[SOLVED] Screen settings have no effect in Maya w/ Mate

[d.tamm]

Hi.
I am trying to get my dual head setup working in Maya with the Mate desktop. Here is the output of lspci:

Code: Select all

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Graphics Port (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801IBM/IEM (ICH9M/ICH9M-E) 2 port SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801IBM/IEM (ICH9M/ICH9M-E) 2 port SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 03)
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
08:00.0 System peripheral: JMicron Technology Corp. SD/MMC Host Controller
08:00.2 SD Host controller: JMicron Technology Corp. Standard SD Host Controller
08:00.3 System peripheral: JMicron Technology Corp. MS Host Controller

So I suppose it's an Intel graphic chip in my box.

When I open screen settings, my 2 monitors are identified correctly with the correct resolutions, but if I make any changes in the settings, nothing happens, the dialog silently ignores my settings. I have tried to start the dialog directly by the command mate-display-properties in the hope to get some hint on what happens, but there is no output in the cli.
In the meantime, there are no problems to manually configure the displays directly with xrandr which on my system is located at /usr/bin/. Anyway I would prefer using the dialog which for me is much faster than the xrandr command line.

Any ideas?

[viking777]

I don't know if this will work for you, but it is simple enough so worth a try anyway.

Next time you are in the mate-display-properties window as well as setting the properties you want and pressing 'apply' also press 'make default'. This enables your property choices for all users so it requires your password. It might make a difference I don't know because mate-dipsplay-properties works normally for me anyway (although I only have one screen attached to mate so that might be the difference).

[d.tamm]

Unfortunately, this makes no difference. You are right that the Default option forces me to enter my password, but all settings are ignored anyway which I tested by subsequently logging out and in again.
I also tested with just one screen (the built-in of my laptop) by changing resolution and screen orientation. Even here, all my settings are ignored.

[viking777]

That is very strange. Maybe it is to do with the intel graphics driver, my mate system uses radeon.
Doesn't look like I can help you then - sorry.

[d.tamm]

Hi again.
It seems to be some setting in my home folder. I have tried to create a new user and change screen settings there - no problem at all. So I will lift over my files to a new user account.
I have my user home on a separate partition and did not format it, so there was some stuff left from previous linux installations.

[viking777]

If I had a pound for every time I have heard about that problem

Well done for finding it though, that is the thing about these config errors caused by unformatted /home partitions, they are almost all unique and getting on for impossible to identify. You already found the solution though - a different username for each distro you install and this type of problem goes away (you don't need to do that for the reinstall case, the config files should be the same).

[nairbv]

I have the same problem... but in ubuntu. I have unity and gnome3 installed, and now just installed mint.

Maybe some config files from unity or gnome3 are interfering with mate. Mate should use its own config files.

Either way, I haven't been doing anything crazy with my config files (this is a fresh Ubuntu install), so I'd consider this a bug in Mate.