Getting the Correct Video & Monitor Settings
18 April 2006As I briefly mentioned another post (The Basic Install), I had to make several attempts at installing the KDE and the windows-system-core packages. Each time that they installed, I was queried on video and monitor settings. For the first couple of times, I selected VESA as the monitor option, because my monitor/video setup said it could handle VESA. But, when I tried to run KDM or XDM, neither would work. I finally found some useful info online in a couple of forum posts about how to reconfigure packages without re-installing them. Basically, run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86. That alowed me to select, VGA for my video settings and at least got me into a graphic screen. But, I couldn’t select a resolution any higher than 600 X 800. So, I had to get back out to a command prompt, reconfigure xserver again. This time, I selected the option that let me pick which screen resolutions would be available once the graphics started.  Then, when I went into a graphics desktop, using KDM, I was able to select a more suitable resolution setting and set up my desktop to look presentable.
I also found a good forum post (here) that talks about which packages to install and how to do that. It helped me a lot in getting started.Â
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2 Responses to “Getting the Correct Video & Monitor Settings”
April 19th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
[...] But even though the graphics package managers are available, you will probably at some point have to try your hand at some command line instructions. Some Linux distros are very good at setting up everything during the initial install and taking you directly to a graphics desktop. But, Debian is not one of those, especially if you want to keep the number of install programs to a minimum, like I do. As I mentioned in another post, after my install, I discovered the I had set up my monitor and video adapter incorrectly and I couldn’t get to a graphical desktop. The only way to fix that short of re-installng, was to use the apt and dpkg commands. [...]
April 20th, 2006 at 1:13 am
[...] Getting to the Desktop - What to do when you end up at a commnand line and can’t get a desktop to start. [...]