Fedora 10 under Parallels Desktop 4: can't increase screen size beyond 1024x768

T

Thomas Okken

Bit poster
I installed Fedora 10 under Parallels Desktop 4 for Mac; the installation went fine, except for Parallels Tools -- the install script complained about being unable to download "kernel sources", and it wasn't until I looked in /var/log that I was able to figure out that I needed to upgrade my kernel first; it looks for a kernel-headers package whose version number must be an *exact* match with that of the currently running kernel. The error message could have been better, but anyway, after letting System -> Administration -> Update System do its thing and then rebooting, the Parallels Tools installer ran successfully, and on my desktop there is now a Parallels Shared Folders directory that lets me access my Mac home directory. Nice!

I can't get my screen size to increase beyond 1024x768 pixels, though. My monitor has 1680x1050 pixels, and when I run Windows XP in Parallels, it can use all that space with no problem. Isn't that what Parallels Tools is for? Running Fedora, I'm stuck with the small screen; even in Full Screen mode, I get no more than 1024x768 (with a massive black border taking up the rest of the screen).

I'd rather not poke around in xorg.conf if there is a clean way to get this to work...

- Thomas
 
increase screen size

This is the step to increase resolution:
(1) Start Terminal
(2) Login as super user by typing "su"
(3) Enter your su password
(4) Goto X11 folder by type "cd /etc/X11"
(5) Edit the file xorg.conf by typing "nano xorg.conf"
(6) Scroll down to "# Parallels Screen section"
(7) Under Modes, insert the resolution you want, example for my case my display is 1920x1200 so I add "1920x1200", it looks like this:
Modes "1920x1200" "1280x1024" "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
(8) When you are done, hit [CTRL-X] then [Y] to save

Now restart Fedora and you can either use "Screen Resolution" app to select the new resolution or just go full screen.
 
I found that I didn't have enough memory set aside for video memory in Parallels. I increased it to 8MB or 16MB, and Fedora would now happily change screen resolution to what ever I chose (full screen 1440x900, or re-sizing after dragging the virtual window to a larger or smaller size). Not sure this is the same problem, but just FYI.
 
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