Very Basic Gnome Question....

Hi Everyone,

I have just started working with RH9 in any kind of a serious way. In order to get myself to work with it more, I installed RH9 on a older spare notebook I had, and I plan to replace my current Windows notebook with the RH unit.

I do have everything up and running quite nicely, but I hit a wall when it comes to Gnomes desktop resolution. During the orginal install, I set it for the default of 800x600, and while it works nicely, I really would like to change that to 1024x768. I have looked in the two RH9 books I own, and both only showing that possible during the installation. While I could reinstall the OS, I was hoping someone could tell me what I am missing about changing the desktop.

(Yeah I know, pretty basic, but I am stumped...)

The system is a Omnibook XE2, PII-266, 256Megs, 10 Gig HD, CD-Rom, etc. Pretty standard unit.
I have been thru almost every menu, and can not change the screen res.

That's it, the rest I will figure out as I go... :)

Thanks again,
MrCoffee

Hrmm.. this is going to be by memory. I generally use KDE these days but you should find a similar tool there. Hit the big foot and look for Settings and/or System. One of those should have a Display option so that you can rejig your settings. You will need to exit out of Gnome to reset this (wasn't automatic with them the last time I checked).

Hi Ms. Mittens,

Thanks for the fast reply. Yes, I found the display settings tab under system tools, yet it (as far as I can tell) doesnt alter my desktop at all. I set it for 1024x768 and restarted the system, and was in 800x600, then I tried 640x480 and rebooted and was in 800x600 yet again. This is why I am a bit confused... :)

From my reading, I have been lead to believe that KDE is more powerful then Gnome, but also more difficult to master, which is why I thought I would start with Gnome.. :) Would you say that is a fair statement?

Thanks again,
MrCoffee

Quote:

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From my reading, I have been lead to believe that KDE is more powerful then Gnome, but also more difficult to master, which is why I thought I would start with Gnome.. Would you say that is a fair statement?

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Uh. No. It's X-Windows. Point and click. Things are organized differently but that's about it. I recently did an upgrade on this box from KDE 3.2.2 to 3.3.2 and it's quite a stable upgrade I must say. Even got to reset my Windows layout without problem.

As for your issue, double check a couple of things: ensure that it finds the monitor ok (otherwise, it won't have the proper refresh rate -- if you can't find your model, find the closest one or the previous version); also check that there is the right amount of video ram and the right video card. It's guessing at these things (not quite plug'n'play yet) so sometimes it can sorta miss (IMO).

I never thought KDE was any more complicated than Gnome, I think they're around the same, if not KDE being easier (for me, anyways).

As for the resolution thing, you'll probably need to edit xorg.conf (found in /etc/X11), find a part that looks like this:

Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection

and change it to whatever you need (as long as your graphics card/monitor support it)

Depth = color debth (8/16/24 bit)
Modes = I'm sure you can figure that out


I'm just guessing here, and could be wrong. So I'd backup this file before listening to me. :p


EDIT: If you're using XFree86 instead of Xorg, the file will be /etc/X11/XFree86config

Ok,

well honestly, I have tried most of what has been suggested. My thought is maybe my Omnibook just will not support 1024x768. (It does quite happily under Win2k) I will keep poking the configuration with the dummy stick, and see if I can find a resolution, and will post it.

The source for the info I have on KDE is "Sams Teacher yourself Red Hat Linux 9", and I realize it isn't the best source of technical info, but it was what I had to get started. I will take a look at KDE, if I ever make it past newbie user stage.. :)

Thanks again everyone!

Try this from the shell:

[happy@localhost]#redhat-config-xfree86 --reconfig

This should take you through the display setup for X windows. If you don't have this set of scripts installed, no worries, you can add them with a RPM available at the redhat site.