Comment # 16 on bug 971885 from Egbert Eich

(In reply to Felix Miata from comment #15)

> Kscreen doesn't exist in KDE3. Xrandr from /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/setup
> *does* work as expected, as long as the dummy xrandr command preceeds the
> real one. 

Ok, I seem to understand now. When adding the command sequence from comment #3,
the first 'xrand -q >> ...' actually replaced the dummy command.
This gave you the correct results then.
- If you replace the 'xrandr > /dev/null' with 'sleep 2' on machines where you 
  have tried this, does it work as well?

- Could you do a:
  xrandr --dpi 108 --output VGA1 --mode 1680x1050 &>> /tmp/startx.log
  xrandr -q >> /tmp/startx.log

  in your setup script? (leave out the first 'xrandr -q' which may 'fix' things
  magically). 
  I'd be curious if the output of the first command produces any error messages
  if it fails to set the mode.

- Please get me the output of an 'lspci -nn' of the troubled system. I will see
  what I can do to get as close to the hardware you are using as possible.