[F9] Two display problems with Acer TravelMate 4200 (size, KDE/Compiz)

[Don Levey]

I took my Acer TravelMate 4202 and upgraded from F8 to F9 last night.  I 
left it overnight to do it's thing, and everything seemed OK when I came 
back this morning.  However, I'm noticing two display problems which are 
causing me no end of grief:

1) The native LCD display is 1280x800.  I had been running 915resolution 
previously (the machine's got an Intel 950GMA, but 915resolution 
worked), and this still shows as installed.  If I run 
system-config-display I can select a "generic" LCD monitor with 1280x800 
resolution, but I can't get the thing to actually *use* it.  I seem to 
be stuck at 1024x768.  Do I need to wait for an updated 915resolution 
for F9, or are there other strategies?

2) I've been using KDE - and I guess it was KDE that started up when I 
first logged in this morning.  It's tough to tell, of course, because 
the window manager option on the login screen is no longer there (can I 
get that back somehow?).  I tried a number of things within KDE to see 
if I could resize the display properly - Desktop Resize and Rotate 
looked like it might help, in that it actually *had* an option for the 
proper resolution (though it didn't do anything).  But then I selected 
something like "Compiz Viewer" (I'm sorry, I can't remember the exact 
name).  I was told to restart the X server, which I did - and now after 
logging in all I get is a white screen..  I can get to a console 
session, but if I try to restart the X session I get the white screen 
again (or worse, a black screen, in which I can type but nothing happens).

I can get to a gnome session only by restarting X to get to the login 
screen and selecting "other" for username - then I enter my 
username/password as usual.  From here, trying to change the default 
desktop (using switchdesk) doesn't help - I still get the white screen 
if I select my username at the login screen.

Clearly, there should be some basic switch I can flip in a config file 
somewhere, but I don't know what it is.  How can I get my KDE back?  And 
will that help me to get my proper display resolution back?

Thanks in advance,
  -Don Levey