For some reason when I turned on my PC with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS today it booted up into 1024x768 instead of 1920x1080 which is the native resolution of my LCD monitor and what it has been using without problems for probably a year at least and still was using it when I turned it off yesterday evening. Now when I go to "System Settings... -> Displays..." it only allows me to select from 1024x768 and 800x600 resolutions (and for some reason it insists on calling the display "laptop" but this was the case before as well so probably unrelated).

When I turn on my µA1-C it boots into 1920x1080 without problems as before so obviously it's not the monitor that is at fault, also I just checked "Ubuntu Software Center" and according to that I didn't install any new updates yesterday so that's not it either, so why has Ubuntu suddenly gotten the impression that 1024x768 resolution is the highest that it can go??

Anyway 1024x768 is too small, stretched and blurry so I really want to get this fixed ASAP . I've tried googling for others with the same problem but it seems none of them have exactly the same problem and none of the answers seem to apply to my system anyway...

I don't know of any good linux forums so I'm posting this here in "General Technology" forum...

Last edited by salass00 on 06-Aug-2012 at 11:47 AM.

@salass00

It might be an obvious thing, but maybe check that the monitor is powered up before you turn on the computer, and if you have a KVM, check as well that it is switched to the Linux machine before you turn it on...

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@Daedalus

Quote:

It might be an obvious thing, but maybe check that the monitor is powered up before you turn on the computer, and if you have a KVM, check as well that it is switched to the Linux machine before you turn it on...

I did check both those things, I also tried turning off, disconnecting everything from the KVM and connecting it directly to the computer but it didn't help. The KVM switch I'm using is an ATEN CS-62U with USB and VGA ports, also since the PC gfxcard (a 7600GT nvidia pci-e card) only has DVI outputs I'm using a DVI->VGA adapter.

@salass00

Hmmm, in that case you could try reinstall the driver package for the graphics card. It might not be running the driver at all for some reason, leaving you with the standard VESA modes.

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@Daedalus

But running a 3D game (Amnesia - The Dark Descent) it works fine. This PC doesn't have a very fast CPU so I doubt it's running it s/w rendered so obviosly the 3d acceleration part of the driver is working at least. According to NVIDIA X Server Settings the version of the driver I have installed is 295.40.

Nvidia graphic drivers are really annoying on Linux, because they are kernel dependent. An update and the driver isn't working correctly!

Petrol.

Last edited by petrol on 06-Aug-2012 at 02:44 PM.

@salass00

Hmmm, it still might be worth uninstalling and reinstalling the driver package. From my experience with Ubuntu and Nvidia drivers, they can be buggy and change the permissions of some of their files for some unknown reason. To get around this I ended up having to edit the config files manually to change resolution. I don't know how it deals with the monitor identification, but if it stores it in one of these files it might have to be edited by hand to be usable again.

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@Daedalus

Well I tried removing and reinstalling the nvidia driver from "System Settings... -> Additional Drivers" but it didn't help. I'm using the "(version current) [Recommended]" version of the nvidia driver but there is also a "(version post-release updates) [version-current updates]" in the list. Is it worth trying or should I just stick to the recommended choice?

@salass00

I don't know if it'll help to be honest, but it can't do too much harm to try. You can always uninstall and go back to the recommended release afterwards if needs be.

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@Daedalus

Tried it. Now it says that I have nvidia driver version 295.49 but apart from that there is no difference...

@salass00

I had the same problem recently with Ubuntu 12.04 and a new Intel Atom board I bought for the purpose. Turns out the on-board graphics are not fully supported and I thought the Intel Atom boards were a safe bet for Ubuntu.

The board did work work but with limited resolution, similar to your experience. Ubuntu identified the display as 'laptop', which made me think it might be an issue with my new LED monitor. This was not the case, as when I tried the monitor with AmigaOS on Sam440, using the Radeon's DVI port, it worked fine.

You could try forcing new screen resolutions in Ubuntu using xandr, details...

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-change-display-resolution-settings-using-xrandr.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1112186
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution

This didn't work for me unfortunately, turns out the chipset on my board isn't fully supported so am having to look for another motherboard. Will check more carefully next time I buy.

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@salass00

FWIW I went back to the recommended driver because the window titlebars disappeared with the newer one and it didn't fix my screenmode issue anyway.

@gtmooya

Using xrandr I can add a 1920x1080 screenmode to the "Displays..." list to choose from:

Quote:

$ xrandr xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768 default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm 1024x768 50.0* 800x600 51.0 52.0 53.0 680x384 54.0 55.0 640x480 56.0 576x432 57.0 512x384 58.0 400x300 59.0 60.0 61.0 320x240 62.0 $ cvt 1920 1080 # 1920x1080 59.96 Hz (CVT 2.07M9) hsync: 67.16 kHz; pclk: 173.00 MHz Modeline "1920x1080_60.00" 173.00 1920 2048 2248 2576 1080 1083 1088 1120 -hsync +vsync $ xrandr --newmode "1920x1080_60.00" 173.00 1920 2048 2248 2576 1080 1083 1088 1120 -hsync +vsync xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default $ xrandr --addmode default "1920x1080_60.00" xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default $

But when I try to select it I get an error requester:
Quote:

The selected configuration for displays could not be applied required virtual size does not fit available size: requested=(1920, 1080), minimum=(320, 240), maximum=(1024, 768)

@salass00

Quote:

The selected configuration for displays could not be applied required virtual size does not fit available size: requested=(1920, 1080), minimum=(320, 240), maximum=(1024, 768)

The same result as I got then

Very strange that you have been using the sytem for a year and then this happens between sessions. I would say some new update was to blame, but as you say none happened so this doesn't explain things.

I swapped out my new Atom board and replaced it with my old one and no problems with the resolutions, so I put it down to the chipset in the new board not being supported.

Might be worth taking a look to see if you have an xorg.conf file? https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/

This file may not exist as later versions of Ubuntu don't need the resolutions stored like this, however it is possible to create one if not and this might help... http://askubuntu.com/questions/129941/my-ubuntu-12-04-has-no-xorg-conf-is-that-normal

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@gtmooya

I have it working now again .

I have no idea why it stopped working but this is what I did to fix it :

1. opened a terminal and typed "sudo nvidia-xconfig"
2. "nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf" (commented out the line with "DPMS" and modified the min/max horiz/vert frequencies to the same as I have on AmigaOS)
3. rebooted
4. now I could select 1920x10280@60 Hz from NVIDIA X Server Settings
5. rebooted again
6. now I could select 1920x1080 from Displays

The funny thing is that I apparently already got so used to the blurry, horizontally stretched 1024x768 ubuntu display that now that is in 1920x1080 it looks strangely sharp and vertically stretched.

@salass00

Good that you got it fixed .

Quote:

The funny thing is that I apparently already got so used to the blurry, horizontally stretched 1024x768 ubuntu display that now that is in 1920x1080 it looks strangely sharp and vertically stretched.

Same here, funny how your eyes get used to it after a while.

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