cannot change video resolution with gnome-display-properties when g-s-d is not running

[Gordon Hopper]

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

Changing the screen resolution with gnome-display-properties does not work. I changed the resolution and enabled both monitors, but when I click apply, nothing happens. If I close it and run it again, the settings have reverted to their original values.

Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1525, using HDMI out to drive the 2nd monitor.

This may be a duplicate of bug #282739. Perhaps the additional logs attached to this bug will help diagnose the issue.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: d85a40e5af32d8d5dced62f71185d49a
CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
Date: Tue Oct 6 19:33:33 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-display-properties
Package: gnome-control-center 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu4
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-12.39-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-12-generic x86_64

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, does it work if you use the xrand command line option?

[Gordon Hopper (gohopper)]

Applies to the internal laptop screen also. Changing display settings with gnome-display-properties does not work (the apply button has no effect). Using xrandr on the command line works. Using xfce4-display-settings will change the resolution on the primary display, but it does not list the second display.

[Gordon Hopper (gohopper)]

update: gnome-display-properties works when in a Gnome session, but not in an Xfce session. This probably goes without saying to the developers of the respective projects. However, since the menu item is named simply "Display", it is not immediately obvious why the display settings applet does not work.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

not really a bug since it's gnome-settings-daemon which is in charge of applying the gnome-control-center change, it's also true for other settings

[Gordon Hopper (gohopper)]

I expect this bug will be marked as "wont fix", but I would like one of the Gnome developers to weigh in on that.

Options to fix gnome-display-properties include:
1. g-d-p automatically starts up g-s-d if it is not running
2. g-d-p reports an error, and refuses to run if g-s-d is not running (it could report, e.g., "This program may be run only with the Gnome environment." or "A required Gnome service is not running.")

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

To send to GNOME by somebody who want this change, the issue is too much of a corner case to be worked by the team there, there is already a lot of bugs happening in the default installation to work before starting on bugs about people trying to make GNOME components work when not running GNOME

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

nobody seemed interested enough to send it to GNOME so closing