The problem I think I was hitting was that the Nvidia x-server would load my preferred resolution (1280x1024), but then the settings manager would load its preferred option, which by default was 1024x768.
How I ended up solving this - in terminal:
sudo leafpad /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Scroll down, likely near or at the bottom, to where it says something like:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Stereo" "0"
Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-1"
Option "metamodes" "1280x1024_75 +0+0; nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
The third option ("metamodes") is the resolution option. In that line, I removed the ; nvidia-auto-select +0+0
. The line now looked like this:
Option "metamodes" "1280x1024_75 +0+0"
This disallowed the settings manager to select the resolution it wanted and override xorg.conf, thus forcing the computer to use 1280x1024 by default.
Thanks for responding!
– ananaso Nov 26 '12 at 21:10