screen resolution ubuntu 8.04-9.04 and 9.10 alpha 1-6 and beta

[Michael Haney]

On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 8:12 AM, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
> Actually, no, on this one, I cannot agree.
>
> Ubuntu's hardware config tools are badly lacking and always have been.
> It takes the approach that Linux will detect stuff and it will just
> work and sometimes offers a little bit of adjustment.
>
> This is fine when it works but it doesn't always work.
>
> Back in "the old days" of 1990s Linux, early-ish Redhat was quite good
> and Caldera and SuSE led the way in this. They had device manager type
> things, you could look up hardware entries, manually set IRQs and DMAs
> and things, or manually pick a driver and tell the system "I don't
> care if you can't see it, THIS is your Ethernet card, use it". This
> kind of thing was /invaluable/ when I was still using ISA devices and
> so on. (My first 2 dedicated Linux boxes were 486s when that was not
> particularly old or slow.)
>
> On the same note, both SuSE and Xandros offered screen-config tools
> where you could force the system to use the resolution you chose,
> never mind what it thought it ought to be. Ubuntu has a mind of its
> own on this - it will pick the right res and if it can't it offers a
> handful of safe bets (800*600, 1024*768) and if those are not right,
> tough, sod-off and do it yourself matey.
>
> Writing a custom config file by hand is /not/ an acceptable
> alternative, not in 2009.
>
> It is one of the most significant weak spots of the whole distro
> experience and as such although a small detail it is a major failing.
>

I totally agree.  I have a similar problem with Ubuntu.  Its not that
X.org isn't detecting my video card properly when I install the Nvidia
drivers.  No, it is that X.org isn't properly detecting the my
monitor.  Its a 21" Sun Microsystems CRT and it works really well on
my Linux box but Windows Vista throws a fit when I try to use it on my
laptop.  I think its because the monitor doesn't have that chip which
IDs the monitor and relays what its capabilities are (ie; supported
refresh rates and resolutions).  I have to copy and paste into the
xorg.conf the proper configuration for my monitor so I can go above
640s480 with the Nvidia driver installed.  Without the drivers I'm
limited to 800s600.

I've issued a bug report a long time ago about it and so far I haven't
seen any indication that this is going to be addressed.  Which is sad.

-- 
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
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