Linux n00b question

[Darkseasons]

ok so I load Debian and Gnome.. on my laptop. However, the screen is a little square in the middle of the screen. Now I'm trying to change the resolution. I can't though because I can't log into X(Gnome) with root! I can't load the GDM configurator, because I can't log in as root... can someone plz help??

 

[cubby1223]

Isn't that a BIOS option, how to handle non-native resolutions? I could be wrong, though.

EDIT - actually that's not answering the question... but it should give you a full screen image in the mean time

 

[Darkseasons]

yeah it's not in the bios I already searched there

 

[Darkseasons]

 

[Red and black]

What do you mean by "can't log in as root"? Do you know the root password?

To get out of X, try pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1 to switch to a different TTY, and logging in there.
The X configuration file is /etc/XF86Config

 

[Nothinman]

You should be able to change the resolution as your regular user using xrandr, IIRC Ubuntu/Gnome comes with a tool for this.

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You should be able to change the resolution as your regular user using xrandr, IIRC Ubuntu/Gnome comes with a tool for this.

You may want to start off with one of the easier distro's to learn:
Ubuntu
Fedora
Mandrake

 

[Nothinman]

Hell I didn't even noticed that he said Debian and not Ubuntu...

But the xrandr thing still applies, as long as gnome-randr-applet is installed.

 

[randalee]

Original Poster, did you ever get your laptop going?

 

[Nonsequitur]

http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2002/01/msg00769.html

no root login is a security feature of gnome. to disable it, see the linked thread.

 

[jiggahertz]

better yet, don't disable it

 

[LBmtb]

Can you do "su" at a terminal to get root privelages? I've never used Debian, but on my system (fedora core 3) I can type su in the terminal and then the password which will give me root power in the terminal.

Not sure how to change the resolution from the terminal though. Probably a configuration file.

 

[Nothinman]

Can you do "su" at a terminal to get root privelages? I've never used Debian, but on my system (fedora core 3) I can type su in the terminal and then the password which will give me root power in the terminal.

Yes and IMO it's better to do 'su -' so you get root's environment, this way PATH and such will be setup with root's settings instead of your own.