A minimal xorg.conf with modeline

Back in the Bad Old Days, the X configuration file was miles long and you had to get it all right. Nowadays, X guesses at most things pretty accurately. This means you might not have anything in your xorg.conf file. This makes changing the Monitor section trickier.

Here’s a default xorg.conf file with a modeline. (This is for a Sharp LL-172C-B monitor; your modeline will probably differ.)

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Configured Monitor"
        # Modeline "1280x1024"  MHz  HSize HTotal HSyncEnd HSyncDelay  VSize VSyncStart VSyncEnd VTotal -hsync +vsync
        Modeline "1280x1024"  109.00  1280 1322 1450 1700  1024 1027 1034 1066 -hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Monitor         "Configured Monitor"
        Device          "Configured Video Device"
EndSection