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A Slackware Desktop Enhancement GuideAdding Additional Video Screen Resolutions to xorg.conf© Copyright Darrell Anderson. Configuring the X graphical environment is one of the Achilles’ heels of Slackware. Slackware comes packaged with two command line utilities and both fail to hit the mark. The xorgconfig utility requires users to possess detailed knowledge about their video card and monitor. Unless users possess this information—from online sources or perhaps a spec sheet from the vendor—this utility is basically unusable. The xorgsetup utility fares slightly better in trying to auto-configure X, but fails to provide several necessary features. Neither utility will properly configure a mouse with a scroll wheel. The xorgconfig utility will create several screen sizes to operate X, but because most people never will or cannot realistically use this utility, they resort to xorgsetup. Unfortunately, xorgsetup does not create the necessary additional screen sizes that many people want. Users find themselves stuck with a 640x400 or 800x600 screen size. The standard solution suggested, of course, is manually editing the xorg.conf file. As unpopular as this recommendation might be with Slackware die-hards, grab a copy of the Knoppix CD to configure X. Knoppix is one of the best distros at providing auto-recognition and configuration of hardware. After booting with the Knoppix CD, copy and paste the resulting xorg.conf configuration file. However, for those people who want to tinker with the xorg.conf file, users need to modify the Screen section and add additional screen sizes. Within the Screen section, users need to modify the Display subsections. Likely there will be several Display subsections listed, one for each screen resolution supported by the video card. After using xorgsetup, a typical Screen section will look something like this: Section "Screen" Obtaining those larger screen sizes is a matter of adding some additional text so that the section looks something like this: Section "Screen" X will use the first available screen size that the monitor and video card accept. For some older hardware, users might need to delete the first three screen sizes so that the 1024x768 screen size is the first in each list. Finis. |
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