Linux users come across a common problem in which they dont find their native monitor resolution and instead they left with the default resolution of 1024*768. This is because the system couldn’t identify the graphics card driver.
Don’t worry, with simple steps you can add your own desired resolution and make the changes permanent in your system even when the “displays” menu says “unknown” monitor.
xrandr
- Your current resolution will be marked by ‘*’.
cvt 1280 1024 75 (75 denotes the refresh rate in Hz).
- You will get modeline with many paramaters which will look like,
Modeline "1280x1024_75.00" 138.75 1280 1368 1504 1728 1024 1027 1034 1072 -hsync +vsync
xrandr –newmode "1280x1024_75.00" 138.75 1280 1368 1504 1728 1024 1027 1034 1072 -hsync +vsync
Now you can check the new mode by typing the command,
xrandr
xrandr --addmode VGA1 "1280x1024_75.00"
- Type the command to check if the resolution is added.
xrandr
Identifier, for example Identifier "Screen0"
Device, for example Device "Device0"
Monitor, for example Monitor "VGA1"
Driver, for example Driver “ i915”
- Mostly identifier and device name can be obtained from “displays” option from “dash home”
- While monitor can checked using xrandr and driver information can be obtained using the command,
sudo lshw -class display|grep "driver"
To achieve this, type the following command in terminal,
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Some of you would get error executing this command because here gedit indicates the text editor(like notepad) with which you are editing the xorg.conf file. So, if you are using someother text editor as default just replace gedit with it.
Don’t forget to enter your administrator password and press Enter.
Type the following in the editor,
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "VGA1"
Modeline "1280x1024_75.00" 138.75 1280 1368 1504 1728 1024 1027 1034 1072 -hsync +vsync
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "VGA1"
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x1024_75.00"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "i915"
EndSection
- Save and close it.
xrandr –output VGA1 –mode 1280x1024_75.00
Press enter and your screen resolution is changed.
If you get a error message “xrandr: cannot find mode 1280*1024_75.00” , the problem is with the “*” you entered so enter as 1280x1024_75.00 and not 1280*1024_75.00.
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Mohamed Rias
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