New Install Gnome Resolution Difficulties

[Roseland, Winton]

I have had KDE running on Debian and then Knoppix for a little over a year.  I used 1024x768 and 1280x1024 screen resolutions but I am not sure how many bits of color I used.  I have an ATI 3D Rage IIC AGP with 8MB of RAM.  I used the Debian netinst CD to replace my Knoppix version. I was a little surprised to get a 2.4.27 kernel, but whatever.  When gnome runs I can only select 400x320 or 800x600 resolution.  I did a dpkg-reconfigure xserser-??? (I can’t remember the last part) and selected the ATI driver and configured the monitor to match my Samsung 19 inch LCD.   After the initial install I had an XF86Config-4 file and this added an XF86Config file.  I still only get a choice of 800x600 or 400x320.  “scanpci” shows my ATI card.  What am I doing wrong?    I have run the Ubuntu live DVD and it will run at 1280x1024.   Winton Roseland