HOWTO: Screen Resolution in Hoary 5.04

DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible if the steps you take cause your video card/monitor to become a projectile or otherwise increase the refresh rate to the point of cooking your popcorn that is sitting in a bag beside it.

Xorg only see's that my monitor can handle 1024x768. Well I'm not blind and I'm 24 so I'm not losing my sight so what was the next logical step after not being able to install the Nvidia card I have. That's right deal with what I have onboard and make Hoary think my monitor can handle 1280x1024 (which it did in Windows but we wont go there).

Step:

1. In Hoary we use Xorg so lets get there. Open up to... /etc/X11/

2. Open up xorg.conf in a text editor (gedit works PERFECT for this) however make sure you have write permissions so we can edit this file.

3. Scroll down to the bottom of the file. You should see some lines as:

Code:

---

SubSection "Display"
                Depth                1
                Modes                  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection

---

Now I know what everyone is thinking but I'll never use a color depth of 1. Well ladies and gents I didn't make the rules and this is a demo anywas but pay attention.

4. Notice a format here... Mode [resolution] [resolution] [resolution]? Right so when in Rome...do as the Romans. Add a resolution so it looks like this.

Code:

---

SubSection "Display"
                Depth                1
                Modes                "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection

---

5. Now repeat for all the Depths you have 1,4,8,15,16,24...whatever.

6. Save file, Reboot the computer. When it comes back up you should see your new lovely screen.

Like I said this worked for me. I also wrote the ACPI HOWTO in this forum. Notice how everything is my own experience. Bingo. Now go forth and be fruitful.

Shawn

Thanks for the great HOWTO, Shawn!

I just want to make a minor suggestion for Step 6. It is not necessary to reboot the computer. I would suggest editing Step 6 to say:

6. Save file, CTRL+ALT+F1, then: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

You can take it, or leave it :) I just find it much easier to restart GDM instead of rebooting.

Yeah while it really isn't I find when I crash GDM (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace) or like you said restart it (Ctrl+Alt+F1) my monitor makes wierd noises. I already lost one monitor due to refreshing blowing out the gun in it....I can't afford to do it again. But yes your right if you have like a plasma screen or a LCD monitor you can definatly restart X and it'll take effect.

Shawn

I looked into my xorg.conf and found only one resolution "1280X800" available for all resolution depths. Thing is, my display is running at 1024x760 only. Hoary's desktop resolution tool only makes the 1024 resolution available also !

Doing sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg doesn't help either.

I have a widescreen laptop, and every other aspect of Ubuntu is absolutely fine - I'd just like to be able to use my full screen real estate. Any clues ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kezza

I looked into my xorg.conf and found only one resolution "1280X800" available for all resolution depths. Thing is, my display is running at 1024x760 only. Hoary's desktop resolution tool only makes the 1024 resolution available also !

Doing sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg doesn't help either.

I have a widescreen laptop, and every other aspect of Ubuntu is absolutely fine - I'd just like to be able to use my full screen real estate. Any clues ?

---

Kezza:

http://www.celifornia.com/documents/..._855resolution

I have a 15.4 widescreen Toshiba M35X and using the following on /etc/X11/xorg.conf worked for me:

Identifier "Generic Monitor"
HorizSync 30-107
VertRefresh 50-185
Option "DPMS"
Modeline "1280x800" 159.74 1280 1296 1552 1664 800 800 815 835
ModeLine "1680x1050" 214.51 1680 1800 1984 2288 1050 1051 1054 1103

Refer to the original post at
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthr...ighlight=50-185

How do I go about changing the refresh rate as Ubuntu only lets me select 60hz ?

Rhodan,

You may have a look at a program called gtf (asked about it in another thread):

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=21537

I was able to use it anyway (but my change was from 85 to 100 Hz -- it's almost hard to tell the difference); hopefully so will you. If you give it a try, please let me know the results!

/David

I don't have an xorg.conf in my /etc/X11 folder. It isn't hidden, either. I tried applying these changes to my XF86Config-4 file, which looks the same, but the new resolutions still won't show up in Screen Resolution.
Where can I get an xorg.conf file?

If you're using warty, you don't have an xorg.conf file, you need to use the xfree one instead. When you upgrade to hoary, you will have to switch to xorg - long story. If you believe the resolutions you've added should work at the given depth, try pressing ctrl alt + to cycle thru resolutions. If you hear a whining noise from your monitor, click it again quick until you hit a working resolution.