Thanks to a suggestion from noelvh, i have cured all the problems i was having with the system not allowing me to choose the display resolution, but always booting into a low-res screen, and then siezing up if i had the audacity to try to change it.... call me paranoid if you like. 
What i did was to install the fglrx driver with the assistance of Synaptic (Searched for ATI), and now KDE 4.1x does as i tell it. It found and applied the 1280x1024 resolution without any prompting from myself. 
The only problem i'm having is that if i choose to re-boot, i am left with a scrambled screen, and all HD activity ceases.
It's easy enough to cure with a <Ctrl> + <Alt> + <Del>, and it doesn't bother me, but i'm wondering if anyone experiences this, or has any suggestions as to how to cure it.
What i did was to install the fglrx driver with the assistance of Synaptic (Searched for ATI), and now KDE 4.1x does as i tell it.
It found and applied the 1280x1024 resolution without any prompting from myself. The only problem i'm having is that if i choose to re-boot, i am left with a scrambled screen, and all HD activity ceases.
It's easy enough to cure with a <Ctrl> + <Alt> + <Del>, and it doesn't bother me, but i'm wondering if anyone experiences this, or has any suggestions as to how to cure it.