[Novalug] how to find and set monitor parameters

Greg greg@lightdrizzle.net
Sat Nov 15 21:11:21 EST 2008


For future reference, you can hit ctrl+alt+backspace to kill the 
xserver.  It will obviously kill any apps you have open.  You can also 
type "sudo pkill X" to kill the xserver.

You can disable the former method by adding this to your xorg.conf in 
the ServerFlags section:
     Option      "DontZap"       "True"

Greg


Nino Pereira wrote:
> All,
> 
> thanks to all for giving feedback on how to change the monitor
> resolution in Debian. Through this, and he suggestions for what to
> google, I found one way that works. FYI, it's as follows.
> 
> Under Debian, the third icon from the left, on top, is 'Desktop'.
> Click on Desktop > preferences > screen resolution. This brings
> up a box that gives the default resolution. Before, I had 1280x960:
> this didn't work so well. The box gives you other choices, but all
> others were worse. Something was missing.
> 
> Apparently, under Debian the file that contains these and other data
> is /etc/X11/xorg.conf. This file starts with a warning (don't edit
> when you don't know what you are doing, first copy the file that
> works in xorg.conf.old, stuff like that). Then, it has this section:
> 
>   (snip)
> 
> Section "Screen"
> 	Identifier	"Default Screen"
> 	Device		"Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G550 AGP"
> 	Monitor		"Generic Monitor"
> 	DefaultDepth	24
> (snip)
> 	SubSection "Display"
> 		Depth		24
> 		Modes	"1280x960" "1024x768" "800x600"
> 	EndSubSection
> EndSection
> 
> No mention of the resolution I want, which is 1680x1050. So, I added
> the desired resolution to the line 'Modes', which now reads:
>                Modes  "1680x1050"  "1280x960" "1024x768" "800x600"
> 
> The suggestion from the website was to restart Xserver, but since I
> didn't know how to do that I simply rebooted. Now when I do
>    Desktop > preferences > screen resolution the box this calls up
> has the desired resolution as the default.
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Nino
> 
> 
> greg pryzby wrote:
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FixVideoResolutionHowto
>>
>> I haven't tried it yet though but I am betting it will help
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 10:13 PM, Nino Pereira <pereira@speakeasy.net 
>> <mailto:pereira@speakeasy.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     Igor,
>>
>>     you said:
>>
>>     Most 22" LCDs are 1680x1050.
>>
>>     and this is indeed the maximum resolution for my 22" LCD screen.
>>
>>     I try to set the resolution with the closest command I can find,
>>
>>      > pereira@ibm:~$ xrandr --fb 1280x1050 --verbose
>>
>>     Unfortunately, it doesn't work: I get
>>
>>     xrandr: specified screen 1280x1050 not large enough for output default
>>     (1600x1200+0+0)
>>
>>     Is that a problem with the videocard perhaps? Or is there a better way
>>     than xrandr to do it?
>>
>>     Thank you for any insight.
>>
>>     Nino
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> greg pryzby
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