Changing display resolution

[Derek Broughton]

Mark Greenwood wrote:

> On Monday 25 May 2009 18:19:30 Derek Broughton wrote:
>> Precisely - xorg probes the hardware and _usually_ comes up with the
>> right results.
> 
> I guess that depends on your definition of "usually". In my case that
> would have to be 1 time in 6, but I appreciate I'm not statistically
> signficant :)

Unfortunately, neither of us are :-( 
>> 
>> We have those too.
> 
> *Please* tell me what they're called. If you mean the 'Display' section in
> the System Settings, that's not what I need because that only allows you
> to select modes that X has detected as valid. My problem is I need to tell
> X which modes are valid. If you provide a means to do that without
> understanding the intricacies of xorg.conf they I'd love to know it.

No, the System Settings are the option.  There are some other means (e.g., I 
need to run xrandr for dual monitors, because KDE can't set the values), but 
surely Mandriva doesn't let you randomly pick modes, either.  That's 
guaranteed to lead to broken X configs more often than Ubuntu's method, 
because users will select modes that _aren't_ valid.

Clearly, you can't actually use the GUI when X doesn't work in the first 
place.  Then "sudo dpkg-reconfigure xorg-server" should help.

>> And for people like you, copying xorg.conf from your old Hardy or
>> Intrepid system should also work.
> 
> Except that the upgrade trashed it. Backup? I've never needed one
> before... :)

I find it really hard to believe an upgrade _trashed_ it.  There are usually 
half a dozen copies of xorg.conf.  KDE backs it up whenever you make a 
change.  One of those should be working.
-- 
derek