HOWTO: change resolution/refresh rate in Xorg

[en3rgy]

en3rgy, try to add the modelline of the wanted resolution if nothing else works.

Hi Frodon,

This is an excellent suggestion but I thought this sort of thing went out with 6.10... yes? Perhaps I should try it with Feisty anyway as this seems the only logical alternative.

Thanks,

en3rgy

[rapollon]

I've been using various distos of debian for the last five years, but this one has me stumped.
I have a 19" monitor, I want a 1280x1024 screen size. dpkg allowed me to get a giant screen area outside of view and that's with vesa. I get the size I'm little for it doesn't fit my screen. Monitor specs are: 1280x1024@75hz ; v:60.0 h:64.0 or v:75.03 h:80.0

I'm stuck in 1024x768

The microsoft users in my house are annoying me, one hiccup after five years worth of fixing their adawares and virus and windows boo boo's...
I want silence again... Thanks!!!

here's my conf:


Section "Device"
Identifier "S3 Inc. 86C270-294 Savage/IX-MV"
Driver "savage"
BusID "PCI:1:1:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "synaps"
Option "DPMS"
Modeline "1280x1024@75" 156.43 1280 1312 1904 1936 1024 1043 1056 1076
HorizSync 80.8
VertRefresh 50-160
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "S3 Inc. 86C270-294 Savage/IX-MV"
Monitor "synaps"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024_75"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024_75"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024_75"
EndSubSection
EndSection

[SkyScrap]

Hi,

as all I am having problems with my resolution. My hardware is an ASUS M2NPV-VM mainboard with NVIDIA GeForce 6150 onbaord and an LG Flatron L2000C Screen.

I would like to run the screen on 1600x1200, and am using the "nv" driver currently.

* In the xorg log, the driver reports a maximum panel size of 1280x1024, which is wrong, the panel supports 1600x1200. How can I change/override that? I already have the option "DCC" "False" in my drivers section, but it does not seem to have the wanted effect.

* When I try to use the restricted driver for nvidia, the dialog goes grey for some time, but nothing changes (as far as I can tell). Where does it tries to get the driver from? I'm not connected to the internet, you think that might be the problem?

Thanks for any help.
(Actually, it's really tiring that setting screen resolutions is THIS hard!!!)

[SkyScrap]

as all I am having problems with my resolution. My hardware is an ASUS M2NPV-VM mainboard with NVIDIA GeForce 6150 onbaord and an LG Flatron L2000C Screen.

I would like to run the screen on 1600x1200, and am using the "nv" driver currently.

There seem to be some bugs in the nv driver, which are preventing usage of 1600x1200. Best guess is to use the nvidia driver instead.

Some handy links

• http://wiki.x.org/wiki/nv
• Bug: Unable to obtain the right resolution for DVI panel
• Bug: nouveau can't use a Dell 2001FP in 1600x1200 mode

[zedfrugnug]

Hi again Zed,

The Nvidia settings I found are located under APPLICATIONS>SYSTEM TOOLS>SYSINFO>NVIDIA.

As far as preferences goes, this is a joke. It says 1280x800 but then tells me I'm @ 50hz refresh rate.

I've posted this problem of mine in other threads too to see if I could get some help with this and thus far this problem seems to be stumping everyone.

The E1505 Dell laptop has the upgraded screen and came with XP (which I am duel booting with Ubuntu). In XP my max (and only) screen size is 1680x1050 @60hz and it really looks wonderful.

I have installed Ubuntu on two other PC's I have and so far all of them work really well except for the video. Then again, they're all Nvidia boxes so I am wondering if Nvidia actually is not very good to begin with and Ubuntu forces this imperfection to come out?

Either way, I am almost demoralized at this point and am not sure what to do with this video/Nvidia problem.

Nvidia is supporting linux better than ATI at the moment. Only Intel is better, but they only do integrated graphics (this might change though)
So not too much choice there...

Just hope things will be better with Gutsy..

[en3rgy]

I am going to delete Ubuntu in a few minutes and install Suse 10.2. Maybe this will be better for me.

[fifa255]

I just installed ubuntu (dual boot. oh boy that took a while to get right). I have the GeForce 7800gs using the nvidia driver installed using envy script. I have an IBM p260 monitor that support upto 1920x1440 resolution and with horizontal freq: 30-120 and vertical refresh: 50-160. I have edited the xorg.conf file and added a modeline to get 1600x1200 at 65hz. However I don't see that option when I go to System-> Preference -> screen resolution. Here is my xorg.conf file Is there something I'm doing wrong or need to add. Please help.

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Wed Jun 13 18:39:30 PDT 2007

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "stylus"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "eraser"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "cursor"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
HorizSync 28.0 - 51.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 60.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "IBM Monitor"
VendorName "IBM"
ModelName "P260"
HorizSync 30.0 - 121.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "DPMS"
# 1600x1200 @ 65.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 80.99 kHz; pclk: 176.23 MHz
Modeline "1600x1200_65.00" 176.23 1600 1712 1888 2176 1200 1201 1204 1246 -HSync +Vsync
# 1600x1200 @ 70.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 87.43 kHz; pclk: 190.25 MHz
Modeline "1600x1200_70.00" 190.25 1600 1712 1888 2176 1200 1201 1204 1249 -HSync +Vsync


EndSection


Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "IBM Monitor"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1600x1200_65.00" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1600x1200_65.00" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1600x1200_65.00" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1600x1200_65.00" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1600x1200_65.00" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200_65.00" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

[andrek]

Have a look at my xorg.conf file :

(...)
Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"AX3818UTC B"
	Option		"DPMS"
	HorizSync	31-65
	VertRefresh	56-80
 # V-freq: 79.00 Hz  // h-freq: 63.69 KHz
 	Modeline "1024x768" 87.64  1024 1072 1184 1376   768  768  770  806 
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 440]"
	Monitor		"AX3818UTC B"
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
	Modes		"1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection
(...)

I want to get real 79Hz Vertical Freq / 64KHz Horizontal Freq. What's wrong with my conf file?

[mryilauer]

Thanks, guys. I just wanted to summarize something that worked for me to help anyone else who has to do exactly what I did in exactly the same situation.

All I wanted to do was to increase the refresh rate from 60 to 75 since I can see the flicker and it drives me nuts. The advice here was very helpful, but parts were obscure or too general, as usual. I tried the xinit -- :2 trick, but ubuntu rejected that with some kind of error message at the console. Thank goodness for the recommendation to use ctrl-alt-F7 to get back to my existing X session. Also, the ctrl-alt-backspace to restart X was very helpful.

Again, all I wanted to do was to increase the refresh rate, nothing else. As to the suggestion that I make sure that my monitor and video card both support the higher resolution, well, gee guys, I'm using an old P3 with an onboard video card that Dell tells me nothing about, and a donated monitor, but before I installed ubuntu, I'm pretty sure I had it at the higher refresh rate running Windows 98 or whatever.

So, what I did, exactly, was to follow the advice to backup the conf file as shown below, then added the desired refresh rate after the resolution I intend to use. It didn't work when I just added _75, by the way, I had to keep looking and found another suggestion to use _75.00, and that worked.

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Here's the way my conf file looked at first:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 PF/PRO AGP 4x TMDS"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
EndSection

I changed it to this:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 PF/PRO AGP 4x TMDS"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024_75.00" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024_75.00" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024_75.00" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024_75.00" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024_75.00" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024_75.00" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x350"
EndSubSection
EndSection

[mryilauer]

geez, I left the mustard out of the recipe! here's another change I had to make before it worked:

before:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-80
VertRefresh 43-60
EndSection

after:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-80
VertRefresh 43-75
EndSection