<SOLVED> New monitor connected, Cinnamon in Fall Back mode

[f3ktony]

Hi

I'm not new to Linux but it still makes my head hurt when things go awry! Hope I'm posting this in the right forum. I've searched a lot, I'm surprised that searching for things 'Linux connect new monitor' doesn't get more hits.

I recently bought a Packard Bell 24" wind screen monitor for a silly price and connected it to my Mint 13 64bit system running Cinnamon 2.0.14+maya. When I log in (login page seems normal) I get a message that Cinnamon is running in Fall Back mode. I have no background image and I have bars both top and bottom, usually I just have a bar at the bottom. Before I go and make things worse is there a command I should run to re-configure Cinnamon to recognise the new screen/resolution, etc.? Things I've done: run nvidia-settings and seen that it looks OK in there. Looked at xorg.conf that seems OK too. The output of inxi -Fxz is full of junk symbols (see below), is 'inxi -Fxz > system.txt' the correct command?

Should I do

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sudo apt-get install --reinstall cinnamon

? I don't want to do that if there is an easier fix.

The system is usable (posting from it now) but I'd like to get my desktop back to how it was.

Hope someone can help
Tony
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[System: Host: kryten Kernel: 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.6.3) Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 13 Maya
Machine: Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M5A88-M version: Rev X.0x Bios: American Megatrends version: 0505 date: 08/11/2011
CPU: Quad core AMD FX-4100 (-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 28797.9
Clock Speeds: 1: 1400.00 MHz 2: 1400.00 MHz 3: 1400.00 MHz 4: 3600.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 630] bus-ID: 01:00.0 X.Org: 1.11.3 driver: nvidia Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: GeForce GT 630/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 1.4 (2.1.2 NVIDIA 319.32) Direct Rendering: No
Audio: Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Card-2: NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: 1.0.24
Network: Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e800 bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (60.9% used) 1: /dev/sda ST500DM002 500.1GB
Partition: ID: / size: 15G used: 6.5G (48%) fs: ext4 ID: /home size: 84G used: 46G (59%) fs: ext4
ID: swap-1 size: 0.50GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 33.0C mobo: 29.0C gpu: 0.0:33C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 1480 sys-1: 1654
Info: Processes: 188 Uptime: 19 min Memory: 691.3/3938.1MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.6.3 Client: Shell inxi: 1.7.33

Edited to clean up output as suggested by rpr - thank you.

[rpr-nospam]

After you run 'inxi -Fxz' you usually copy-paste the terminal output to a forum and mark the text as code. If you want to redirect the output to a file then you should run

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inxi -Fxz -c 0 > file.txt

to avoid getting ANSI escape codes in the output which are used for coloring the text.

Regarding your issue I'd search for errors in the following files: ~/.xsession-errors, /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /var/log/kern.log. If you notice some error messages you can post them here or search the web for that error messages. That may reveal the source of the problem and lead to a solution.

-- rpr.

[f3ktony]

I fixed my problem by installing the latest NVIDIA driver (331.39, updated from 319.32).

Many thanks rpr for your suggestions, my .xsession-errors file was full of errors - and is still full of errors! I couldn't decipher anything from it, nor could Google. Still, all is well and my desktop is pretty (and more useful) again.

Tony