[SLL] Ubuntu/Matrox resolution problem

[Ana]

This has happened to me before too, a long time ago.  I don't know if
my idea will work, but I think I remember doing something like this:

in each "Display" sub-section of the "Screen" section in
/etc/X11/xorg.conf, you probably have "Modes" lines that look like this:

Section "Screen"
    SubSection "Display"
...
        Modes       "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
...

change them all so that they look something like this:
        Modes       "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
or this:
        Modes       "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

restart X, and then check for larger available resolutions in your
screen-resolution preferences.  I think what happens is...  when X
starts it calculates the mode-lines** that will work with your selected
monitor, color depth, and listed resolutions.  (so, btw, you should also
make sure your HorizSync VertRefresh settings are correct.)  If the
largest resolution you have listed in your "Modes" line is 800x600 then
X will not have tried to find compatible mode-lines**.

of course, I'm only pulling this out of my memory.  I'll test it on my
own system now.  (/me runs test)  My test makes me a little more
confident that I'm right.  I hope so.  good luck.

- Ana


** by "mode-lines" I mean the old-style complicated mode lines that used
to be listed by the dozens in the XF86Config file.




On Wed, Dec 19, 2007 at 08:21:14PM -0800, Abha Harting wrote:
> I installed the Matrox modules, and that fixed but only temporarily. I got
> it to go to a higher one, but now it has boomeranged back to the lower
> resolution.
> 
> I set up a lot of users on this one machine as it is donated to a group home
> for disabled adults. The display is 800X600 on all the logins.
> 
> I have spent hours on it, so I am tired of screwing around with it. Still,
> thank you all for the input.
> 
> Abha
> 
> 
> On 12/19/07, Mr.Scrooge <maximilian_bianco at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > I have seen this problem before and in my case , i had
> > to reconfigure the video setup. I forget what i did
> > exactly, i don't use ubuntu anymore. Search the ubuntu
> > forums for reconfiguring the xserver. I printed the
> > instructions out but its been months, if i can find
> > them i will shoot you an email.
> > --- Abha Harting <abhaha at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I just installed Gutsy on an old 600Emhz PIII with
> > > 384 mgs of ram. I had had
> > > an Nvidia AGP card in there, but it was freezing up
> > > and locking the screen
> > > all the time. The only way to get out of it was to
> > > turn the power off. I
> > > read on one of the Ubuntu forums that for some
> > > machines there is a problem
> > > with the Nvidia driver and a number of web browsers
> > > (esp FireFox) that
> > > causes the freezing. It was even freezing during the
> > > install--that got old.
> > >
> > > I decided I just didn't want to keep having to deal
> > > with this, so I went
> > > down to REPC and got a Matrox PCI video card. The
> > > goofy thing is that when
> > > using the live CD and during the install, the
> > > resolution was a lot higher,
> > > and I could set it to my preferred level of
> > > 1024X768.* It was working just
> > > fine.* BUT, now that it is installed and rebooted,
> > > the only options
> > > available are 800X600 and 640X480. This just sucks.
> > >
> > > So, what is up with that? There must be a way to fix
> > > it since it was working
> > > better on the live CD. Any help/suggestions
> > > appreciated.
> > >
> > > Abha
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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