[tlug] Adjusting screen resolution in Debian

[Joseph Essertier <essertier@example.com>]

TLUG,

I installed Debian Sarge the other day and everything seems to work
fine, but the screen resolution is like 600x480, when I'd rather have it
at 1280x1024.  The Screen Resolution setting only gives me this one
option, 600x480.  Is there a Debian manual out there that can tell me
how to add the 1280x1024 option?  

I read through a few Debian manuals on the internet and have a book
(Debian GNU/Linux Bible), but they did not offer enough detail.  I found
some answers to similar problems that other people had in forums on the
net, and followed one suggestion to add "1280x1024" in the XFree86 file
(located in /etc/X11), but I must not have added it properly because
even after rebooting, it does not appear as an option when I go to
Screen Resolution (in Preferences).

I installed the pciutils package to find out which chipset my video card
uses, and when I typed "lspci," it came back with the "VGA Compatible
Controller" as "VIA Techonologies, Inc.," which is correct, but it says
"device unknown."  This Debian Bible book says, "Most drivers in XFree86
are named after a manufacturer and are compatible with all the cards
using any chipset from that manufacturer," but since it says "device
unknown" and I'm having this problem, does this mean that this is an
exception and the video card was not automatically detected?

Motherboard: VIA Chipset Micro ATX
Graphics: OnBoard VGA Graphics

Joe