Linux For The Mindful!

As grand as Linux is, with all it’s distros, and all of the choice one can have, there are times where Windows has proceeded to manage to get the upper hand. Such is in the case of video games, which is the easiest way to prove Windows has the market share for good reason. Windows also has the major advantage of being easier to configure in terms of resolution and screen refresh rate.

However, this is not to say we can’t do this under Linux. Normally, the Display program, under
]System>Preferences>Display
will handle the tweaking of our graphical display. Most times, this program does a fine job, and there is no need to manually configure X/Xorg. Sadly, there are some cases where this doesn’t work because of Display can not correctly detect your monitor or video card. I remember the first time I used this trick, was because of my NVIDIA onboard reported resolutions of 320 by 280! This tip should work for all Linux distributions.

In Terminal (]Programs>Accessories>Terminal), type:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

This will open up the standard xorg.conf file, which allows us to mess around (and mess up) our Xorg configuration. Most, if not all of us, will see the following, assuming you aren’t under a virtual PC:

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier     “amdcccle Layout”
Screen      0  “amdcccle-Screen[1]-0″ 0 0
EndSection

Section “Files”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load  “glx”
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option        “Xinerama” “off”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier   “0-DFP2″
Option        “VendorName” “ATI Proprietary Driver”
Option        “ModelName” “Generic Autodetecting Monitor”
Option        “DPMS” “true”
Option        “PreferredMode” “1440×900″
Option        “TargetRefresh” “60″
Option        “Position” “0 0″
Option        “Rotate” “normal”
Option        “Disable” “false”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier  “Default Device”
Driver      “fglrx”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier  “amdcccle-Device[1]-0″
Driver      “fglrx”
Option        “Monitor-DFP2″ “0-DFP2″
BusID       “PCI:1:0:0″
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
DefaultDepth     24
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “amdcccle-Screen[1]-0″
Device     “amdcccle-Device[1]-0″
DefaultDepth     24
SubSection “Display”
Viewport   0 0
Depth     24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Not much of this we can change without seriously messing up the system, but if you know your system can handle different refresh rates, or different resolutions without failing, here’s how to configure it.

Under:

Section “Monitor”
Identifier   “0-DFP2″
Option        “VendorName” “ATI Proprietary Driver”
Option        “ModelName” “Generic Autodetecting Monitor”
Option        “DPMS” “true”
Option        “PreferredMode” “1440×900″
Option        “TargetRefresh” “60″

Only the bold, do I recommend changing.  These will change your resolution and your refresh rate. After you’ve changed them, save the file, and reboot. On boot up, you should notice the change. Thanks to Utkarsh for bringing his problem to my attention, because of that, I can share this tip with you today!