )   75   60
  11   320 x 200    ( 382mm x 302mm )   75   60
Current rotation - normal
Current reflection - none
Rotations possible - normal
Reflections possible - none

Next, if you see the desired resolution (1024x768) is available, you can 
select it from the terminal with "xrandr -s 1024x768".  If this works, 
then you should be able to manually edit xorg.conf and change the 
"modes" lines to only have the "1024x768".

If this doesn't work, you might get more help by posting your xorg.conf 
and the results of "xrandr -q".

HTH,