[clug-talk] Screen resolution issues

[Dan Mueller]

PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR THE ANSWERS FOR THE QUESTIONS YOU HAD TO TRY TO RESOLVE
THE RESOLUTION ISSUES.



THANX 
DAN

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 17:15:06 -0600
From: Gustin Johnson <gustin at echostar.ca>
Subject: Re: [clug-talk] screen resolution on ibm 1.8 gig
To: CLUG General <clug-talk at clug.ca>
Message-ID: <4A04BCFA.4040806 at echostar.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

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Dan Mueller wrote:
<snip>
> On 7 May, 2009 10:11:59 am Dan Mueller wrote:
>> More questions.  Ive got a ibm 1.8 ghz pc that im running Linux
>> mint on
> and
>> cant get the screen resolution to be more than 800x600   ive done
>> all that I know to do. Any suggestions??
>>
> 
> Not enough information here to go by......
> 
> Which version of Linux Mint?   VERSION IS 6.0 FELICIA

I am guessing that this is latest version?  Do you happen to know if
Linux Mint uses Gnome or KDE as the user interface?  Would you also
happen to know which version?
> 
> What video card?   AS BEST AS I CAN TELL, NVIDIA VANTA (ibm)
> 
lspci |grep -i vga

HERE'S WHAT CAME BACK......
VGA COMPATIBLE CONTROLER: NVIDIA CORPORATION NV6 [VANTA/VANTA LT] (REV 15)

Should return something similar to the following:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series
Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)

> What resolution can your monitor do?  WELL ABOVE 1024X768.  THIS IS
> ALL I NEED

Is this a CRT (giant tube based thing) or an LCD monitor?  If it is a
CRT how old is it?

ITS AN LCD ABOUT 2 YEARS OLD

- From the command line (bring up xterm, konsole, gterm, or any other
terminal.  Type "xrandr" to see all the supported modes.

On my laptop, the output of xrandr looks like this:
$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1440 x 900, maximum 2720 x 900
VGA disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS connected 1440x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
304mm x 190mm
   1440x900       60.2*+   59.9     40.2
   1360x768       59.8
   1152x864       60.0
   1024x768       60.0
   800x600        60.3     56.2
   640x480        59.9
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
TV disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis

THE HIGHEST IN XRANDR IS 800X600  THE LOWEST IS 320X240


> 
> What is "all that I know how to do"? I.e. what have you done so far?
> JUST PLUGGED AROUND IN THE SCREEN RESOLUTION SECTION OF WHAT COMES
> WITH THE CD ROM AND LOOKED IN SYNAPTIC IF THERE WAS ANYTHING THERE.
> 
Synaptic is the wrong place to look.  Most modern Linux distributions
will automatically install the correct drivers.  The vanta is quite old
so this may be the problem.

> I've seen this limitation when I've done a clean installs, or any
> install that overwrites /etc/xorg.conf ; In the old days, the
> installer asked you to input the capabilities of your monitor and
> video card, but now they rely on autodetection, which won't work if
> the card or monitor doesn't supply the information. In that case the
> installer sets the video parameters to a lowest- common-denominator
> "safe" setting.
> 
> What driver is your /etc/xorg.conf using (should show in the "device"
>  section)?

I LOOKED IN THE DEVICE SECTION AND CANT FIGURE OUT HOW TO TELL WHAT DRIVER.
WHAT CAN I USE ON COMMAND LINE??


> 

> Does it match the video card? AS BEST AS I CAN TELL THAT THERE ARE NO
>  SPECIAL DRIVERS USED.  I WENT INTO THE /ETC FILE AND I DON'T SEE A
> FILE CALLED XORG??
> 
/etc/X11/xorg.conf

ON THIS COMMAND WHAT CAME BACK WAS NO SUCH FILE OR DIRECTORY.

AS FOR WETHER ITS KDE OR GNOME... HOW DO I TELL??



Most recent versions of the distros I see do not really modify this file
anymore.  Both KDE and Gnome have very capable GUI driven control panel
widgets for controlling the resolution.  FYI the GUI widgets are now
just front ends to the xrandr command line utility.

Of course all of the above is moot if Linux Mint is using older versions
of Xorg.  I have no idea how current this distro is.  I have never
actually seen Mint in action.
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