After I installed Red Hat Enterprise Edition with the 2.6.9 kernel, my screen resolution was only 1280x1024, while it should have been 1920x1200 (got the WUXGA 17" widescreen on my Inspiron laptop).

However, this is impossible. If I go to Preferences-->Screen resolution I can only choose from 1280x1024 and downwards.

If I go to system settings --> Display (in which requires root pwd) I can choose from 1920x1440 and downwards.

I have edited the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to display only 1920x1200 under the "Screen" section, but it won't take it. I restart X and the variables are the same as before, and the xorg.conf file hasn't changed.

However, if I change to 1600x1200 in the System Settings --> display, xorg.conf is written with a lot of new resolutions to choose from. However, after issuing the xdpyinfo command, it says 1280x1024 resolution, it seems like this is the maximum that I can get.

However, my GPU is a Geforce 6800 Ultra (w/256 mb DDR), and only the "Generic VESA driver" was installed by the installation programme.
What can I do about this? Even though I'm a Master student in computer science, Linux is not something I know incredibly more well than using it for programming.

I also tried to figure out how to make my wireless card to work.
It's an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG. I went to ipw2200.sf.net but one can't expect "ordinary" people to understand the whole INSTALL file describing how to install the driver (you would need Wireless Tools and Wireless Extensions in addition). It's just amazing that you have to do all that work to make the wireless card work.

I found som RPMs for the Wireless driver, but I soon discovered that I had to have the 2.6.11 kernel in order to use this RPMs. Changing kernel is not an option until I can get Linux wired to the Ethernet and update it using the update tool from Redhat..


Any suggestions?
And any advice on how / where to learn Linux better?

Maybe you can find something useful here: Linux on Dell

I personally dislike those rpm distros and can't help you any further, sorry.

Okay, I just installed the Nvidia driver with success.
What happens now is that when I arrive at the Red Hat GNOME login screen, my screen resolution seems to be the right one (1920x1200).
But once I hit Enter after I have typed my password, the mouse immediately become thicker and that's when I realize that the screen resolution has been set to 1280x980 (confirmed by xdpyinfo).

This is strange, because I have specified the 1.6:1 modes in xorg.conf in the /etc/X11 directory (copy of that file can be found below).
Even more strange is the fact that under Preferences-->Screen Resolution, I can only select some 13:10 resolutions (1024x768 and so forth which is not widescreen).
Under Systems Settings --> Display, I can only choose resolutions like 1920x1440 and down to 640x480.
No resolutions as specified in the xorg.conf file appears in the lists above.

What can be wrong here? Perhaps there is some other file than xorg.conf I have to edit?
When I installed RH, I could choose which Screen I had. I chose some Dell screen I haven't heard about (but with the correct resolution) but perhaps I should have just chosen the Generic LCD 1920x1200?

xorg.conf:
# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
# Option "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
#
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "no"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "LCD Panel 1920x1200"
HorizSync 31.5 - 90.0
VertRefresh 60.0 - 60.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "VESA driver (generic)"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1200" "1600x1000" "1440x900" "1280x800" "1024x640" "800x500" "640x400"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection




p. s. Oh and yes. I did try with only the "1920x1200" mode after the "Modes" statement also.