[lug] Newbie GUI question

[J. Wayde Allen]

On Tue, 2 Oct 2001, Chris Wade wrote:

> Okay, so I've tried RH 6 and 7 and now SuSE... finally figured out how to
> reset the screen resolution on RH (Xconfigurator) but haven't figured it out
> yet on suse.  Can anyone tell me how to change the monitor resolution after
> install?  (And why do manuals seem to avoid this particular topic?)
> 
> Using Suse 7.1.

As long as you are using XF86 you can have any number of screen resolution
modes configured in your XF86Config file.  The XF86Config file is what the
various configuration programs (Xconfigurator, xf86config, etc.) help you
build.  Once you've created the resolution modes you can cycle between
them on the fly by hitting "ctrl alt +" or "ctrl alt -" depending on which
way you want to cycle through the list.

(While we are at this, it might also be worth mentioning that you can get
to your virtual terminals by hitting "ctrl-alt-F1", "ctrl-alt-F2",
etc..  X is running on the first unused virtual terminal slot usually F7
(alt-F7).)

This stuff IS covered in the on-line sytem documentation, but may not be
covered in the books supplied by the vendors.  The following is copied
directly from the info you'd get if you typed "man XFree86".

KEYBOARD
       Multiple key presses recognized directly by XFree86 are:

       Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
               Immediately  kills  the  server  --  no  questions
               asked.  (Can be disabled by  specifying  "DontZap"
               in  the  ServerFlags  section  of  the  XF86Config
               file.)

       Ctrl+Alt+Keypad-Plus
               Change video mode to next  one  specified  in  the
               configuration  file,  (increasing video resolution
               order).

You can also look at <http://www.xfree86.org/>.

- Wayde
  (wallen at lug.boulder.co.us)