Resolution Messed Up Issue

[LDA007]

I hopefully and finally get to contribute something to the Linux community.

I have an E-Machine EL-1200 with integrated NVIDIA graphics. Although, I am not sure it matters for this issue; I have had this same issue with integrated Intel graphics too over the years. Short story is that I have been trying different distros of Linux OS’s for 10 years and have passed many by for this very issue. When I try some distro, everything is distorted. This time I had a stroke of luck because I bought 4 new to me monitors from the local thrift store. I started off with my Dell CRT that I have been using up until I bought these monitors. Linux Mint started up and everything was fine. When I tried the Dell E207WFPc. It’s maximum resolution is 1680x1050 (important to this issue) which Linux Mint Mate and others does not like with my pc. After some choice words and time a recognized the issue. I could vaguely make out 15 narrow views of the screen side by side. I have seen this before about 30 years ago. Its a resolution being set too high issue. My crazy thought was to turn the power to the monitor off (while leaving the pc on) and plug back in the VGA monitor and to my surprise, it showed correctly. It auto detected a resolution of 1280x1024. I then turned the monitor off and plugged back in the Dell widescreen and it now shows correctly. I checked the resolution and it was still on 1280x1024. It did not try to auto detect. I then restarted the pc and it stayed at 1280x1024. However, when I chose the 1680x1050 resolution, the issue came back. The auto detect is correct but my PC can’t do that resolution. I don’t know how I would have gotten past this had I not had the older VGA monitor. I am not sure if this is considered a bug but there needs to be work around. A possible work around is add a start up option to manually or an option at start up to allow picking a lower resolution.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone.

1) Note: a resolution for my monitor that doesn’t cause distortion isn’t a choice.
2) All were LIVE from USB with persistent and made by RUFUS
3) Live USB is up to date using Update Manager.
4) Distros I tried were the latest releases of Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Linux Mint Mate and Cinnamon, Ubuntu Mate.

[Larry78723]

Without some technical information, we can’t help you. Please post an inxi -Fxpmzr report. This will give us a concise overview of your hardware and how Mint sees it per  How to get help .

Here is how to generate the report and post it:
Open a terminal window (Ctrl-Alt-t). Make it fullscreen to avoid unneeded linebreaks or chopped lines. Copy the following code and paste into the terminal (Ctrl-Shft-V) then hit Enter/Return:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxpmrz 

exactly as it has been typed here.

Go to Edit, Select All, and then Copy, come back here, click on reply then code tags, </>, and then paste.
The results will help us to help you.

[LDA007]

Finally got it to show again by starting with my 17" monitor and switching to the 24" monitor.

I ran the inxi -Fxpmzr report and it is as follows:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-74-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: MATE 1.24.0 Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: eMachines product: EL1200-06w v: N/A 
  serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: eMachines model: WMCP61M serial: <filter> BIOS: Phoenix v: R01-A3 
  date: 12/03/2008 
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech K520 
  charge: 70% (should be ignored) status: Discharging 
  Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325 
  charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 3.60 GiB used: 1.27 GiB (35.3%) 
  RAM Report: 
  permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Topology: Single Core model: AMD Athlon 2650e bits: 64 type: UP 
  arch: K8 rev.F+ rev: 2 L2 cache: 512 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 svm bogomips: 3214 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/1600 MHz Core speed (MHz): 1: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 00:0d.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nouveau 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1280x1024~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: NV4C v: 2.1 Mesa 20.2.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA MCP61 High Definition Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:05.0 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-74-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: NVIDIA MCP61 Ethernet vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 
  type: network bridge driver: forcedeth v: kernel port: ec00 
  bus ID: 00:07.0 
  IF: enp0s7 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek USB3.0 802.11ac 1200M Adapter type: USB 
  driver: rtl88x2bu bus ID: 1-4:11 
  IF: wlx1cbfceaf4a3f state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 155.63 GiB used: 3.32 GiB (2.1%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST3160815AS size: 149.05 GiB 
  temp: 50 C 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Generic model: Flash Disk size: 3.75 GiB 
  ID-3: /dev/sde type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Corporation Staples Relay 
  size: 977.5 MiB 
  ID-4: /dev/sdf type: USB vendor: Generic model: Flash Disk size: 1.88 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 999.9 MiB used: 505.0 MiB (50.5%) fs: overlay 
  source: ERR-102 
  ID-2: /cdrom size: 2.74 GiB used: 2.00 GiB (72.8%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdb1 
  ID-3: /media/mint/KEY SHAPE size: 1.87 GiB used: 243.6 MiB (12.7%) 
  fs: ntfs dev: /dev/sdf1 
  ID-4: /media/mint/WHITE1GB size: 971.0 MiB used: 106.1 MiB (10.9%) 
  fs: exfat dev: /dev/sde1 
  ID-5: /media/mint/casper-rw size: 999.9 MiB used: 505.0 MiB (50.5%) 
  fs: ext3 dev: /dev/sdb2 
  ID-6: /rofs raw size: 1.88 GiB size: <superuser/root required> 
  used: <superuser/root required> fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop0 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 4294939.3 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  1: deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 20.2 _Uma_ - Release amd64 20210703]/ focal contrib main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 179 Uptime: 1h 07m Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
  gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 inxi: 3.0.38