October, 2005

Under Linux, have you ever felt that stuff on your brand new LCD display looked blurry, especially with small font sizes, the words start to look fuzzy after a while? Chances are that you did not set the LCD with its optimal resolution. There is an easy fix:
1. Measure the actually size of your LCD display area in millimeters (mm). Use a ruler. For example, my small X31 screen measures 240mm (width) by 180mm (height ).
2. Now check the values you have in your X configuration
xdpyinfo | grep dimensions

My Thinkpad X31 got a small 12.1 inch screen, so I decide to increase the screen real estate by adding an extra monitor. The idea is that the LCD and the CRT monitor will display different part of the same desktop. This dual head solution is sometimes called 'Xinerama' in X terminology.