Ways to adjust screen resolution?

L

Lazarus18

In debt medical student
I am having some difficulty with my screen. I have a 17" Cinema Display. It works fine with my Mac. I also have an x86 box using it with a KVM switch.

When the x86 box (Windows or Linux) sees it they don't use the full screen when set to the same resolution.

Under XP I can use the drivers for the video card in there to manipulate the screen real estate and use most of what's there.

But under Linux I know of no way to do likewise. I can adjust the settings on the monitor easily enough, and then everything looks fine. But when I switch back to OSX the screen image is too big for the physical screen, and I have to readjust the settings.

Is there any way to adjust the image under OSX? I want to be able to use the same resolution on all my desktops.
 
Have you ever tryed to 'expand' your monitor size using the monitor buttons?? (i'm not sure if the apple vision displays have them ... but generally all monitors are provided ....)

if so try it it's possible that your x86 box is using a refresh rate you have never used with mac os ... and so it should be set ... i suppose
 
Originally posted by Lazarus18
Is there any way to adjust the image under OSX? I want to be able to use the same resolution on all my desktops.
Click to expand...

If you have Tinker Tool installed it gives you a load of extra options for desktop picture resizing. That might help?
 
Perhaps I didn't explain well enough.

I run in 1152*870 in OSX. Everything is fine.

If I set the monitor to 1152*870 in XP the left part of the screen is not used. Nothing is attempting to draw to it, and the image is smaller and to the left. Nothing is cut off or anything, but it's smaller. It's using the same refresh rate as under OSX. But, using the software that ATI makes I can expand the screen size that way so it's the same, or really close to, the Mac.

But when I go into Linux there is that unused left part again. No handy driver to mess with.

It's easy to expand the image by changing the horizontal size and position with the buttons on the monitor, and then Linux looks great. But when I go back to OSX everything is too big. The Apple on the left is off the screen, and about half of the word Finder would be gone. I can again readjust the monitor settings with the buttons, but that's a pain, and defeats the purpose of having a KVM. So I'm looking for a way to leave the buttons alone and change how much screen the Mac wants to draw on, so I can reduce it and match what Linux is drawing on.

Or if anyone knows a way to do the opposite and expand the active section of my monitor under Linux that would work just as well.
 
Lazarus, I have the same problem with my KVM/monitors that I use on the company servers. The thing with me is that they're servers, so they don't have to look pretty, only be functional. In your case, you seem to be using them for daily home stuffs, which would be very annoying. I don't think there is a solution. The image manipulation that want to do for each machine is a hardware tweak of the electron gun in the tube (ex. spreading the verticle and horizontal or moving both planes left or right, up or down). The catch 22 scenario you describe, adjusting the monitor for one machine and it turns out to be off for another, is the difference in video hardware interacting with the one monitor. I think you might have to just compromise for the best all around tweak and live with it.
 
I'm not familiar with that monitor, but does it have it's own A/B switch? If it does monitors will usually retain the separate settings. Maybe all you need is a vga to bnc adapter.
 
Sorry dlookus, I'll be more explicative.
KVM = KVM switch
Acronym for Keyboard-Video-Mouse

It's just a switching system that enables you to connect multiple machines to share one keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

You know, I think there's a cheezoid monitor made or packaged by a company called KVS. Maybe that's where the confusion came from.
 
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