Screen resolution not preserved

Bug #351213 reported by Dori
10
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Ubuntu Desktop Bugs

Bug Description

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 with a two monitor setup. I got it setup to work fine with my monitors, then something happened in the last week (maybe an update) that messed up my resolutions. Now when I go to System -> Control Center -> Screen Resolution it does not identify my monitors, and by default when I log in it mirrors the monitors, chooses the wrong one as the primary, and it uses the wrong resolution. I can unmirror it, but it won't let me choose the right resolution in one of the monitors (1280x1025 is not listed as a choice). I can add the choice by running xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1280x1024 and then I can see and choose the mode and it works fine. However if I reboot and log back in I'm stuck in the screwed up state again. I can't figure out how to save the settings. I guess I can muck around with the xorg.conf file but I'd rather I didn't have to. It was working fine earlier so it looks like a regression.

Currently the xorg.conf looks like this:

---
Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Configured Screen Device"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
        SubSection "Display"
                Virtual 2880 1200
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection
---

My primary monitor is 1600x1200 and the other one is 1280x1024.

Thanks

affects: ubuntu → xorg (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Dori (slowpoke+ubuntu) wrote :

It's not xorg that's causing the problem. It appears to be the same thing as #191878 but that one says it was fixed. Is it fixed in 8.10?

Revision history for this message
Dori (slowpoke+ubuntu) wrote :

I just figured out that gnome-display-properties uses ~/.config/monitors.xml and I noticed that there are two configuration entries in there, with different values for my two monitors even though they're the same monitors. I don't know where this info is coming from though:

<monitors version="1">
  <configuration>
      <clone>no</clone>
      <output name="HDMI-0">
      </output>
      <output name="VGA-0">
          <vendor>VSC</vendor>
          <product>0x4b1b</product>
          <serial>0x01010101</serial>
          <width>1280</width>
          <height>1024</height>
          <rate>60</rate>
          <x>1600</x>
          <y>176</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      </output>
      <output name="DVI-0">
          <vendor>DEL</vendor>
          <product>0xa021</product>
          <serial>0x3150554c</serial>
          <width>1600</width>
          <height>1200</height>
          <rate>60</rate>
          <x>0</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      </output>
  </configuration>
  <configuration>
      <clone>no</clone>
      <output name="HDMI-0">
      </output>
      <output name="DVI-0">
          <vendor>DEL</vendor>
          <product>0xa021</product>
          <serial>0x3150554c</serial>
          <width>1600</width>
          <height>1200</height>
          <rate>60</rate>
          <x>0</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      </output>
      <output name="VGA-0">
          <vendor>???</vendor>
          <product>0x0000</product>
          <serial>0x00000000</serial>
          <width>1280</width>
          <height>1024</height>
          <rate>75</rate>
          <x>1600</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      </output>
  </configuration>
</monitors>

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Sounds like xorg is fine, but gnome-display-properties has put the configuration into a confused state.

affects: xorg (Ubuntu) → gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please answer these questions:

 * Is this reproducible?
 * If so, what specific steps should we take to recreate this bug?

 This will help us to find and resolve the problem.

Changed in gnome-control-center (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → desktop-bugs
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Dori (slowpoke+ubuntu) wrote :

Happens every time, steps:
1. log in

Revision history for this message
Dori (slowpoke+ubuntu) wrote :

I should also mention that I tried removing the monitor.xml file, and it still got recreated with the second monitor having:
          <vendor>???</vendor>
          <product>0x0000</product>
          <serial>0x00000000</serial>

My guess is that whatever it's using to detect the monitor either changed, or got broken, and since that's its way of not recognizing a monitor, when I log in, it can't find the settings for my monitor as it only has an invalid one.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

can you run xrandr -q and copy that to the bug?

Revision history for this message
Dori (slowpoke+ubuntu) wrote :

$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2880 x 1200, maximum 2880 x 1200
VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+1600+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1360x768 59.8
   1152x864 60.0
   1024x768 60.0
   800x600 60.3
   640x480 59.9
   1280x1024 75.0*
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-0 connected 1600x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 367mm x 275mm
   1600x1200 60.0*+ 60.0
   1680x1050 60.0
   1600x1024 60.2
   1400x1050 74.8 70.0 60.0
   1280x1024 75.0 60.0 60.0
   1440x900 59.9
   1280x960 60.0
   1360x768 59.8
   1152x864 75.0 75.0 75.0 70.0 60.0
   1024x768 75.1 75.0 70.1 60.0
   832x624 74.6
   800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
   640x480 75.0 72.8 75.0 60.0 59.9
   720x400 70.1

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

no clue about that one, should be sent to bugzilla.gnome.org, where the people writting the code will read it, by somebody having the issue

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

did you send the bug to GNOME?

Changed in gnome-control-center (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Joachim R. (jro) wrote :

This bug is reproducible with only one monitor.
Everything was OK with "nv" driver, but once you choose "nvidia", the resolution was respected only until gdm login screen. After login, a default setup for "Default Monitor" in ~/.config/monitor.xml took place.
My monitor.xml had also a "DVI0" entry that was correctly filled when I set nv driver. But this entry wasn't used when I set driver to "nvidia".

I know that the gnome-display-properties is able to detect when it is unable to detect screen because of proprietary drivers : you get a message asking if you would use your propietary setting manager instead ; so why since Ubuntu 9.04 Gnome started to really set desktop resolution with the monitor.xml default entry ??

A proper description of this bug would be : "Gnome regression : Gnome changes desktop resolution to default monitor.xml entry at session start when proprietary drivers in use".
(so my workaround is to modify monitor.xml default entry to reflect my monitor's resolution)

Revision history for this message
Pedro Villavicencio (pedro) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. A new version of GNOME Control Center is available on Maverick and we are wondering if this bug is still an issue for you with that version? Could you please test and comment back? Thanks in advance.

Changed in gnome-control-center (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Joachim R. (jro) wrote :

No problem since Ubuntu 9.10 and my new LCD. I cannot remmeber wich one fixed the problem first.
Now with Maverick monitor.xml is now referencing my monitor as default and as DVI0, wich seems correct.
But : gnome-display-properties isn't using the good values stored in monitor.xml for refresh rate. I understand that gnome-display-properties isn't approrpiate with nvidia non-free drivers, but why monitor.xml is coorect and not gnome-display-properties ?

Changed in gnome-control-center (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Fix Released
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