Grub screen cuts off to the left since upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04

[Steve Cohen]

Since Upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04- all versions have had this problem , 12.04, 12.10, 13.04.

The grub screen is cut off on the left, but otherwise functional. Still, it would be nice to be able to read it.

boot-repair did not help. Report from there is at http://paste.ubuntu.com/6307517/

Screen shot is attached:

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: grub2-common 2.00-13ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-32.47-generic 3.8.13.10
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-32-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.5
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Oct 26 12:23:24 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-23 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release i386 (20130424)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub2
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Is your monitor connected with DVI or HDMI or an old SVGA cable?

[Steve Cohen (stevecoh1)]

It's an old-style VGA cable.

[Steve Cohen (stevecoh1)]

or SVGA, I don' t really know the difference. But definitely not DVI or HDMI

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Ok, then this is just a design defect with VGA signals. Either switch to a DVI/HDMI connection, or you need to use the knobs on the monitor to adjust the position.

[Steve Cohen (stevecoh1)]

Why then is there no problem with whatever is booted to out of GRUB? Switching the DVI or HDMI is not an option. I don't think that either the computer or monitor support those options.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Grub is probably using a different video mode than the rest of the system. Each different video mode requires vga monitors to be adjusted for that mode. Play with the buttons on the monitor and you should be able to fix it.

[Steve Cohen (stevecoh1)]

actually, I could not. No setting made the problem go away. One setting used less of the screen, but that didn't matter. I STILL saw the same cutoff screen only further to the right with empty space to the left.

What's so special about GRUB? Why can't it use the same monitor settings that Ubuntu itself (or the BIOS screen for that matter) seems to find without difficulty? I am tempted to say that the inability to detect the proper video mode is a bug in GRUB. Nothing else has this problem.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

The bios chooses the exact signal timings. Some monitors don't give enough range on their adjustments to make the signal fit the screen, but there's nothing grub can do about it, short of asking the bios for a different video mode. You may want to configure grub to use another mode and see if that works around the problem.

[Steve Cohen (stevecoh1)]

What settings should I look for?

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

See the GRUB_GFXMODE setting in /etc/default/grub.

[Steve Cohen (stevecoh1)]

OK, finally to the bottom of this.

Setting GRUB_GFXMODE to 640x480 worked. I had previously tried with no setting for this variable or with 1920*1080, the preferred 16x9 aspect ratio of my monitor. Neither worked. No 16x9 aspect ratios are supported by vbeinfo.