My X environment has become "magnified"

[Spiros Bousbouras]

Hi folks.

I downloaded some new levels for the arcade game supertux. I tried
supertux -d .
on the directory where I had downloaded the levels but presumably I
used the option incorrectly because the programme exited immediately.
The problem is that my X environment is now "magnified". By this I mean
that everything looks much larger and all the windows very much exceed
the boundaries of my monitor. When I say everything I really mean
everything , for example the fonts on every application I have open.
Basically it's as if every pixel goes through a magnifying glass
before appearing on the screen. Most applications don't seem aware that
anything is different , for example if I do tput cols inside the
terminal emulator I get the same value as before. I tried typing
supertux
hoping it would fix it. The programme works correctly but when I exit
it things remain magnified. Some programmes which enter directly into
fullscreen mode , like njam , display correctly but when they terminate
things remain magnified.

I'm sure that killing the X server would fix it but I have several
applications running which I would prefer not to terminate so I'm
looking for a solution which will not terminate my desktop session.
Preferably also something which will work from the command line since
most windows are so large that most of their content goes off the
screen. I'm typing this on console.

Apart from the magnification , everything else works correctly. Files
~/.xsession-errors and /var/log/Xorg.0.log don't seem to have
anything relevant but both are quite large so I only looked at the last
3 screenfulls.

I tried pressing Alt+Ctrl+<keypad -> and it changes things a bit but
does not return them to normal. Pressing the keys several times
eventually results into a black screen and the monitor says "signal
out of range" so I have to press Alt+Ctrl+<keypad +> to get picture
again.

I'm running Debian lenny with the ratpoison window manager.

Any ideas ?

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[Andrew Sackville-West]

On Mon, Oct 04, 2010 at 04:58:14PM +0100, Spiros Bousbouras wrote:
> Hi folks.
>
> I downloaded some new levels for the arcade game supertux. I tried
> supertux -d .
> on the directory where I had downloaded the levels but presumably I
> used the option incorrectly because the programme exited immediately.
> The problem is that my X environment is now "magnified".

[...]

> I'm sure that killing the X server would fix it but I have several
> applications running which I would prefer not to terminate so I'm
> looking for a solution which will not terminate my desktop session.
> Preferably also something which will work from the command line since
> most windows are so large that most of their content goes off the
> screen. I'm typing this on console.
>

[...]

> I tried pressing Alt+Ctrl+<keypad -> and it changes things a bit but
> does not return them to normal. Pressing the keys several times
> eventually results into a black screen and the monitor says "signal
> out of range" so I have to press Alt+Ctrl+<keypad +> to get picture
> again.
>
> I'm running Debian lenny with the ratpoison window manager.
>

sounds to my like it's just a resolution problem. I know supertux will
change the resolution, and if it dies, it won't be able to change it
back.

try xrandr. You can connect to the display from a console by using the
-d option. Then you can list and set the resolution to something more
sane.

Note, that I'm not sure why Alt-Ctrl-<keypad +/-> wouldn't do that...

A