monitor off at boot causes bad resolution

[lexual]

On booting up my hoary machine, I see gdm in very low resolution [640x480] even
though xorg is configured at 1280x1024.

If I run 'sudo /etc/init.d/gdm/restart', it makes gdm come up in the correct
resolution [1280x1024].

This happened on my 1st bootup for the day yesterday and I was unable to
reproduce the behaviour after a number of reboots.

It came up again in low res on my 1st boot of today. I don't know if that's
relevant.

[lexual (lexhider)]

Created an attachment (id=1173)
Xorg log

[lexual (lexhider)]

Created an attachment (id=1174)
xorg.conf

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

I suspect this is a hardware bug in the monitor. If you turn the monitor off
(and leave it off), or do a cold boot, does it always happen then?

[lexual (lexhider)]

With the monitor turned off, it still booted up in 640x480.

[Lucas Goss (lgoss007-gmail)]

Same thing happens here. I have a kvm switch and if I boot Ubuntu while using
another OS, then Ubuntu comes up with a 640x480 resolution. But if I boot Ubuntu
and watch it come up, it comes up in the correct resolution. The monitor is a
Planar LCD. So this would be a hardware bug? Would this be handled in Xorg then?

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

The KVM thing is one of the interesting corner cases that we can't really fix at
all. If the probe works when you're configuring Xorg, but then fails later,
there's not really much we can do about that.

[Henk Postma (henkpostma)]

(In reply to comment #6)
> The KVM thing is one of the interesting corner cases that we can't really fix at
> all. If the probe works when you're configuring Xorg, but then fails later,
> there's not really much we can do about that.

I have the same problem (posted it to ubuntu-users earlier) and I don't have a
KVM switch, so I don't think it has to do with that. Let me describe my symptoms:

My hardware:
Sony SRX77 laptop, Intel 82815 815 EM (i810) chipset. The problem is exactly the
same whether I boot with attached monitor, or without attached monitor. I am
running Hoary that I got from upgrading from a clean warty install. I don't have
this problem on another warty install, which I run on another partition.

The problem:
* the login screen is (properly) 1024x768
* then when I login it reverts to 640x480 (even though the xorg.conf doesn't
have this mode).
* The xorg.conf file is identical to the XF86Config-4 file in my warty, that I
have running on another partition.
* I then manually adjust it to 1024x768 with gnome-display-properties
* upon rebooting, the same thing happens: welcome screen in 1024x768, xorg
starts in 640, adjust with g-d-p

Let me know if you want log files, or other setup info to track this down.

Thanks, Henk

[Adam Robinson (adamrobinson)]

(In reply to comment #0)
> On booting up my hoary machine, I see gdm in very low resolution [640x480] even
> though xorg is configured at 1280x1024.
>
> If I run 'sudo /etc/init.d/gdm/restart', it makes gdm come up in the correct
> resolution [1280x1024].
>
> This happened on my 1st bootup for the day yesterday and I was unable to
> reproduce the behaviour after a number of reboots.
>
> It came up again in low res on my 1st boot of today. I don't know if that's
> relevant.

I also have a Radeon 9600SE and I have the exact same issue. My configuration
file is similar. I have the issue with both the "ati" driver and the "fglrx"
driver. The only thing I was not able to do was run 'sudo
/etc/init.d/gdm/restart'. I ran 'sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart' and the x server
just goes down.

[lexual (lexhider)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> I suspect this is a hardware bug in the monitor. If you turn the monitor off
> (and leave it off), or do a cold boot, does it always happen then?

It appears [I'm not definite on this] that it happens when I boot up with the
monitor TURNED OFF and it works fine if I have the monitor switched on as I boot
up. I'm not sure if I misunderstood the above question when it was asked or not.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

Er, yeah, it will never work if you start X when the monitor is off.

[lexual (lexhider)]

(In reply to comment #10)
> Er, yeah, it will never work if you start X when the monitor is off.

Surely this is a bug. Windows, Debian, Warty all bootup fine with the monitor
switched off. At least it should have the setting from the last boot saved so
those details could be used?

It's not an uncommon usage to hit the on switch on your computer, go make a cup
of tea [or some other quick job so you don't have to sit there twiddling your
thumb for 1 minute], and return to a booted up system.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

This is doable, but it's definitely not for the Hoary timeframe.

[lexual (lexhider)]

Fair enough. I do think it is important that this behaviour is noted in the
release notes or wherever it is relevant. I have known about this for weeks and
weeks and I still find myself booting up with the monitor turned off. There are
going to be a lot of users less advanced than I, who will get stung by this.

The "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart" fix my also be handy to be noted.

[Nafallo Bjälevik (nafallo)]

My girlfriend just upgraded her warty to hoary and xorg (and gdm) comes up in
640x480. There is no diffrence if the monitor is on or off. I guess this is the
Release Candidate? ;-).

[Manuel Gomez (manuelj)]

I used a fresh install of Hoary stable and I got the same bug, the only
resolution I got was 640x480. the resolution in gconf was 1280x1024, the same in
xorg.conf. I have an Nvidia Geforce 2, without acceleration. After trying to
change it for 2 hours, I tried to reinstall it, and I still got the same bug,
the weird thing is, Warty got the resolution right and the Preview Release also
got it right. After giving up, I installed the Preview Release without this kind
of problems.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

*** Bug 16214 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Max (maxter)]

same problem....
my workstation mount an integrated intel i810 chip
the first time i installe hoary passing hw_detect/nocpmcia_false at boot prompt.
the screen resolution available in gnome was only 640x480, also if xorg.conf
shows all the possible resolution for that chip.
i tried to reinstal the system passing no parameter to boot promt, and the
screen resolution was fine, but there was other problems (menus and options
windows that was duplicated on the screen ecc.)
i tried to run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg, but after reconfiguring gnome
again switched to 640x480
i solved installing a radeon 9200 :-)
anyway managing the bios setup to work with the agp, i discovered that the intel
graphic chip was working with only 8 mega of memory.. so may be this could be
the cause of all the problem... i think that all the new features of xorg should
be very ram expensive :-)

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

*** Bug 16059 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

monitor hotplugging will also fix this

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

*** Bug 24959 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[davidb (david-bolter)]

Same thing happens with my Dell783s monitor and Intel 82845G/GL "Brookdale"
chipset video card. I've tried forcing gnome gconf settings, xorg.conf etc. etc.
everything seems ignored and I am stuck at an unusable 640x480 -- some dialogs
do not fit on this res. IMO this should definitely escalate from "enhancement"
severity. BTW... this conversation leads me to believe there might be a
resolution: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=12958&page=2 can anyone
provide details on this? I'd really like to keep Ubuntu installed.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

david: then you're seeing a different problem (unless you just always have your
monitor off at boot), that XORG_SYNC_RANGES=yes sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh
xserver-xorg, can probably solve.

[davidb (david-bolter)]

Crazy bad luck that I can't try that (hardware repurposed). I'll definitely keep
it in mind if I get a chance to try it thanks. Sorry if I have commented on the
wrong bug, I had thought my problem similar to one of the closed duplicates.

[lexual (lexhider)]

This seems to be fixed in dapper for me.
Can anyone else confirm this?

[Juan Jose Pablos (cheche)]

booting up with monitor off works for me.
Booting up with kvm it does not. But it is fine once you know about it.
So it is worth to update documentation somewhere

[Danilo Piazzalunga (danilopiazza)]

I am still experiencing this bug with Dapper. I can reprocuce it either at boot or by restarting Xorg from a console with the monitor turned off (I obtained the attached log using the latter method).

[lexual (lexhider)]

I no longer experience this bug with edgy r.c.
I booted the system with the screen turned off, and was greeted with gdm in the correct resolution when I turned the screen on.

[Danilo Piazzalunga (danilopiazza)]

I can still experience it on Edgy. A quick comparison between the attached log and the previous one shows that the details are pretty much unchanged.
Only the default hsync frequence changed, making Xorg choose 800x600 instead of 640x480.

[lexual (lexhider)]

Didn't that summary change lose a lot of useful information, making the bug description really vague and not specific?

[SATIRO (joan-torrents)]

Same problem with KVM and Ubuntu 7.04,
If I watch Ubuntu during all the start process all is OK.
If I'm watching the other computer while Ubuntu starts it goes to 640x480.
My graphic card is an ATI Radeon 9200

[Henrik Nilsen Omma (henrik)]

Anyone still seeing this on Gutsy or Hardy using a directly connected monitor (not KVM)?

[Danilo Piazzalunga (danilopiazza)]

I don't see this anymore since Gutsy.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

There are at least two people confirming that this is fixed, so I'm closing the bug. Thanks!

[Pär Lidén (par-liden)]

This bug is present for me now, using Hardy and a Nvidia Geforce 4 MX card, Philips 201b4 monitor. I think it used to work in Gutsy, but don't do after the upgrade. Booting up with the monitor turned off gives low resolution (640x480), and it get's fixed if I restart X after turning monitor on.

So the bug should probably be reopened.

[David Losada Gacio (losadaz)]

This happened yesterday to me too, with Hardy updated. This happened when using the nvidia free driver (Open Source one) for my GeForce 6100 nForce 430 (rev a2) with 128 MB shared RAM.

This bug should be reopened.

[Abscissa (business4)]

This happens to me on 9.04 and is driving me nuts. It is *NOT* fixed, and should be reopened (unless it's been fixed on 9.10?). Using nvidia geforce MX (either mx2 or mx4, IIRC) and the nvidia driver.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

This is a driver-specific thing, and your driver differs from the original reporter, so reopening this bug does little good for you (since you didn't provide any information we'd need to diagnose *your* issue). File a new bug report about your problem using 'ubuntu-bug xorg'.

[rc3 (midnightcodr)]

I use KVM and I have this problem too with my Compaq WF1907 monitor (which can do 1440x900@60HZ). It exists in both 9.04 and 9.10 (can't remember if I had that problem too before 9.04). My workaround is to add a Subsection after the line Default Depth 24. In my case my Screen settings in /etc/X11/xorg.con is now

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Default Screen"
    Monitor "Configured Monitor"
    Device "Configured Video Device"
    DefaultDepth 24
### the following does not exist in the default configuration
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1440x900_60.0"
    EndSubSection
### end adding
EndSection

I think users should be allowed to choose either use automatic or fixed configuration (good settings in last boot) by changing a file in /etc/default, just like one can choose to use DHCP or fixed IP for their network card.

Have to say this thing drove me insane and I am glad I found a way to fix it.

[Abscissa (business4)]

@Bryce Harrington:
I switched back to the regular OSS driver, and the problem persists. This is *not* an nvidia driver issue (or at least is not limited to the nvidia driver).

Also note that many people, with different configurations from the original reporter, *have* filed their own reports, but they keep getting closed as being duplicates of this issue. So apparently neither a new bug report nor reopening the original is correct, so I'm not sure what I'm truly expected to do, keep taking the run-around until I give up and pretend the problem doesn't exist?

Additionally, rc3's workaround does not work for me with either the OSS driver or the nvidia one.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[See my previous comment]