Can't use "non-mirrored" resolution with two monitors

[Mauricio Pretto]

When trying to configure my two screens I get the message :
required virtual size does not fit available size: requested=(3129, 1050), minimum=(320, 200), maximum=(1680, 1680)
The two screens have different sizes

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: gnome-control-center 1:3.1.92-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-11.18-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-11-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx wl
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Sep 22 08:20:33 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Beta amd64+mac (20110919)
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
usr_lib_gnome-control-center:
 deja-dup 19.92-0ubuntu1
 gnome-bluetooth 3.1.4-0ubuntu2
 indicator-datetime 0.2.95-0ubuntu1

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately, we cannot work on this bug because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.

We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures

At a minimum, we need:
1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem,
2. the behavior you expected, and
3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
Thanks!

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

is that still an issue? could you add your Xorg.0.log? it seems your video card or driver doesn't handle that virtual resolution and 3d...

[Marius Kjeldahl (marius-kjeldahl)]

For my case, I think it was related to the proprietary ATI drivers (fglrx), suggested by Ubuntu after installing. I said go ahead, and installation failed, but I think it still managed to install enough so that the proprietary drivers were used after the next boot. That's when I got the error mentioned in this bug. Using the ATI supplied tools (amdccc) etc, I was able to extend the desktop, but only using Xinerama. I have an older ATI card (RV730), which may be related, as I chatted with another ATI user with a more recent card that claimed he was able to extend his desktop with amdccc without resorting to Xinerama.

My solutions was to thoroughly clean the system of fglrx (using methods found through googling) and restart with the open source drivers, when everything seems to be working fine again (desktop extended - no problem).

[Mauricio Pretto (pretto)]

I still have this problem with fglrx and without
will post more info right after I finish a call

[Mauricio Pretto (pretto)]

System Settings --> Displays
Click on the second monitor
Turn on the second monitor with the resolution of 1600x900
Click Apply
get the error:
required virtual size does not fit available size: requested=(3280, 1050), minimum=(320, 200), maximum=(1680, 1680)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

it seems that your issue is that your driver limit the virtual resolution to 1680x1680 and the settings you try to apply go over than, could you add Xorg.0.log to the bug? The limitation seems a driver one, g-c-c could still have a better error message but I'm not sure it can do a lot about the limitation

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

It looks like that's a genuine driver restriction. I didn't think that fglrx had this restriction, though. I'll ask our fglrx expert, Alberto Milone about it.

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

This would appear to be a bug in fglrx's XRandR support. You should be able to make this work with the AMD control centre, though, as a work around.

[Mauricio Pretto (pretto)]

In reply to #12
This happens both with fglrx and without .

In reply to #13
When doing this with amdcccle, we get the bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/647802 , which is private and I can't see it
but it's a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-installer/+bug/862885

[Mauricio Pretto (pretto)]

Hello,
today after a few days away from my desktop I have installed the following package

ii fglrx-updates 2:8.881-0ubuntu6 Video driver for the AMD graphics accelerators

Now I can use amdcccle to set the screen correctly and save, no crashes .

[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

I could not install the fglrx-updates via jockey.
The errors are shown in the attached jockey.log

[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

And this is what happens when I try to install fglrx-updates via apt-get.

me@mypc:~$ sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  fglrx-amdcccle-updates
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  fglrx fglrx-amdcccle
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  fglrx-amdcccle-updates fglrx-updates
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/41.8 MB of archives.
After this operation, 8,192 B disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
(Reading database ... 249443 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing fglrx-amdcccle ...
Removing fglrx ...
Removing all DKMS Modules
Done.
update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /usr/lib/fglrx/ld.so.conf because link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf is broken.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/bin/amdcccle because associated file /usr/lib/fglrx/bin/amdcccle (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/share/applications/ubuntu-amdcccle.desktop because associated file /usr/share/fglrx/amdcccle.desktop (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/share/applications/ubuntu-amdccclesu.desktop because associated file /usr/share/fglrx/amdccclesu.desktop (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/bin/amdupdaterandrconfig because associated file /usr/lib/fglrx/bin/amdupdaterandrconfig (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/bin/amdxdg-su because associated file /usr/lib/fglrx/bin/amdxdg-su (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: not replacing /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xorg/extra-modules with a link.
update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /usr/lib/fglrx/ld.so.conf because link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf is broken.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/bin/amdcccle because associated file /usr/lib/fglrx/bin/amdcccle (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/share/applications/ubuntu-amdcccle.desktop because associated file /usr/share/fglrx/amdcccle.desktop (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/share/applications/ubuntu-amdccclesu.desktop because associated file /usr/share/fglrx/amdccclesu.desktop (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/bin/amdupdaterandrconfig because associated file /usr/lib/fglrx/bin/amdupdaterandrconfig (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/bin/amdxdg-su because associated file /usr/lib/fglrx/bin/amdxdg-su (of link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: not replacing /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xorg/extra-module...

[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

In a fresh install of Oneiric, I had a dual screen setup with 3D capability adequate for compiz effects.
Then I tried fglrx but had issues with the dual monitor setup and setting resolutions with amdcccle so I uninstalled fglrx.

However, it seems that there are some after effects of having had fglrx installed which mean some packages need to be reinstalled.

These steps got me back to a clean dual monitor setup with the free radeon driver for both a radeon 5870 and a 5770.

http://gurrier.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/amd-video-problems-in-ubuntu-11-10-oneiric-ocelot/

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hey pretto,

Hi, thanks for reporting this issue during the development period of
Ubuntu.

I notice there's not been further comments to the bug report since the
release came out, would you mind updating us on the status of it in the
release?

Are you still able to reproduce the issue? If not, do you think the bug
report can be closed, or do you think we should continue tracking it?

[Mattias Backman (mabac)]

I can confirm that this is still a problem in the released Oneric. I did get the exact same errors when using a dual monitor setup. Installing the updated with jockey also failed.

The only solution I have found is the one Tony posted to uninstall fglrx and reinstall some other packages. Thanks, now I have dual monitors working again.

[AmateurDev (guitrguy595)]

Are you saying that you got the radeon driver to work? How so? My graphics card is no longer supported by AMD, so I can't install the proprietary driver, but I still get the virtual size limitation using the radeon driver. I can set the dual monitors using xrandr, but that messes up the desktop and causes window (dragging/tearing?).

[Mauricio Pretto (pretto)]

The only way to make mine work was doing a fresh install, full update, not installing the proprietary ADM drivers and using the open source one, then it worked, I'm using two screens no problem, never tried to switch to the proprietary again because if I do so I have to reinstall everything to make it back working again

[Sasa Stamenkovic (umpirsky)]

When I select 1024X768 or any other lower resolution I get:

The selected configuration for displays could not be applied

required virtual size does not fit available size: requested=(2704, 1050), minimum=(320, 200), maximum=(1680, 1680)

[Replay (wpfanner)]

I have resolved the issue by restoring the deafult video drivers for the system.

sudo apt-get purge fglrx*

sudo reboot now

Works like a charm :)

[Charlie Halford (soupmonster)]

I'm seeing the same problem with an fglrx package version of 2:8.960-0ubuntu1.1.

Removing fglrx really isn't option, especially on an LTS release.

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

This is really a limitation in the RandR implementation of the fglrx driver which doesn't support dynamic front buffer reallocation. There is nothing we can do about this.

[Charlie Halford (soupmonster)]

Thanks for responding to this. Rather than close the issue, can we either:

1) Track this as a bug with the fglrx drivers upstream or
2) Catch the error setting the virtual resolution and display a friendly error message like "Your video driver does not support extending your screen between multiple monitors. Please use the vendor supplied settings application."
3) Do a check before enabling the toggle for mirrored screens. This would only become enabled when a vendor supported "dynamic front buffer reallocation"