Ubuntu 8.04 Problem With Limited Screen Resolution

**Muhammad Nur Hanief** · April 28th, 2008

I guess my SAMSUNG SyncMaster 793MG was not supported by Ubuntu 8.04. To my surprise, in Ubuntu 8.04 Beta, there is something built-in app called Screen & Graphics. But now, in Ubuntu 8.04 final, it's all done by auto detection. Which it should be able to detect my monitor SAMSUNG SyncMaster 793MG couple it up with my VGA card NVIDIA Geforce 6500

You see, Ubuntu is a great Linux. To be honest, I want to see Ubuntu doing well in recognizing wide selection of hardware and also providing an option for the users, to select the nearest hardware model, so that I won't have limited resolution at 640x480 like this:-

I love Ubuntu, seriously. You can go to my blog at http://hanief.blogspot.com

To all the Ubuntu 8.04 dev, I hope you guy can do something. Let's make it easier by mouse-clicking and not by typing and editing the .conf files. Thanks in advance.

**chewearn** · April 28th, 2008

Unfortunately, my understanding of the matter is... hardy Xorg autodetect and screen configuration tool don't play nice with nvidia driver. If you install nvidia restricted driver, install nvidia-settings as well, and use that to configure xorg.conf.

**shinkaide** · April 28th, 2008

I agree with AstalaVista. I had similar problems with my screen resolution, but installing the nvidia-settings package solved everything about that for me. Just do the following on terminal:

Code:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings

Once that's done, do:

Code:

sudo nvidia-settings

Go to "X Server Display Configuration", select your resolution of choice, click on "Apply", and then click on "Save to X Configuration File". You're all set!

So, you may ask "why edit nvidia-settings with root priviledges when you can do it as a regular user"? That's because you want to be able to save your settings to your xorg.conf file.

You can't do that as a regular user. What will happen is your resolution will just reset to Ubuntu's defaults (meaning before you installed and configured your screen res using nvidia-settings) whenever you log out and in or restart your computer.

Editing your settings with root priviledges (using the above code) allows you to permanently save your settings to the xorg.conf file and thus keep the resolution of your choice until you choose to change it again.

Hope that helps.

Edit:
BTW: After installing nvidia-settings and before adjusting anything, go to System > Hardware Drivers and make sure the Nvidia Accelerated Graphics Driver is enabled. Once you've done that, then go do the

Code:

sudo nvidia-settings

Thing. Otherwise you'll just get an error message when you try to adjust the settings.

**Muhammad Nur Hanief** · April 28th, 2008

Thanks shinkaide & AstalaVista,
I managed to configure the xorg.conf file. The nvidia-setting app. ain't helping at all as it always stick at 640x480. Weird enough.

Anyway after I configured the xorg.conf file,

Code:

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by failsafeDexconf, using
# values from the debconf database and some overrides to use vesa mode.
#
# You should use dexconf or another such tool for creating a "real" xorg.conf
# For example:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"kbd"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc105"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Boardname	"NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series"
	Busid		"PCI:1:0:0"
	Driver		"nvidia"
	Screen	0
	Vendorname	"NVIDIA"
	Option		"NoLogo"	"True"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
	Vendorname	"Samsung"
	Modelname	"Samsung SyncMaster 793DF/793MB"
	Horizsync	30-71
	Vertrefresh	50-160
  modeline  "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -vsync -hsync
  modeline  "640x480@72" 31.5 640 664 704 832 480 489 491 520 -vsync -hsync
  modeline  "640x480@75" 31.5 640 656 720 840 480 481 484 500 -vsync -hsync
  modeline  "640x480@85" 36.0 640 696 752 832 480 481 484 509 -vsync -hsync
  modeline  "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync
  modeline  "800x600@72" 50.0 800 856 976 1040 600 637 643 666 +hsync +vsync
  modeline  "800x600@75" 49.5 800 816 896 1056 600 601 604 625 +hsync +vsync
  modeline  "800x600@85" 56.3 800 832 896 1048 600 601 604 631 +hsync +vsync
  modeline  "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
  modeline  "832x624@75" 57.284 832 864 928 1152 624 625 628 667 -vsync -hsync
  modeline  "1024x768@85" 94.5 1024 1072 1168 1376 768 769 772 808 +hsync +vsync
  modeline  "1024x768@75" 78.8 1024 1040 1136 1312 768 769 772 800 +hsync +vsync
  modeline  "1024x768@70" 75.0 1024 1048 1184 1328 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
  modeline  "1024x768@60" 65.0 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
  modeline  "1024x768@43" 44.9 1024 1032 1208 1264 768 768 776 817 +hsync interlace +vsync
  modeline  "1152x864@75" 108.0 1152 1216 1344 1600 864 865 868 900 +hsync +vsync
  modeline  "1280x960@60" 102.1 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 994 -hsync +vsync
  modeline  "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
  modeline  "1400x1050@60" 122.61 1400 1488 1640 1880 1050 1051 1054 1087 -hsync +vsync
	Gamma	1.0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Defaultdepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth	24
		Virtual	1400	1050
		Modes		"1024x768@85"	"1024x768@75"	"832x624@75"	"1024x768@70"	"800x600@60"	"1024x768@60"	"800x600@85"	"1024x768@43"	"800x600@75"	"1152x864@75"	"800x600@72"	"1280x960@60"	"800x600@56"	"1280x1024@60"	"640x480@85"	"1400x1050@60"	"640x480@75"	"640x480@72"	"640x480@60"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier	"Default Layout"
  screen 0 "Default Screen" 0 0
EndSection
Section "Module"
	Load		"glx"
	Load		"v4l"
EndSection
Section "device" #  
	Identifier	"device1"
	Boardname	"NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series"
	Busid		"PCI:1:0:0"
	Driver		"nv"
	Screen	1
	Vendorname	"NVIDIA"
EndSection
Section "screen" #  
	Identifier	"screen1"
	Device		"device1"
	Defaultdepth	24
	Monitor		"monitor1"
EndSection
Section "monitor" #  
	Identifier	"monitor1"
	Gamma	1.0
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection

This is how my desktop looks like now:-

http://bp3.blogger.com/_PC-fOLkfAqM/...Screenshot.png

**fawazomr** · April 28th, 2008

I used to have similar issue with the resolution and now it is solved using the setting box. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766879

thanks,

**longhornxtreme** · April 29th, 2008

This is a complete freaking nightmare...

Why... do they LOSE functionality when upgrading?

I feel like I could set up a damn Gentoo box in the time I've (unsuccessfully) spent trying to get my X + Nvidia + 1680 x1050 resolution to work.

It's borderline criminal how poor the autodetect works...

I can't get nvidia settings to work as I "don't appear to be using Nvidia X driver" even though it's enabled... before reboot, doesn't work, after reboot doesn't work....

I'm about to pull my hair out...

EDIT: And why the heck does dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg go to the framebuffer question as the first question?