Widescreen LCD resolution incorrect.

[Murray Cumming]

My Acer Travelmate 4101WLMI laptop has a 1280x800 (widescreen/WXGA) screen, but
the System/Preferences/Screen Resolution control panel only offers 1024x768 at
60Hz. The laptop has Integrated Intel 915GM 3D PCI-Express graphics (with "Intel
Graphics Accelerator Media 900 Technology").

I tried using 855resolution. That does give me the extra resolution choice in
System/Preferences/Screen Resolution but the screen then becomes scrollable
instead of all fitting into the screen at the higher resolution.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

This is with Breezy.

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

hrm. could you please attach /var/log/Xorg.0.log?

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

Created an attachment (id=4859)
Xorg.0.log (with the resolution at 1024x768)

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

By the way, I tried this with 915resolution (using these more detailed
instructions, for apparently the same laptop:
http://surrey.lug.org.uk/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?TravelMate4100WLMi), after removing
855resolution, but the effect is the same.

[Kristian Hoegsberg (krh-bitplanet)]

Are you sure the native resolution of your display isn't 1280x768? The log shows that bios has a mode for this resolution, it would be interesting to see if that works.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

> Are you sure the native resolution of your display isn't 1280x768?

Apparently it;s 1280x800. But I have already tried 1280x768 with 915resolution, and in xorg.conf, just in case. It just removes the vertical scrollable area.

[Vegar Nilsen (vegar-nilsen)]

Try the i810 driver from http://www.fairlite.demon.co.uk/intel.html and add something like this to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

(Copy it to /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/ after you've made a backup of the version already there.)

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Intel Corporation Intel Default Card"
        Driver "i810"
        Option "ForceBIOS" "1024x768=1920x1200"
EndSection

It's the ForceBIOS line that is essential, replace 1920x1200 with the resolution of your laptop's display.

[Simo Hellsten (simohell)]

Since this is not closed yet, maybe a little comment:

Some laptops with 915GM required 915resolution to set all small resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768) to enable the desired wide screen mode (1280x768 or 1280x800).

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=110185

With Dapper 6.04 915resolution seems to work the way it should, but then again my 915GM is not identified at all and i810 wont work... thus using vesa.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

I tried setting all resolutions to 1280x800 (I also tried 1280x768, though I believe my LCD does 1280x800). When I do that, X crashes during startup.

[Martin Bergner (martin-bergner)]

This is not a duplicate of 5801, since we have an Intel Chipset here, and not an nvidia one.

Is this still an issue with Dapper or Edgy?

[Martin Bergner (martin-bergner)]

I collected all incorrect resolution bugs for the i10 driver in this bug (I think it's the oldest), if someone doesn't think the general description of a duplicate is "I don't have this or that resolution on my laptop" please remove it

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

Yes, this is still an issue for me in Dapper. I have not tried Egdy yet.

[Dale (quail-linux)]

I have a Acer Aspire 5601AWLMi Laptop with Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics and have to use the 915resolution program to get the correct resolution 1280x800.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

I still think that this is two classes of bug:
- 915resolution needed to fix the resolution.
- Even 915resolution can't fix the problem, because it just makes the screen scrollable.

[Martin Bergner (martin-bergner)]

915resolution is just a hack and doesn't work for all people, that's true, so your bug should probably be filed under 915resolution. The upstream driver should at some point in the future have no need for the 915resolution package, so I think the bugs are still similar and related to the overall "I don't get the right resolution because the driver is bad". However, I agree that I might have taken the wrong bug as a starting point for all other bugs.

[Hannes Hauswedell (hannes-hauswedell)]

i also wanted to note, that i do get the "right" resolution when using
915resolution, its just that its the ONLY resolution i get (even if i
try to add others with 915resolution).
xrandr loses support for all resolutions other than the "right" one.
this is really annoying, since many apps really need to change
resolutions, especially games. also for development pruposes it is
necessary to check apps on lower resolutions.

greetings
hannes
2006/10/9, Martin Bergner <email address hidden>:
> 915resolution is just a hack and doesn't work for all people, that's
> true, so your bug should probably be filed under 915resolution. The
> upstream driver should at some point in the future have no need for the
> 915resolution package, so I think the bugs are still similar and related
> to the overall "I don't get the right resolution because the driver is
> bad". However, I agree that I might have taken the wrong bug as a
> starting point for all other bugs.
>
> --
> Widescreen LCD resolution incorrect.
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/24927
>

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

I see no improvement with the Edgy Beta LiveCD. I can't risk installing it yet.

[Matthew Garrett (mjg59)]

I don't understand what you mean by "i915resolution just makes the screen scrollable". The Intel modesetting driver is still not stable and causes regressions on some hardware, but is available in universe in edgy and should work acceptably on i915 and higher.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

> I don't understand what you mean by "i915resolution just makes the screen scrollable".

The desktop extends beyond the visible screen. When I move the mouse cursor to the right or bottom of the screen, the screen scrolls so I can use the hidden part of the desktop. There's a little more information at the start of this bug report.

What exactly is this the name of this "Intel modesetting driver", so I can try it when I install Edgy?

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

No improvement with the Edgy install either.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

This probably isn't helped by the upgrade to Edgy, but:

If I install 915resolution, use the (new?) default auto setting, restart, do pkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg, and then change the driver from i810 to vesa, then I get my 1280x800 resolution without scrolling. The Screen Resolution control panel even offers me the smaller resolutions too, whereas it only offers me 1024x768 with i810.

I get vesa is no good for video, but this is good enough for what I need most of the time.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Rejecting bogus component.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

Could you please explain that rejection comment?

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

this bug had a "Affects: xfree86" in it, which I rejected. The valid one remains (xserver-xorg-video-i810)

note that there are several identical bugs open which have several dupes, so the bug database cleanup is not nearly done :)

[Liam McDermott (liam-intermedia-online)]

I can confirm this in Feisty. Using an Acer Aspire 5600 with integrated intel chipset. xorg.conf weirdly has all the right settings in there, but X just won't/can't use them

[Liam McDermott (liam-intermedia-online)]

My apologies, that log is taken after I tried switching the video driver to VESA in an act of desperation. It was previously set to the Intel driver, I checked the Xorg.0.log at that time and it definitely contained the all-important: '(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1280x800" (no mode of this name)' line.

I have now installed 915resolution and all is well. Hacks and workarounds should be avoided though, it would be far more preferable that this 'just work'.

I've included my xorg.conf in the hope that it might be some help. Feisty correctly detects the resolution available for the conf file, why can't X? :)

[amgra (carlos-y-laura)]

Hello, I also have had this problem since 6.04, I also had to "hack" it with 915resolution, and it works on my current 6.10, I downloaded excited the 7.04 hoping this issue was going to be fixed. but With no success, the 7.04 DO NOT works with my Intel 845gm and widescreen monitor 17in. I also had many problems since the botting process, I had to put break=bottom on the command line from the boot CD, then erase the xorg.conf, re-run the gdm-reconfigure choosing a VESA, then downloading the 915resolution, change the xorg.conf with the force bios option, and then voila. it works, but I agree with everybody here, it should "just work". Thank you anyway for your work ubuntu team.

Alex

[unggnu (unggnu)]

Could you please recheck it with Gutsy RC or newer? It is shipped with the new Intel driver which should fix this issue. 915resolution is then not needed anymore.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

Yes, the new driver fixes this for me. As usual, I can't figure out how to close this bug in Launchpad.

[Runar Ingebrigtsen (ringe)]

The new driver doesn't fix this for me. I'll attach a screenshot and Xorg logs.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

@Runar Ingebrigtsen
I guess your problem has something to do with bug Bug #131646.
Try to execute this "xrandr --output TV --off" in console and then try to change to 1280x800. If it doesn't work please post the output of xrandr.

[Peter Clifton (pcjc2)]

Runar, can you post your config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf please..

From the Xorg.0.log, I see lines such as:
(II) intel(0): Not using mode "1280x768" (width too large for virtual size)

Is there a line in there such as:
Virtual 800 600

In the "Screen" section? (Or any Virtual desktop size settings?)

NB: If you want to use multi-head, you may need to specify a virtual size manually to match the total area of the dislpay you want. DRI / Compiz won't work if this exceeds 2048x2048.

[Runar Ingebrigtsen (ringe)]

Running from the 7.10 official release CD, the screen resolution is correct. This is a screenshot from that.

It's funny that this problem appeared after the installation. I'll post the files you asked for.

[Runar Ingebrigtsen (ringe)]

I'm not trying to do anything special. Just regular straight forward wide screen. No TV out, no dual head.

[Peter Clifton (pcjc2)]

Ok, something perhaps went wrong creating that config file,

Please try again after removing the line:

  Virtual 1024 768

In the "Screen" section, and report back whether that works or not.
If so, I'm unsure whether to mark this fix-released (and open a new bug for the misconfiguration), or to keep this bug alive to track the issue.

[Runar Ingebrigtsen (ringe)]

I tried another fresh install, formatting the disk drive, and this time everything looks great. :)