xorg.conf deleted during upgrade; native resolution no longer works

[Jeroen T. Vermeulen]

I just upgraded a desktop system from 13.10 to 14.04, and to my horror found that the monitor's native resolution was no longer supported: the best setting offered was 1024×768 or somesuch.

Turns out the upgrade deleted xorg.conf. There were two backups: one with the date as a suffix (.01052014) and one with just ".backup" as a suffix. The one with the date didn't look like what I had before, so I restored xorg.conf from xorg.conf.backup instead.

Now I think I'm back in the resolution I had before (after going to the Display settings), but there's something wrong. The resolution isn't quite the native one so many pixels are fuzzy, causing my eyes to ache, and the font inside menus looks a few sizes too small. It's hard to read and leaves a lot of horizontal space in the menus unused. It also makes kerning look irregular.

The monitor is an Iiyama ProLite E2407HDSV. It's supposed to do 1920×1080, but the best I can get working properly in the Display settings is 1680×1050. The next step up, 1920×1080, won't show the entire screen — large swathes of the desktop fall outside the physical display.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.46-generic 3.13.9
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 304.117 Tue Nov 26 21:36:39 PST 2013
 GCC version: gcc version 4.8.2 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1)
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Thu May 1 21:47:44 2014
DistUpgraded: 2014-05-01 21:23:35,494 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 nvidia-304-updates, 304.117, 3.11.0-20-generic, i686: installed
 nvidia-304-updates, 304.117, 3.13.0-24-generic, i686: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 210] [10de:0a65] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: CardExpert Technology Device [10b0:1401]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-02-17 (1168 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=5e1d12d5-4c62-426b-aa1a-ab9e6aac90b7 ro quiet splash
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-05-01 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 06/17/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 2102
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: M4A79XTD EVO
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev X.0X
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr2102:bd06/17/2010:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnM4A79XTDEVO:rvrRevX.0X:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11+14.04.20140409-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.0-4ubuntu5
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.0-4ubuntu5
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Thu May 1 21:45:41 2014
xserver.configfile: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:

xserver.version: 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2

[Jeroen T. Vermeulen (jtv)]

Also, I don't know if these are related, but window menus now appear not only at the top of the screen or in the window's title bar (depending on the new configuration setting in 14.04), but also in the classic pre-Unity location: right below the window's title bar.

[Jeroen T. Vermeulen (jtv)]

It's beginning to look like an nvidia driver problem. I tried switching to Noveau; that left me with a resolution of 640×480, with no other options. (In case you're wondering: it looks great but isn't very practical). Switching back to the proprietary driver deleted my xorg.conf again. After a few times back and forth between the two drivers, and restoring xorg.conf, I now suddenly find that most of the fuzzy pixels are gone, the GUI fonts look good again, the menu bars are back to the Unity style, and looking at the screen no longer hurts my eyes!

No idea what happened, or why making the same changes earlier didn't produce the same effects. Let's just hope it stays the way it looks now.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to review all reported bugs in a timely manner. You reported this bug some time ago and there have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time.

Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty) reached end-of-standard-support on April 25, 2019

Do you still see a problem related to the one that you reported when using a currently supported version of Ubuntu? Please let us know if you do otherwise this report can be left to expire in approximately 60 days time.

Thank you for helping make Ubuntu better.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xorg (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]