Windows user - quite lost SOLVED

[jstevans]

Hello,

I'm a Windows user of long experience trying out Linux with Mint - and very impressed. I burned a Live CD, booted from it, and everything worked amazingly well - except a) I cannot set my video resolution and b) Mint cannot "see" the machines connected to my home network (it sees the home network by the right name, says it is "Opening Home" but then says it is "unable to mount location").

My first concern,for no particular reason, is the video card.

After running $ lspci | grep Graphics it replied:
:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0e)

In the world of Windows I know what to do (find the right driver on line, go to Device manager, update the driver, etc.) - in Mint I'm lost.

I tried "Control Center" and its "Hardware Drivers" but all it does is report that no custom drivers are in use.

I tried "Update Manager" only to be told my system is up to date.

Then I went to Package Manager" and searched for "Intel 910" and found "X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver" whose explanatory text seems to indicate it is what I want/need. But, it's "status" is "installed."

So now I'm officially stuck.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Jay

[DrHu]

I tried "Control Center" and its "Hardware Drivers" but all it does is report that no custom drivers are in use.

True, it is neither an Ati nor Nvidia (the custom graphic drivers available); it is rather an open source driver for the Xserver (/etc/X11/xorg.conf)

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=81965
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/intel-graphic ... users.html

In terminal, check

• apt search intel
  i libdrm-intel1 - Userspace interface to intel-specific kern
  i xserver-xorg-video-intel - X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display

I also don't have an intel card or chipset, it must be part of the default installation; perhaps to provide VESA modes for vga compatible setups, if the native drivers don't work (nvidia, Ati etc)..

Either experiment with the xorg.conf settings or uninstall, reinstall that driver via synaptic (gui, mint menu>Package manager) or apt (terminal)

[garda]

Let's try xrandr to get your desired resolution.

Enter cvt res-x res-y. For example, if your desired resolution is 1152x864:

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cvt 1152 864

You will get an output that looks, more or less, like this:

# 1152x864 59.96 Hz (CVT 1.00M3) hsync: 53.78 kHz; pclk: 81.75 MHz
Modeline "1152x864_60.00" 81.75 1152 1216 1336 1520 864 867 871 897 -hsync +vsync

Now copy everything after Modeline then append it to the end of xrandr --newmode command, like so:

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xrandr --newmode "1152x864_60.00"   81.75  1152 1216 1336 1520  864 867 871 897 -hsync +vsync

Next, enter this command:

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xrandr

You will get strings of output, but all you need to pay attention to is the beginning of the second line and your desired resolution+refresh rate. In my case, it's:

• Screen 0: minimum 320 x 175, current 1152 x 864, maximum 1152 x 864
  VGA1 connected 1152x864+0+0 0mm x 0mm
  800x600 56.0 57.0 58.0 59.0 60.0 69.0
  640x480 61.0 62.0 63.0 64.0 74.0 75.0 76.0
  1152x864_60.00 (0x109) 81.8MHz
  h: width 1152 start 1216 end 1336 total 1520 skew 0 clock 53.8KHz
  v: height 864 start 867 end 871 total 897 clock 60.0Hz

From that output, I now know that my display is called VGA1 and my desired resoultion 1152x864_60.00 by xrandr. Now add both variables to the xrandr --addmode command, like so:

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xrandr --addmode VGA1 1152x864_60.00

Finally, enter the xrandr -s [resolution] command:

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xrandr -s 1152x864

Done.

That's how I solved my resolution problem. I don't know why it has to be so hard, but well...

One thing to note is the changes made with the above commands do not stick, so if they screw up your screen, all you'd have to do is reboot your machine. If they work well, then I'll show you how to make them stick.

[Bit Mad]

I was stuck in 800x600_60 with Intel Graphics (on a live USB version), I eventually sorted it by editing/adding an xorg.conf file, then ctrl-alt-backspace to logout and in again...
see http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 53#p209816

It now lives in a script file on my Windows drive, so I can restore everything in one go when booting the non-persistent USB
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=36562

[Silent Warrior]

Just one thing about changing resolution, to be on the safe side:
jstevans: Did you try going into menu -> Settings -> Screen/Display?
Also, drivers for your graphics card are easiest to find through Synaptic, though I really don't recommend poking around at random in there if you're new to Linux. (Hell, I just broke my system nearly five times in the last three days doing just that, and I've been running Linux since 2006... One o' those weeks, like.) Anyway, the [apt search] line you were suggested is safe. The package you're looking for is called xserver-xorg-video-intel.

[garda]

Installing other drivers has the potential to complicate the problem. The reason I decided to post the above guide in the first place is because the computer I was having resolution problem with has exactly the same graphics controller as the OP.

[jstevans]

Thank you all for your replies.

I walked through Garda's suggestions and succeeded in changing the resolution to 1152x864 (which was the provided example). Hooray for progress. And I really appreciate the "I don't know why it has to be so hard..." comment - it strikes me that problems like this are prime examples of why Linux on the desktop remains a fantasy for the masses. Despite all of Windows' flaws, and they are both legion and egregious, things like this are either fairly easy or at least follow models most of us have learned to handle. All this use of terminal commands is painful - a journey backwards 20 years into DOS.

However, I'm determined so onward I go ...

This is the session I ran:

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mint@mint ~ $     cvt 1920 1200
# 1920x1200 59.88 Hz (CVT 2.30MA) hsync: 74.56 kHz; pclk: 193.25 MHz
Modeline "1920x1200_60.00"  193.25  1920 2056 2256 2592  1200 1203 1209 1245 -hsync +vsync
mint@mint ~ $ xrandr --newmode "1920x1200_60.00"  193.25  1920 2056 2256 2592  1200 1203 1209 1245 -hsync +vsync
mint@mint ~ $ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1152 x 864, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1152x864+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   800x600        60.3  
   640x480        59.9  
   1152x864_60.00   60.0* 
  1920x1200_60.00 (0x114)  193.2MHz
        h: width  1920 start 2056 end 2256 total 2592 skew    0 clock   74.6KHz
        v: height 1200 start 1203 end 1209 total 1245           clock   59.9Hz
mint@mint ~ $ xrandr --addmode VGA1 1920x1200_60.00
mint@mint ~ $ xrandr -s 1920x1200

And now my display is happily at 1920 x 1200 - FANTASTIC! Why so hard? A mystery. And why so unlike the world's dominant operating system? Yet another mystery.

Thank you all for the help - this was a very fast and easily understood solution.

Garda - could you please advise how to make this permanent if, as I imagine doing, I make Mint the permanent OS on this PC?

Thanks again - I'll post a separate question next regardjng my networking issues.

[garda]

Alright... Now, let's have a look at the commands we will need (taken from your post):

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xrandr --newmode "1920x1200_60.00"  193.25  1920 2056 2256 2592  1200 1203 1209 1245 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA1 1920x1200_60.00
xrandr -s 1920x1200

Edit /etc/gdm/Init/Default as root:
1. Press ALT-F2 and enter:

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gksu nautilus

2. Navigate to /etc/gdm/Init/
3. Double-click on Default to open it with Text Editor (gedit).
4. Paste the above three lines to the bottom of the file, right before exit 0. Like this (in case you're unsure):

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I've made a mistake here. See my later post below then proceed to step 5.

5. Hit CTRL-S to save the changes; close gedit.
6. Log out and log back in.
7. If nothing seems to change, reboot.

Hope that helps.

On a side note, when I said "I don't know why it has to be so hard...", I did not mean to compare Mint with the other OS. What I tried to say is the graphics controller worked well under earlier versions of Mint, but not in later releases. I guess I should've made myself clearer.

[garda]

Oops... Made a mistake. Step 4 should be:

Add the three lines to the file right in between OLD_IFS=$IFS and gdmwhich () {. Here is what the modified file should be like, in case you're unsure (this is just a snippet):

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#!/bin/sh
# Stolen from the debian kdm setup, aren't I sneaky
# Plus a lot of fun stuff added
#  -George

PATH=/usr/bin:$PATH
OLD_IFS=$IFS

xrandr --newmode "1920x1200_60.00"  193.25  1920 2056 2256 2592  1200 1203 1209 1245 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA1 1920x1200_60.00
xrandr -s 1920x1200

gdmwhich () {
  COMMAND="$1"

Do not modify anything else, other than appending the three xrandr lines. Again, the above sample is just a snippet.

[Robfuscate]

Well, it's all very nice, but as someone above said it's like returning to DOS, except that the solution above didn't work with my 1920 x 1200 resolution. I guess I could spend hours trying different variations on a theme, but I want to use my computer not rebuild it.
Me, I'm going to return to Mint 7 which gives me a reasonable - although still not right - range of screen resolutions. Disappointing really.

[Robfuscate]

Well, it's all very nice, but as someone above said it's like returning to DOS, except that the solution above didn't work with my 1920 x 1200 resolution. I guess I could spend hours trying different variations on a theme, but I want to use my computer not rebuild it.
Me, I'm going to return to Mint 7 which gives me a reasonable - although still not right - range of screen resolutions. Disappointing really.

Well so much for that! Mint 7 will now only give me 800 x 600. So I reinstalled W7.

Okay; so I thought maybe there is a hardware problem with Gnome - but trying the live CD of Fedora gave me the 1920 x 1200 I'm seeking. I install it and, guess what, 800 x 600!

Thinking outside the box I try something completely different - Live KDE 4 CD. It works and, so does the installation. Ugly, sorry I mean UGLY, interface and whole new system to learn but I can use 1920 x 1200 and Amarok, so two immediate points in its favour - farewell Mint.

It's not completely good bye to Mint - that still works on my laptop and I won't make the mistake of updating to Mint 8 again! But, I get fidgetty with the same thing all the time, and I have holidays over Xmas - maybe I can make my laptop a Net Book with JolliCloud!

[Robfuscate]

Well, it's all very nice, but as someone above said it's like returning to DOS, except that the solution above didn't work with my 1920 x 1200 resolution. I guess I could spend hours trying different variations on a theme, but I want to use my computer not rebuild it.
Me, I'm going to return to Mint 7 which gives me a reasonable - although still not right - range of screen resolutions. Disappointing really.

Well so much for that! Mint 7 will now only give me 800 x 600. So I reinstalled W7.

Okay; so I thought maybe there is a hardware problem with Gnome - but trying the live CD of Fedora gave me the 1920 x 1200 I'm seeking. I install it and, guess what, 800 x 600!

Thinking outside the box I try something completely different - Live KDE 4 CD. It works and, so does the installation. Ugly, sorry I mean UGLY, interface and whole new system to learn but I can use 1920 x 1200 and Amarok, so two immediate points in its favour - farewell Mint.

It's not completely good bye to Mint - that still works on my laptop and I won't make the mistake of updating to Mint 8 again! But, I get fidgetty with the same thing all the time, and I have holidays over Xmas - maybe I can make my laptop a Net Book with JolliCloud!

RESOLUTION: - http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 05#p216293 - the coding above using xrandr worked, but I had to reboot to get the preferred resolution in the drop down list.

[DJ777]

I have problem here:
when i am type like that i get this message:

X Error or failed request: Badname (named color or fotn does not exist)
Major opcode of failed request: 149 (RANDR)
Minor opcode of failed request: 16 (RRcreateMode)
Serial number of failed request: 18
Current serial number in output stream: 18

What is this?????

[garda]

I have problem here:
when i am type like that i get this message:

X Error or failed request: Badname (named color or fotn does not exist)
Major opcode of failed request: 149 (RANDR)
Minor opcode of failed request: 16 (RRcreateMode)
Serial number of failed request: 18
Current serial number in output stream: 18

What is this?????

Probably you entered the same modeline twice. Try rebooting and try again. If the command still generates error message, better create a new thread to get more attention.

[RascalHoudi]

Thanks so much Garda... I've been wrestling with this for a few days. Works like a charm. Hopefully it's retained after a reboot

[mingster]

Hi I have the same issue..

I have tried it twice and rebooted each time. I get an error code after

xrandr --addmode HDMI-0 1768x1004_60.00

(1768x1004 is my native resoluation since Windows XP and it has always worked, even in Ubuntu; I had to change the starting x and y pixel in Ubuntu tho)

X Error of failed request: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
Major opcode of failed request: 140 (RANDR)
Minor opcode of failed request: 18 (RRAddOutputMode)
Serial number of failed request: 31
Current serial number in output stream: 32

Any help would be awesome, I had created another post, but I don't think anyone saw it yet.

Thanks in advance.