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Changing Resolutions in X-Windows

By Jeffrey Howard
All rights reserved unless noted otherwise

Scripts for automagically setting up X-Windows are very helpful. Determining what resolutions won't fry your monitor is just one of the benefits. Unfortunately, what display resolutions your hardware is capable of says little about what's pleasant to view.

While running X-Windows, you can use CTRL-ALT-+ to change the display resolution. This is good when you first run X and you're caught off guard, but not so good for a long term solution. Ideally, you want to change your configuration so that X-Windows always starts with your chosen resolution. (You can always use CTRL-ALT-+ if there's a particular application for which you want to change your resolution.) To edit the default, change your XF86Config file. Depending on the system, it could be located in any number of places, including /etc/X11/XF86Config.