Ubuntu breaks display resolution. Again.

aidan_walsh

le sigh. This silly dance again.

Another distro upgrade, another monitor resolution issue. This time Ubuntu 11.10 failing to recognise that my Acer AL1916W goes anywhere above 1024x768.

I've tried creating a resolution profile getting the values from cvt and adding them as an xrandr new mode, but when I try to switch to that mode it just dies with the error Configure crtc 0 failed.

Any suggestions, because Google is only giving me what I've done already?

Khannie

Have you the correct graphics card drivers installed? (just make sure it's not using stupid vesa drivers or whatever).

aidan_walsh

Hmm. The machine's spec sheet says its using an nvidia NFP3400 with its own included chipset. Ubuntu does have nvidia-common 0.2.35 installed. However checking in System Info the graphics driver is listed as Unknown.

EDIT: Right, ran lspci and its giving me back a Matrox MGA G200e [Pilot] ServerEngines (SEP1)(rev 02) for the VGA controller.

Stuxnet

the way i get the high res on my laptop connected to my external monitor, is to actually disable the laptop monitor itself while its outputting via hdmi, otherwise it's just outputting 1366 X 768 to the monitor, and you cant increase it, doesnt look right on a 22" obviously, when laptop display is disabled, you will be able increase res of the second monitor, and be able use overscan to fill the black borders if needs be !

radeon hd 5xxx using catalyst ati 11.8 (11.9 is broken in linux ive read) will not work without proprietary driver for me

humbert

aidan_walsh

Right. So. Hmm.

Reinstalled 10.10 since that was the last version to properly support the card. Will do an upgrade from there. Except 10.10 isn't recognising that 11.10 is out yet. So if I do that I have to do so via 11.04.

aidan_walsh

So the upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04 killed it again. At this point I noticed that the major change here was dropping xserver-xorg-video-nv and starting supporting xserver-xorg-video-nouveau. Uninstalled that and reinstalled the legacy driver from the natty universe and... nothing. Still the same.

Of two minds to go back to 10.10 and stay there, or find another distro altogether at this rate.

Tom Dunne

So it's not just me?

I have 11.04 connected to the TV running xbmc and when I was going to bed last night, stupidly decided to allow it to update.

Got up this morning to a hung Ubuntu boot up screen.

Khannie

aidan_walsh wrote: »

So the upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04 killed it again. At this point I noticed that the major change here was dropping xserver-xorg-video-nv and starting supporting xserver-xorg-video-nouveau. Uninstalled that and reinstalled the legacy driver from the natty universe and... nothing. Still the same.

Of two minds to go back to 10.10 and stay there, or find another distro altogether at this rate.

I don't think you should need the universe one. Try system->administration->additional drivers. That should offer you some semi-supported nvidia proprietary drivers.

Khannie

Tom Dunne wrote: »

So it's not just me?

I have 11.04 connected to the TV running xbmc and when I was going to bed last night, stupidly decided to allow it to update.

Got up this morning to a hung Ubuntu boot up screen.

Personally I never update a working HTPC unless I desperately need to. Once that sucker's working I just leave it be.

As for the upgrade... general experience with updating ubuntu is that you've around a 50/50 chance of it going to the crapper if you upgrade within two weeks of the new OS launch. Usually it's just something small, but it can take a bit of effort to find out what that small thing is.

Tom Dunne

Khannie wrote: »

Personally I never update a working HTPC unless I desperately need to. Once that sucker's working I just leave it be.

Yeah, normally I would, but I was listening to music after a few pints, so wasn't thinking all that clearly.

Khannie wrote:

As for the upgrade... general experience with updating ubuntu is that you've around a 50/50 chance of it going to the crapper if you upgrade within two weeks of the new OS launch. Usually it's just something small, but it can take a bit of effort to find out what that small thing is.

Now you tell me.

Nah, I'm pretty sure it is to do with the ATI video driver (can't find the fgrlx drm module), so I'll keep digging around the web. Anything to avoid editing xorg.conf.

aidan_walsh

Khannie wrote: »

I don't think you should need the universe one. Try system->administration->additional drivers. That should offer you some semi-supported nvidia proprietary drivers.

Nothing, with everything except Source Code checked in Software Sources.

Khannie

That's odd. You could try installing the nvidia drivers from the nvidia site, though it becomes slightly painful to recompile the modules each time you get a new kernel (I have a vague recollection that there's a new shiny automated way to do this but I've never had to look into it).

octo

Tom Dunne wrote: »

So it's not just me?

I have 11.04 connected to the TV running xbmc and when I was going to bed last night, stupidly decided to allow it to update.

Got up this morning to a hung Ubuntu boot up screen.

Exact same happened me.... any tips how tio get out of it? Any way to get back to previous installation? (Ubuntu/Linux novice here....)

aidan_walsh

Khannie wrote: »

That's odd. You could try installing the nvidia drivers from the nvidia site, though it becomes slightly painful to recompile the modules each time you get a new kernel (I have a vague recollection that there's a new shiny automated way to do this but I've never had to look into it).

In the end I just went back to 10.10. Too much to be doing to be arsed fecking around with it any more.

Khannie

Yeah, seems prudent.

Tom Dunne

octo wrote: »

Exact same happened me.... any tips how tio get out of it? Any way to get back to previous installation? (Ubuntu/Linux novice here....)

I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but what I am going to do is boot up from a live USB stick and do a repair install.

That should revert it back to 11.04.

I'll let you know how I get on this weekend.