Ugh, I hate top-posting! lol I'm thinking that if the machine is only 800 Mhz then memory is a serious issue. Tony, can you upgrade your RAM to at least 512, assuming you don't have that already? Personal opinion, that's step one. Mark
--- In [email protected], Roy <linuxcanuck@...> wrote: > > The issue that you are having in Lenny not changing screen size is because > you likely are running a plain vanilla vga display driver. To get higher res > you will probably need the proper driver. Open a terminal and type lshw and > scroll back to the section *-display and tell us what it says. You can > highlight and copy and paste (not the whole thing, just that section). Maybe > somebody with that specific graphics card can help you. > > Debian is a great distribution, but it is not the best for working with > proprietary hardware issues. It is well known for supporting free drivers, > and proud of the fact that it does not use any proprietary codecs or > drivers. Things are going to get worse as they will be removing proprietary > binary blobs from the kernel. You need to either learn to go with it or > choose another distribution. > > A good alternative distribution to try would be PCLinuxOS with a lightweight > desktop such as LXDE or Openbox. Crunchbang is also worth a look. Lubuntu is > a great lightweight Ubuntu derivative. Distrowatch is the place to go to > download. You will find that RAM is your biggest limiting factor in choosing > a lightweight distribution. How much do you have? > > Roy > > Using Kubuntu 10.10, 64-bit > Location: Canada > > > On 19 January 2011 16:41, tony mitchell <greenstar@...> wrote: > > > > > > > I've been given a nice laptop, a Sony Vaio about 800Mhz. I wanted to > > install linux, and went through a lot of hassle getting a version to work. > > Many wouldn't boot from CD, Antix wouldn't mount CD or flash drive, Puppy > > was lightning fast and fantastic but wouldn't complete install. Ubuntu is > > too slow. After burning a spool of CD's I tried Debian 5.0 Lenny, which > > passed with flying colours, easy install, fast and all working ...... except > > it gives me 800*600 screen res, and preferences gives no option to increase > > to 1024 by 768, so have a ten inch desktop on a 14 inch screen. Silly > > really. > > > > I have googled for a fix. Not joking, this has been an issue for about four > > years. There's pages of discussion forums listed, all agree no choice in > > install and for some machines detection doesn't work, then the highest res > > given in the drop down in preferences is 800*600, and there's no way to > > change it. > > Went to terminal and tried about a dozen of these fixes from various user > > groups. None worked. Either the commands given were not recognised or was > > told 'permission denied' - but I was in root! > > > > Debian seems the most sussed linux version with a huge community > > maintaining and sorting. Tearing hair etc. > > > > Any ideas? > > > > Tony > > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from this list, please email [email protected] & you will be removed.Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
