Only 60 Hz display refresh available from gnome screen resolution utility

[David Balažic]

Installed 5.10 , got a shock to my eyes.
The GNOME screen resolution utildoes not offer any other value than 60 Hz.

The setup is of course capable more, some excerpts from the X log file :

(II) RADEON(0): Supported VESA Video Modes:
(II) RADEON(0): 720x400@70Hz
(II) RADEON(0): 640x480@60Hz
(II) RADEON(0): 800x600@60Hz
(II) RADEON(0): 800x600@75Hz
(II) RADEON(0): 1024x768@60Hz
(II) RADEON(0): 1024x768@75Hz
...
(II) RADEON(0): #2: hsize: 1024 vsize 768 refresh: 85 vid: 22881

I'll attach the entire log and the config file.

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Created an attachment (id=5442)
da log

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Created an attachment (id=5443)
the conf file

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

please attach the output of sudo xresprobe ati

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Created an attachment (id=5467)
output of xresprobe ati

[Henrik Nilsen Omma (henrik)]

Hello,

Have you had a chance to test your hardware with dapper (a live CD perhaps)? If so are you still seeing this problem? Thanks.

- Henrik

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

I tested with Dapper Flight 6 live CD.
Same.
Monitor runs at 60 Hz.
The preferences applet only offers 60 Hz.

[Fabio Massimo Di Nitto (fabbione)]

Your monitor does not return any kind of information about its own frequencies and the supported resolutions are somehow.. weird.. can you confirm that resolution set is correct?

Thanks
Fabio

PS VESA modes are not reliable when you need to go on resolutions higher of what VESA offers. In this case your monitor is telling us that it supports 3133x849, that's nowhere in the VESA list and it doesn't tell us what freq range to use for that.

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Correct in what way ?
It is a multisync monitor. It supports more or less any resolution until the physical limits if the screen (or more, it will be a bit blurred then) and the refresh limits, which are, from my memory : 30-95 kHz horizontal and 50-150 Hz

(in the X log one can see, that it supports 1024x768 at 85 Hz, which more than enough)

[Matthew Lange (matthewlange)]

Same as bug #5801?

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Ubuntu 6.06 desktop i386 CD

I started the live environment.

Same as before.

[Stéphane Marguet (stemp)]

David, are you still experiencing this issue ?
Could you please provide an update for us on whether or not this is still a problem with Edgy or Feisty ?

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" - Alpha i386 (20070215)

live environment

Only 60 Hz used.

xorg 1:7.1.1ubuntu7

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Herd 5 ... no surprise : 60 Hz

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

From my Herd 5 system :

$ sudo xresprobe ati
id:
res: 3133x849 1573x577 1280x1024 1024x768 960x768 960x720 880x880 847x866 800x600 760x608 720x400 640x480 248x248
freq:
disptype: crt

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Another system with a radeon 8500 , booting Feisty Herd 5 (desktop i386 CD). (a small wonder, it actually uses the radeon driver instead of VESA)

$ sudo xresprobe ati
id: S700JT1
res: 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480
freq: 30-70 50-130
disptype: crt

"sudo ddcprobe" output attached

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

xorg.conf and X log both from the radeon 8500 system

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

Hello

Your VertRefresh as is in xorg.conf limits the vertical frash rate. Change it for the correct value of your monitor or remove it.

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Generic Monitor"
 Option "DPMS"
 HorizSync 28-51 --> Remove or change this for the correct value
 VertRefresh 43-60 --> Remove or change this for the correct value
EndSection

I hope this help

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

The bug is about "why did ubuntu put that limit there in the first place ?"
If we're hacking by hand, I can just download a distro from 1995 and do it there.

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

You are rigth, of course.

may be related bug #105629 is the same?

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

David: but what resolution did you get after install? The livecd can still sometimes fail to get reasonable results from xresprobe. If it still fails with feisty final, please attach your /var/log/casper.log

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

That info is in the log file(s) I posted.
You mean on the installed system ? I never bothered to install it (judging from the bugcount in live, I did not see the point)

[Martin Sondergaard (linux-sondergaard)]

I have a similar problem, with a different graphics system.
Could this be related to the bug reported here?
If not, I might report it elsewhere.

I have a SiS 730 graphics system, which means its on-board graphics,
on a SiS motherboard. I think its not a very good graphics system.

The highest resolution I can get is 1280 * 1024, and its only 60 Hz!
I am using Ubuntu 7.4.

I have a dual-boot system, so I can boot into Windows XP on the same computer.
In Windows XP, I can get 1280 * 1024 at 60 Hz or 75 Hz or 85 Hz.
In Windows XP I can also get 1600 * 1200 at various frequencies up to 75 Hz.

I must admit that the good resolutions and frequencies that I can get
in Windows XP are only possible when using 16 bit color depth.
I.e. 16 bits per pixel.
When I set color depth to 32 bits per pixel then I can only
get 1280 * 1024 at 60 Hz, the same as in Ubuntu.
(I don't know if this is relevant or not, it may not be.)

My monitor is not the problem, it is capable of much better.
When I use it on another computer, it can use 1600 * 1200 at 100 Hz.

This may not count as a bug. It may just be that the app in Gnome
for changing the monitor resolution assumes that everyone
wants to use 32 bit color depth.
This app doesn't offer me the ability to change the color depth.

But for me personally, with my graphics system,
I'd like to be offered a higher refresh rate than 60 Hz,
even if I have to accept a lower color depth with it.

I have heard that I can probably fix this problem by editing "xorg.conf".
That may be able to solve my problem.
But I wonder if this is a bug, and whether it is likely to be fixed.
I'm a Linux newbie, so I'm curious about whether this is a bug,
and what happens when a bug is reported.

If anyone wants to see the contents of my config file,
tell me what to type into the terminal.

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" - Alpha i386 (20070914)

60 Hz after booting the live CD.
Did not check the resolution change applet.

[Encho Petrov (headless)]

I'm using a nvidia gpu and I've the same problem with the resolution change applet... If I use the nv driver it is limited to only 60 Hz screen resolution - no more, no less. If I install the nvidia driver, i can change the resolution to 50, 51 and 56 Hz from the applet, but from nvidia-settings I can change it to whatever value I wrote in the xorg.conf file. This goes for Ubuntu 6.10, 7.04, 7.10

p.s. excuse me for the bad english, it's not my native language

[Hadmut Danisch (hadmut)]

I have a similar problem:

After upgrading to 7.10, my X11 display does not work anymore: The LCD monitor complains that the signal is out of range and tells that it is
1280x1024@60Hz, (the monitor is somewhat older, and can't display that. It worked well with feisty...)

Interestingly, it's not a problem of the upgrade itself: Same problem when booting the 7.10 Ubuntu desktop CD.

[David Balažic (xerces8)]

It appears OK in 7.10 , so I'm closing the bug.

[doobydave (dooby-dave)]

On freshly installed + updated 7.10 64-bit there are still issues.

Monitor detection fails, but I can select exact type within the 'screens and graphics' GUI (iiyama VM pro 510). This causes load of modline to be added to xorg.conf

Trouble is they are not accessible - even after reboot.

I am using the restricted nvdia driver with an 8400 series card

[doobydave (dooby-dave)]

After disabling the nvidia driver and re-selecting my monitor - the refresh rate choices are different, but even if I select 85Hz, log out and in again - it doesn't work.

Interestingly, the other refresh rate choices have vanished from the 'screens and graphic' section leaving only 75 Hz. (the only choice available from the 'screen resolution' gui)

With the nvidia driver, the choices were all much lower eg. 50 54.

[Erich (erich-dataway)]

no Radeon, i tried different graph-cards, different chipsets. i believe the problem is, that ubuntu cannot regognize the monitor, and instead of letting the user choose the features of the monitor, it sets just everything to default for LCD-Displays. but there are still people using Crt-displays, where 60Hz V-freq is absolutely unusable. the linux wich allways could do that right, was mandrake. but i prefer to use ubuntu!
dear developers, please correct this. please. it's the only problem with ubuntu, wich stays since years.

kind regards
erich

[Nomax (nomax)]

Same problem with a Lucid Lynx (10.04 LTS) fresh install.
I have an ATI Radeon X1600 XT and a Sony E220 17" CRT monitor.