I have used Linux for many years.
It used to be possible to perform the following simple task: set the resolution and refresh rate you want on your monitor,
within specs of monitor/adapter of course.
Not so anymore. The morons who develop X now insist on an automatic setup that in my case tells me my CRT
monitor is limited to 60 hz refresh rate.
This with an ATI card, HD4650 and Catalyst.
With radeon and grandr results are the same or worse.

I know this monitor can do f.ex 1224x1024 85hz because I just applied those settings in windows XP which I dual boot with linux and
use mostly for gaming. Even there Catalyst told me the monitor was limited to 60 hz but luckily Windoes has a tool for
adjusting adapter properties. Thank you Microsoft.

But in Linux there seems to be no way of performing even this simple task.
Time to get a Mac?

??????? Why not just make a Xorg config by pressing ctrl + alt + del / backspace, logging in as root, run X -configure, copy to /etc/X11/xorg.conf, change to your moniter setup and restart. What is so difficult, the whole process takes about 1 minute. Seems to be a pretty simple task to me. Here is a referance file to all the options

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.x.org/archive/X11R6.8.0/doc/xorg.conf.5.html"
linktext was:"http://www.x.org/archive/X11R6.8.0/doc/xorg.conf.5.html"
====================================


P.S. Just because it is not there by default does not mean it will not work.

Besides what Dave said, have you tried the free driver? It's radeon, right?
I have an NVIDIA card and the current nouveau driver works very well (granted, this is an old 6200 card).

did try X -configure
that command segfaults.
will it work with fglrx anyway?
I'm on Antix M11 full version.
the console also keeps printing some weird error message, commads work but the error ms keeps overwrititng them.
Synaptic segfaults om startup.

radeon does not give usable results either.
solution = Mandriva. I dont like that distro and dict/dictd is a little work to set up on it but it did set up the card

Seems like there is something wrong with your install.

there must be. Don't see why though.
Is the cli-install best perhaps?
But the lack of a proper X setup is a real problem, have tried to set up t
his card in various distros but have no time for this.
I have little faith in X -configure to fix that.

I did put in target refresh and refresh rate settings but X ignores them.

Am tempted to install Libranet 2.8.1 on an old pc I have and keep the X conf file
that distro had a good X setup program, never any problems.
It seems the old version of the ati control also gives the option of setting
"unmsupported" refresh rates but no more..

It is all still there, it is just not default, I think this is due to the vast majority of graphics chipsets. Have you tried reinstalling M11 / verifying a good download or burn. X -configure sets the majority of the settings to your system in an xorg.conf file. Without a proper config, all the settings will be ignored. Generally this will show up as a black screen. If you do not have faith that X -configure will fix it, then my best suggestion is to type it out manually.

P.S. Windows does not have everything on a fresh install either. You say it is better, than have fun with it and stop trying to find a solution to an unknown problem
.

My 2 cents:

1. Have you tried adding a custom modeline in the xorg.conf for your monitor (
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl"
linktext was:"http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl"
====================================
) ?

2. I wouldn't blame linux. I'd blame the pesky hardware manufacturers not opening up their drivers.

X -configure merely prints out the result of autoconfig which in this instance fails.
Testing the resulting xorg.conf gives a black screen and unresponsive machine both with radeon
and fglrx.

My config needs are simple, I dont understand why there is not a simple way of doing this.

the machine in question does have a not very good dvd burner (though only 3-4 months old) which sometimes fails to read a cd. the monitor is also ready for replacement, worn but not faulty.

the error I had on the console has happened on 2 diffewrent distros after installing latest proprietary ati driver.
I don't think the state of the installation made any difference.

the ati control I suppose has had all potentially harmful refresh rate settings removed to the point of making it useless in some cases.
manufacturers should open up and not release buggy closed code, sure but it seems that there used to be tools for handling simple setups that
are just gone.

I dont suggest that windows is 'better' except for gaming.

I run A11 base on my old toshiba satellite, as fast as Puppy running openbox with no icons.
easiest way to a minimal deb install..

modeline, yes way to go. will look into