• Registered: 2010-09-16
  • Posts: 9

Topic: Screen Resolution and Settings in 9.04

I just installed 9.04 and the default resolution is normal but the text is ridiculously small. I also have a very limited amount of resolution options. I also can't set my other monitor to be an extension. My only option is to duplicate screens.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix any of this? I never was good with display drivers or X configs and stuff.

  • iann
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-09-10
  • Posts: 223

Re: Screen Resolution and Settings in 9.04

Do you have the expected screen resolutions for your graphics card?  If not then you might not to install restricted drivers or install the manufacturers drivers direct.

If you have the expected screen resolution, but the Linux text is just tiny then you probably need to change the DPI setting.  You should probably do this in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.  There are a number of ways of doing it.  Ideally you should ensure that your Xserver understands the size of your screen and then it will likely pick a good DPI setting.  A brutal way of just changing it is to put the following line in your screen section near the end:
Option         "DPI" "72 x 72" or whatever DPI you like.

  • Registered: 2010-09-16
  • Posts: 9

Re: Screen Resolution and Settings in 9.04

alright. I installed the restricted drivers and that fixed the resolution problem but not the fact that I can't change it from mirroring monitors to extended. The option to make my second monitor an extension is grayed out. Any ideas?

I also noticed that after I installed the restricted drivers, firefox behaves really slowly when scrolling. I can actually see the refresh line as it goes through the page when I scroll. Any thoughts on that?

  • pvsage
  • Internal Affairs
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  • From: Section Six
  • Registered: 2009-10-18
  • Posts: 6,013

Re: Screen Resolution and Settings in 9.04

It might help if we knew what hardware you're using.  For example, the only way I can work with multiple screens on my netbook w/Diamondville chipset is to use xrandr; neither grandr nor any other graphical display manager seems to do more than mirror the netbook screen to an external monitor.

while ( ! ( succeed = try() ) );
  • Registered: 2010-09-16
  • Posts: 9

Re: Screen Resolution and Settings in 9.04

Sorry.
AMD Phenom X3 8450 @ 2.81Ghz
5Gb of RAM @ 600Mhz or 700Mhz
ATI 4870
#! 9.04 fresh install

  • Registered: 2010-09-16
  • Posts: 9

Re: Screen Resolution and Settings in 9.04

well I just tried to install a restricted driver via the restricted driver manager and rebooted. Now nothing displays correctly. My mouse is a square of pixelation. The screen just looks like my graphics card had a seizure.

I reinstalled the OS real quick and then did the same thing (because last time I downloaded the restricted driver and installed it and then tried to install it again via the restricted driver manager), and this time it did the same thing. So I just need to figure out how to configure the one I downloaded from the website.