A simple way to set your screen resolution and color depth for most Live Linux distro's is via the use of the vga=parameter boot option. For example at boot you might type: Live vga=795. This would set your system to boot using the Live label with a screen resolution to 24bit 1280X1024. Here are some more examples of common vga boot values

VGA Resolution and Color Depth reference Chart:

Depth 800×6001024×7681152×8641280×10241600×1200
8 bitvga=771vga=773vga=353vga=775vga=796
16 bitvga=788vga=791vga=355vga=794vga=798
24 bitvga=789vga=792 vga=795vga=799