Resolution Issues Kubuntu Gutsy 32 bit Thinkpad T61P

[Doug Stryjew]

Usually when you hear of resolution issues/problems you might think of
typical problems. (ex.. I just installed and my pc/laptop won't use the
proper resolution.) This is not the case here. First let me tell everyone my
specs.

Video Card: nVidia Corporation Quadro FX 570M

Driver: nvidia driver, downloaded from restricted driver manager

Machine: Thinkpad T61p

Laptop Screen: 15.4" Wide Screen WUXGA (1920x1200)

Secondary Monitor: SCEPTRE WX24 (1920x1200)

OS: 32 bit Gutsy Kubuntu

All of my repositories are updated.

I'll keep this part simple as it doesn't play a huge role in this problem.

It is well documented that the T61P will not boot right off the start to a
working X.

Before you log in you have to go into recovery mode and change the xorg.conf.
By default it gives you the "nv" driver which simply will not work with this
particular video card. According to many guides, including thinkwiki's you
have to change the driver to "vesa" in order to get X to start. I log in and
everything is very tiny just like I wanted (And expected using such a high
resolution) Once I do that I update my repositories and once that is
complete I install the restricted "nvidia" driver. I check my xorg.conf to
verify the driver my card is using is "nvidia".

I run glxinfo |grep ren

And I have rendering.

Here is my problem. When I power on I am prompted with a login screen like
usual. The second I enter my user credentials it's like everything just gets
a little bit bigger. A big notification is my mouse icon, it will be very
tiny but when I login the mouse gets a little bit bigger. When I open up a
terminal I do not expect it to take up over 1/4 of the screen. I know I can
change the font size of konsole as well as the whole scale of the window.
But it should not be this big. It should be very small. The monitor I have
plugged into the Thinkpad makes the applications look even bigger. The weird
part is both of these screens are displaying the proper resolution. I have
worked with xorg.conf resolution problems a lot. I know when the screen
isn't displaying the right resolution. But even though the resolution is set
correctly, everything appears to be big. Not streched out, using the wrong
resolution big, but wow these windows very large. I have searched my butt
off trying to find an answer and asked everyone I know who uses kubuntu with
the nvidia driver (Which is a lot) and nobody seems to be able to offer any
help. I realize the problem and the description doesn't make much sense and
that is why it's hard to answer something you don't understand. But if I had
to boil it down to a very short description I would say this.

While my resolution is correct, everything seems to be rather large. At the
login screen everything looks very nice and small. But the second I enter my
password and login it's like the screen magnifies. I haven't found any
options in my nvidia-settings or kde window settings that described the
option I want to change. Which is to make everything not so big.

So yes, this sounds very strange and most people I talk to would put money
the resolution is not setup correctly or something is just wrong with my
xorg.conf. It however is not. I know what a monitor running the wrong
resolution looks like and I am very familiar with this. There just doesn't
seem to be any documentation on my problem. I was told to subscribe to a
mailing list and ask all of you.

Any ideas?

dok
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kubuntu-users/attachments/20080326/e7b7b0ed/attachment.html>