Changing screen resulotion in Mandrake 8.0?

[Ovatvvon]

I have Mandrake Linux 8.0. I loaded linux for the first time yesturday evening, and don't know how to operate the unix/linux O.S.'s

During the install I chose a monitor resolution setting that is pushing my video card too much (it's a cheap card), and I get a lot of flickering and such.

How can I change the resolution. Windows is simple, just right click, goto properties, then settings. I guess it isn't that simple in Linux though. -Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[RiezalR]

I do know that when you want to start Xwindows, you can specify the resolution at command line. But I am unsure if the syntax as I have never had the need to do it. I did do it once a very long time ago. Maybe you could lookup on the syntax for this. Goes something like:

startx 800x600.

Try looking it up, Im sure they have documentation on this.

 

[Ovatvvon]

I can't seem to find anything on startx, and still can't find anything to change the resolution. The closest thing I can find is using Ctrl-Alt-"-" or ctrl-alt-"+". But they don't really change the resolution...they just make the desktop a lot bigger and you have to scroll the desktop like a video game or something.

Does anyone else know how to reset the resolution without reloading the O.S.? (I just know that with as much good things as I've heard about linux that one wouldn't have to reload the operating system just to change the video resolution!)
-Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[smah]

I can't exactly remember 8.0, but assuming you're using KDE, there should be an icon on the kicker bar (taskbar) for Control center or something like that. Look in the hardware section either under monitor or grapical server configuration (or maybe x-server).

If you can't find the icon on the kicker bar, pick the K-menu (start menu for programs), go to 'what to do', administer your system, control center same as above.

If you can't find either of these, open a terminal, su to root, and type "drakconf" (without the quotes, of course).

 

[Ovatvvon]

I did finally find under information -> xserver in the control center it listed what the screen dimensions and resolution were, however I couldn't change them...it was just a report.

I can't find a hardware section anywhere in the control center. (drakconf results in "command not found" as well) -Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[smah]

OK, as root try: xfdrake

 

[Ovatvvon]

same thing: "command not found" -Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[smah]

You did this as root right? According to the documentation online, it should be either xfdrake or drakconf.

Try this - in a terminal type "locate drak" (without quotes). You should get a bunch of stuff. You're looking for something that might refer to "X" or "configuration" and it should be in /usr/bin/

 

[Highland]

There are probably more ways to reconfigure your graphics resolution (I just managed to get mandrake running yesterday).....logon as root, right click on desktop, I get a menu titled Mandrake with several options, select configuration, select hardware, select hardDrake, after the system detects your hardware you should see a listing containing your graphics adapter, highlight this and select the "Run config tool" option (bottom right of display panel), this appears to launch the XFdrake utility, you can now modify the resoltion and monitor type from here...???

Hope this helps......

 

[Ovatvvon]

Highland, I found the menu items you discussed which lead me to the HardDrake display panel. When I selected my video card, there was no "Run Configuration Tool" button in the lower right of the panel. However, I messed around a bit and after I went to the menu 'options' -> 'probing options', I selected 'videocards' from that list and hit the 'changes' button. Another window opened. In the text box I changed 'None' to 'Yes' and hit apply. Then hit ok back at the probing options panel, and then I had a "run Configuration Tool" button in the main HardDrake panel.

However, when I hit that button with my video card selected, nothing happens. Is there something else I should've typed in the probing options text box? What do you think is wrong with my system that I'm not getting the same results as everyone else?

smah, I tried the locate drak command and the terminal window appeared to print approx 300,000 lines (give or take 100,000 lines) of text. It was spread throughout /usr/x11r6, /usr/sbin/, /usr/lib/, /usr/share/ and many many others. I'm not sure what I need to make of it. -Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[Ovatvvon]

Highland, I found the menu items you discussed which lead me to the HardDrake display panel. When I selected my video card, there was no "Run Configuration Tool" button in the lower right of the panel. However, I messed around a bit and after I went to the menu 'options' -> 'probing options', I selected 'videocards' from that list and hit the 'changes' button. Another window opened. In the text box I changed 'None' to 'Yes' and hit apply. Then hit ok back at the probing options panel, and then I had a "run Configuration Tool" button in the main HardDrake panel.

However, when I hit that button with my video card selected, nothing happens. Is there something else I should've typed in the probing options text box? What do you think is wrong with my system that I'm not getting the same results as everyone else?

smah, I tried the locate drak command and the terminal window appeared to print approx 300,000 lines (give or take 100,000 lines) of text. It was spread throughout /usr/x11r6, /usr/sbin/, /usr/lib/, /usr/share/ and many many others. I'm not sure what I need to make of it. -Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[smah]

You never answered my question about being root when you typed 'drakconf' or 'xfdrake'. It's possible that you will get a command not found error if you do this as a normal user.

 

[Ovatvvon]

Everything I have been doing is as root. -Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[smah]

Try this from a terminal:

su
{type root password}
command /usr/bin/drakconf

By the way, what desktop manager are you using? KDE, Gnome, or something else?

 

[Ovatvvon]

I'm already logged in as Root, so the attempt to log in as root from the terminal didn't have any effect. However, I tried typeing both of the following because I wasn't sure which one you meant:

# "command /usr/bin/drakconf"
and
# "/usr/bin/drakconf"

both times I get a return on the next line like this:

"bash: /usr/bin/drakconf: No such file or directory"
-Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[wmg]

Hello Ovatvvon,

Try running Xconfigurator - this let's you run through all the video card/resolution settings etc - similarly to the installation process.

I can't recall where this is but it will be either /sbin or /usr/bin like all the others. Also, watch the capitalisation - from memory it is "Xconfigurator" but could be "XConfigurator" also.

This is the configuration program for older versions of X - like what was in Mandrake 8.0. I believe newer versions changed the name of this to XF86Config or some such thing.

HTH

We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. [Robert Wilensky, 1997]

 

[smah]

Actually I meant the first one. Have a look at these:

http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/xwin/xtroub.html#Rerun

http://www.club-nihil.net/mub/viewtopic.php?t=7130

http://www.club-nihil.net/mub/viewtopic.php?t=5105

http://www.club-nihil.net/mub/viewtopic.php?t=4386

http://www.club-nihil.net/mub/viewtopic.php?t=4172

http://www.club-nihil.net/mub/viewtopic.php?t=3323

 

[sethanon31a]

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