Desktop not completely displayed after install

[Joe Millenbach]

After installing my desktop is shifted to the left and up (can't see that part of the screen). That seems to indicate the wrong resolution or frequency to me. I'm using DVI output and a DVI to HDMI cable (monitor was sold as a monitor, not TV). 1920x1200 is default resolution and it looks like that is what is being displayed, but I think it is using 50.0 Hz (* marks it in xrandr -q output, and is only option for that resolution) instead of something closer to 60 or 59.

I've tried reinstalling, with no change. My screen works fine while inside the installer environment or the "try out Ubuntu" option (whole desktop displayed). I originally had my system working with an old video card, but it broke after switching to a newer card (from Nvidia 8800 GTX to Nvidia 260 216). More recently I replaced the 260 with an Nvidia GTX 480. All of these have worked fine inside Windows 7. This originally showed up in Ubuntu 10.10 with the latest Nvidia drivers (I manually installed newer versions to match what CUDA 4.0 SDK wanted). The fresh install was Ubuntu 11.10 and whatever default driver it offers.
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Screen's (LG - L246WP) native resolution is 1920x1200 Hori. Freq. 74.04kHz Vert. Freq. 59.95Hz according to the specification sheet.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

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[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Hello joe
Are you using proprietary drivers?
Have you already tried the experimental?
Fabio
---
Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

[Joe Millenbach (jmillenbach)]

Yep, I checked and the current driver version from Nvidia seemed to be installed. I'm not sure how to install the experimental version. And not sure how to switch to Nouveau (or if that could help). Command line instructions are preferred.

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

sure, in terminal type
jockey-gtk
disable the propretary and enable experimental if offered
---
Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

[Joe Millenbach (jmillenbach)]

No change after installing "post-release updates" version and rebooting.

[Joe Millenbach (jmillenbach)]

From USB stick (try out Ubuntu), sudo randr -q gives...

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-I-1 connected 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 432mm x 324mm
   1920x1200 60.0*+
   1920x1080 60.0
   1600x1200 60.0
   1680x1050 60.0
   1280x1024 75.0 60.0
   1280x960 75.0
   1024x768 75.1 60.0
   800x600 75.0 60.3
   640x480 75.0 60.0
   720x400 70.1
DVI-I-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

I'll attach output from inside the broken install next. I tried to install "read-edid" into my USB stick, but the package doesn't exist according to apt-get and the software center. And I don't want to apt-get update/upgrade in case that breaks everything.

According to the Xorg.0.log file the USB stick is using the NOUVEAU driver ('Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)'). I think that is probably why it works and my installed version doesn't (it installed the proprietary driver by default). That seems bad that the Nvidia offered driver has problems (if true).

And Grub2's menu displays correctly at what I'm guessing is the default screen resolution. The text is super tiny compared what what I used to see back with 10.10, which I think was using 640x480.

[Joe Millenbach (jmillenbach)]

Randomness...I setup my system to automatically login, but it seems to boot up and let me start a terminal only to show the login prompt (that I can't see). I've worked around it, but that seems broken too and might stop others from even using their system.

Inside broken install sudo xrandr -q gives...

xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 175, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 1920 x 1200
default connected 1920x1200+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1920x1200 50.0*
   1920x1080 51.0 52.0 53.0 54.0 55.0 56.0 57.0
   1680x1050 58.0 59.0
   1600x1200 60.0
   1600x1024 61.0
   1440x900 62.0
   1400x1050 63.0 64.0 65.0
   1360x768 66.0 67.0
   1280x1024 68.0 69.0 70.0
   1280x960 71.0 72.0 73.0
   1280x720 74.0 75.0 76.0
   1152x864 77.0 78.0 79.0 80.0 81.0 82.0 83.0
   1024x768 84.0 85.0 86.0 87.0 88.0 89.0
   960x720 90.0 91.0
   960x600 92.0
   960x540 93.0
   928x696 94.0 95.0
   896x672 96.0 97.0
   840x525 98.0 99.0 100.0 101.0 102.0
   832x624 103.0
   800x600 104.0 105.0 106.0 107.0 108.0 109.0 110.0 111.0 112.0 113.0
   800x512 114.0
   720x576 115.0
   720x480 116.0 117.0
   720x450 118.0
   720x400 119.0
   700x525 120.0 121.0 122.0 123.0
   680x384 124.0 125.0
   640x512 126.0 127.0 128.0
   640x480 129.0 130.0 131.0 132.0 133.0 134.0 135.0
   640x400 136.0
   640x350 137.0
   576x432 138.0 139.0 140.0 141.0 142.0 143.0 144.0
   512x384 145.0 146.0 147.0 148.0 149.0
   416x312 150.0
   400x300 151.0 152.0 153.0 154.0 155.0
   360x200 156.0
   320x240 157.0 158.0 159.0 160.0
   320x200 161.0
   320x175 162.0

And sudo get-edid | parse-edid gives...

parse-edid: parse-edid version 2.0.0
get-edid: get-edid version 2.0.0

 Performing real mode VBE call
 Interrupt 0x10 ax=0x4f00 bx=0x0 cx=0x0
 Function supported
 Call successful

 VBE version 300
 VBE string at 0x11100 "NVIDIA"

VBE/DDC service about to be called
 Report DDC capabilities

 Performing real mode VBE call
 Interrupt 0x10 ax=0x4f15 bx=0x0 cx=0x0
 Function supported
 Call successful

 Monitor and video card combination does not support DDC1 transfers
 Monitor and video card combination supports DDC2 transfers
 0 seconds per 128 byte EDID block transfer
 Screen is not blanked during DDC transfer

Reading next EDID block

VBE/DDC service about to be called
 Read EDID

 Performing real mode VBE call
 Interrupt 0x10 ax=0x4f15 bx=0x1 cx=0x0
 Function supported
 Call successful

parse-edid: EDID checksum passed.
parse-edid: first bytes don't match EDID version 1 header
parse-edid: do not trust output (if any).

 # EDID version 131 revision 1
Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "@XA:1f14"
 VendorName "@XA"
 Mode...

[Joe Millenbach (jmillenbach)]

Problem appears using Nvidia's driver, but not with NOUVEAU. Targeting that package for now. Also appears in "post-release updates" version aka nvidia-current-updates.

[Joe Millenbach (jmillenbach)]

Installed copy is working using the Nouveau driver. Tried to switch by just disabling the "post-release updates" entry in the 3rd party drivers applet. Rebooted and same problem. This might be because I'd created an xorg.conf in the process of trying to fix my problem. It still listed the "nvidia" driver. After switching that line to "nouveau", commenting out the options that seemed related to the proprietary driver, and manually removing the nvidia-current package using "sudo apt-get remove nvidia-current" it seems to be working as I'd expect (whole screen displayed). Not sure all above is required, but it works for me after doing that.

[Joe Millenbach (jmillenbach)]

I'm still stuck using the less accelerated driver. I'd happily report this upstream if I knew where.