How do I set / change resolution of graphics cards in Linux?

Hi there!

Yes XF86Config is your "friend"! It is in truth very unfriendly, but can usually do the business. You will be asked what video card you are running (you get a list to select from though...) and such esoteric data as the vertical and horizontal refresh rates, how much onboard graphics memory (a poser on laptops like my Sony Vaio FX310 which "shares" video memory with main memory) alongside dire warnings that inappropriate settings may damage your machine...

Once past these stages it will give you a number of resolutions, e.g. 800x600 at number of colour depths etc. These are usually ok (though be aware that in the case of laptops and other TFT displays they have a "native" resolution - often 1024x768 at which they display their best fonts etc.)

Another peculiarity in some Mandrake releases (and maybe other distro's but I'm a Mandrake fan...) is that they will display 800x600 at that size, rather than filling the whole screen, so one ends up with a very small display with a very large border on some large monitors! This can often be resolved after loading X by the various utilities each distro provides like the "drak" familiy in Mandrake or Yast2 or SAX in SuSe...

Hope this helps? - If not repost and we'll try something else?

Cheers