Ubuntu incorrectly says restricted driver not needed for wide-screen monitor

Thanks for the super-quick reply. I'm looking into Envy, but I don't like editing files if I can avoid it.

I had the same problem; I think it's the video card and not the monitor. The 7300 card is detected but the 8300 is too new, I suspect.

In any case, I had to use envy to get the proper driver loaded, plus you need to manually edit the xorg.conf file to enable the widescreen resolution.

Editing the file is easy. There's a section where the available resolutions are listed in plain text, in quotes, separated by tabs, like this:

"1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

You just add the new resolution up front:

"1440x900" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

(There will be several such lines, for different numbers of colors.)

Oh, I almost forgot: you need to edit it using a plain text editor (like gedit) in super-user mode. And, of course, you'll need to restart X for the changes to take effect.

I'm more concerned about Envy. It worked without a hitch, but I understand it mungs up upgrades.

Message Edited by gbrainin on 09-17-2007 04:58 PM

I have the same combo and used Envy. I was pleased with the results. Posted here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=546360

It's working now. I have 1680x1050 resolution. It's been working for nearly a week, but I'm just getting around to posting a note now. I didn't use the restricted driver, or Envy. I actually uninstalled the restricted driver, because I couldn't get Ubuntu to enable it. I just needed the right values in my Xorg.conf file. I didn't want to use Envy because it's "breaking the rules". I wanted to see if I could do it some other way. It was more work, but I enjoyed doing it and learning about it.

What did I learn? If you want to know, read on.

Background Note 1 (Plug-and-Play Hardware): Modern hardware (like our wide-screen monitors) is supposed to be so easy to use that you can just plug it in and it should work immediately. Microsoft calls this plug-and-play. It happens for two reasons: first, the hardware gives detailed information about itself to the software, if asked. Second, the software uses that information to set everything up properly. In an ideal world, all you'd have to do is plug the monitor in and it should work perfectly, without you having to do anything.

Background Note 2 (Xorg, Plug-and-Play Software, NOT) Xorg is the linux component that handles the keyboard, mouse, and graphic interface. It's the one that examines the hardware and sets things up. Unfortunately, Xorg isn't as good as it should be. It's a common complaint about Xorg. The good news is that there's a new, supposedly much better Xorg in Gutsy. And there may be even better versions down the road.

Background Note 3 (Xorg.conf): When installing Ubuntu from scratch, the install process examines your hardware and creates a file called Xorg.conf, in the /etc/X11 directory. Xorg uses this file to get started. You can modify the Xorg.conf file later. It can also be built fresh using a command that examines your hardware, without going through the whole install process.

Background Note 4 (Xorg log): Xorg starts during the boot process, using Xorg.conf and also examining the hardware. When you see a graphic interface, Xorg is running. During the startup process Xorg writes an extensive log of what it's doing, the choices it's making, and why.

I learned to read my xorg log file, and I found out a lot. First, the driver was not recognizing the particular type of video card I have installed, but it knew it was NVidia and was able to work with it. I think a driver that recognizes the new cards will be included in Gutsy. Second, Xorg was "probing" the monitor and the monitor was returning detailed information to Xorg. So, that much was working well. But, Xorg was hampered because it was trying to use values in the Xorg.conf file. These values were completely wrong.

It looks like Dell just slapped a generic Ubuntu on the hard drive, with a few special drivers, but it wasn't really configured for my hardware. The monitor shipped in a separate box, and I'd bet money they never hooked it up. It's as though you went to the trouble of installing Ubuntu from scratch on your system, and it examined all your hardware and set everything up, including Xorg.conf. Then, you unplugged the monitor, plugged in another completely different monitor, and said "Ha, ha, fooled you, Ubuntu".

Xorg was trying to use the values in Xorg.conf and they were all very wrong.

I went through three stages of trial-and-error: Change something in Xorg.conf, restart Xorg, read the log, find out what went wrong, make a correction, and try again. After three cycles, it worked just fine.

I do not have the latest driver. However, I do have 1680x1050 resolution. It looks good. It's possible that there is some kind of advanced graphics function that isn't working properly, perhaps something related to games. But, I'm not a gamer. It works fine for what I do.

I want to try the command that generates an Xorg.conf file from scratch, but there's no hurry. What I've got is working.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Now I've already learned something today! Out of curiosity, can you post the changes that succeeded?

Thanks again! I will definitely back up before messing around with this, but I appreciate the pointers.

Note: the message poster on this forum removes the tabs at the beginning of the lines, so the formatting isn't what's in my file.

I have an E228WFP.

First I changed the range for horizontal sync to 30-83 and the range for vertical refresh to 56-75. I got those values from the Xorg log, which are the correct values for my monitor. It looks like this:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 30-83
VertRefresh 56-75
EndSection

Then for each SubSection "Display" I added a virtual size of 1680x1050 (NOTE, NO "X" BETWEEN THE NUMBERS when you enter it in Xorg.conf) and added two modes 1680x1050 and 1280x1024. It looks like this:

SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Virtual 1680 1050
Modes "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection

There are six of these with Depths of 1, 4, 8, 15, 16, and 24. I left DefaultDepth at 24.

You can find online documentation about Xorg.conf at /www.x.org/archive/X11R6.8.0/doc/xorg.conf.5.html>. Warning, it's rather long. Your Xorg.conf file is at /etc/X11/Xorg.conf

If you want to edit it I suggest just for safety's sake that you back it up and have a way to get back to it.

I just purchased a new Dell XPS 410 N with Ubuntu 7.04 pre-installed which comes with the nVidia GeForce 8300 GS. I'm trying to use this machine with a 22" ViewSonic VX2235wm monitor running natively at 1680x1050. After going through "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" gdm successfully boots at the correct resolution, however there is slight flicker and fuzziness (which makes me feel like I'm going blind). I have tried all of the suggestions from Ubuntu ( https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FixVideoResolutionHowto ) without luck. There doesn't appear to be a binary driver from nVidia supporting this card either.

When I try connecting the monitor using a DVI cable, I get a blank screen and the monitor reports "Out of Range H 65 KHz, V 60 Hz" (although both of those freqencies are within the manufacturer's specification).

Any suggestions?

I have fixed my display problems. I installed the nVidia driver from http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_100.14.19.html and followed the instructions https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaManual