Debian User Forums • View topic - HOWTO: Choose the resolution YOU want in xorg.conf

Debian User Forums • View topic - HOWTO: Choose the resolution YOU want in xorg.conf: "HOWTO: Choose the resolution YOU want in xorg.conf

Postby tukuyomi » 2008-05-06 12:31
Xorg has been recently updated to 7.3 and apparently uses xrandr to set the best resolution for you.
It works well in most cases, but sometimes, you'll want to set X to start in a resolution YOU choose.
Of course, the first thing you do is to tweak your xorg.conf as you did it for about x years now and happily press [CTRL][ALT][<--] and ..? wtf o_O the resolution has not changed.
After having checked twice your xorg.conf, you're still stucked in that resolution and your desktop is unusable due to all icons in your gnome-panel that are not visible anymore...
So, how to modify xorg.conf to your needs? Here is it!
Say you want a resolution set to 1600x1200 at 75Hz, you use gtf tool to output a Modeline that'll be used in xorg later:

Code: Select all
$ gtf 1600 1200 75

# 1600x1200 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 93.97 kHz; pclk: 205.99 MHz
Modeline '1600x1200_75.00' 205.99 1600 1720 1896 2192 1200 1201 1204 1253 -HSync +Vsync


Now, open your xorg.conf, then find Section 'Monitor' then add those two lines as in the following -example- code:

Code: Select all
Section 'Monitor'
Identifier 'Configured Monitor'
Modeline '1600x1200_75.00' 205.99 1600 1720 1896 2192 1200 1201 1204 1253 -HSync +Vsync
Option 'PreferredMode' '1600x1200_75.00'
EndSection


Then, find Section 'Screen' and add this example code:

Code: Select all
Section 'Screen'
Identifier 'Default Screen'
Monitor 'Configured Monitor'
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection 'Display'
Depth 24
Modes '1600x1200_75.00'
EndSubSection
EndSection


Be sure that Modes string is the same as above!

... And that's all? I hope so, let's save this file and restart your X server."