new monitor resolution low

[akaawol]

WOW! The first long script worked. I'm totaly excited and so was the wife......Until we went to "switch users" now her login is still at the 800x600 max. Do I do the same script under her login?

[realzippy]

No!
It was not exactly a script...it was the content for the file:
xorg.conf you created.This file is a "system" file for all users,owned by root.log in in your wife's account,open a terminal,run:

rm ~/.config/monitors.xml

Then log out,log in again (wife's account).If still not working,open
System/Preferences/Monitors ;the resolution should be now available..
good luck.

[akaawol]

didn't work gave the message:
rm: cannot remove `/home/denise/.config/monitors.xml': No such file or directory

[realzippy]

Can you create a new "test" user to see if the resolution is limited also?

[akaawol]

Nope that new account works perfect. So I've given her the new account and deleting the old one. Thanks for all your help.

you rock!

[turbo9]

I just had this problem (again) and blamed my ATI card. This was with Ubuntu 10.10 running on bare hardware.

It turns out that Ubuntu could not get the right video resolution from my monitor. I see a number of these messages in dmesg


[ 12.905074] [drm:drm_edid_block_valid] *ERROR* EDID checksum is invalid, remainder is 63
[ 12.905125] [drm:drm_edid_block_valid] *ERROR* Raw EDID:
[ 12.905166] <3>40 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 22 64 b3 06 01 08 00 00 @......."d......
[ 12.905170] <3>2e 0f 01 03 0a 22 1b 78 ea fd 59 a5 53 4a 9d 24 .....".x..Y.SJ.$
[ 12.905173] <3>14 4f 56 bf ef 80 81 80 31 0a 31 ca 01 01 01 01 .OV.....1.1.....
[ 12.905176] <3>01 01 01 01 01 01 30 2a 00 98 51 00 2a 40 30 70 ......0*..Q.*@0p
[ 12.905179] <3>13 00 52 0e 11 00 00 1e 00 00 00 fd 00 38 4b 1e ..R..........8K.
[ 12.905182] <3>50 0e 00 0a 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 ff 00 35 P... .....5
[ 12.905185] <3>34 36 44 44 31 4b 43 41 32 30 34 39 00 00 00 fc 46DD1KCA2049....
[ 12.905188] <3>00 48 61 6e 6e 53 74 61 72 20 55 31 37 31 00 80 .HannStar U171..

Now, this worked in Ubuntu 10.04, but didn't in 10.10. Then, it magically started working in 10.10 for a few weeks and then the problem came back.

Here is how I fixed it:

You don't need to be root to do this.

Check to see if the video mode exists.

xrandr

If the one we want is missing, we need to add it.
Get the mode line from the desired resolution:

cvt 1280 1024

which barfs out something like:

# 1280x1024 59.89 Hz (CVT 1.31M4) hsync: 63.67 kHz; pclk: 109.00 MHz
Modeline "1280x1024_60.00" 109.00 1280 1368 1496 1712 1024 1027 1034 1063 -hsync +vsync

Grab the modeline from the second line of output and add it to the known modes:

xrandr --newmode "1280x1024_60.00" 109.00 1280 1368 1496 1712 1024 1027 1034 1063 -hsync +vsync

Things might shimmy a bit, which you might interpret as a good sign.

Associate this mode with the appropriate video output

xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1280x1024_60.00

Then use your normal video resolution gui to set it and then make it the default.

This setting does not survive a reboot. You get a bunch of "could not set monitor resolution" messages.
The default setting survives the restart, but the system does not know the mode exists (same problem as before).
So, write a script with the steps above and execute it once you login (put a call to it on the panel).

xrandr --newmode "1280x1024_60.00" 109.00 1280 1368 1496 1712 1024 1027 1034 1063 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1280x1024_60.00

Things should shimmy and then go to the resolution you set as default before.

This is not a permanent fix - it is a hack, but I can live with it (rather than buying a new monitor).