30 Inch Lcd Tweaks

I will share my experiences setting up a 30" LCD using open Suse 10.1 and gnome.

The first step is to ensure that you are using the Nvidia supplied driver. You can accomplish this by entering into Yast selecting Installation Source. Click Add and FTP... and then enter the following:

Server Name: download.nvidia.com
Directory on Server: novell
*use anonymous logon

once you are done hit OK then finish. Once back at the Yast Control Center, enter into Software management and do a search for nvidia. select the driver you want to install (nvidia-gfx-kmp-xxxx, where xxxx is your kernel type).

Now that you have the nvidia drivers installed, you will need to add 2560x1600 to your xorg.conf file. Before you make any changes backup the xorg.conf file incase you have to restore it. In the terminal, type cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak. That will make a copy just in case. Now, type in vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf. (You can also use nano in place of vi; personal preference). Make your way down to: Section "Screen" You will need to add "2560x1600" next to 'Modes' under any subsection you want the resolution to be available. For me, my default bit depth was 24, so I added "2560x1600" to that subsection only. But, I imagine you could add it to whichever subsection you like. It will look something like this:

--------------------------xorg.conf sample
Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "2560x1600" "1920x1200" "1900x1200" "1600x1200" "1680x1050" "1600x1024" "1600x1000" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1440x900" "1280x960" "1366x768" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
--------------------------end sample
(be sure to save before you exit)

Once you have completed that, run gconf-editor from the terminal. do an Edit > Find... then use the word "font" for your query. In the results, scroll down to /desktop/gnome/font_rendering. change the dpi to 96, or whatever you prefer. for me, the default was 44 which made everything entirely too small and unreadable.

Hope this helps anyone wanting to use 2560x1600 in Suse. If anybody has any input or a different way of doing things or more tweaks for this resolution, please let me know. Thanks!

EDIT: I'm using an Nvidia 7900GT. If you are using an ATI, this may not be the same procedure.