changing screen resolution crashes system

[Wolf64]

Hey guys,

I'm running LM 18.3 Cinnamon x64 on my Lenovo laptop and when I lower my screen resolution from my native 1920x1080 to eg. 1368x768 and then try to change back to the native resolution, the screen is cropped and weirdly tiled, can't click anything and any input is ignored so I have to press to power button to turn it off. After I restart, I can change it back normally. This only seems to happen with the screen's native resolution, any other seems to work fine. Same goes for some games I try to change the resolution to 1920x1080, any other works.

My laptop got an Intel integrated graphics card and a dedicated GeForce 930M, while most of the time just the Intel one is active. Driver in use is the proprietary NVIDIA driver.
Any thoughts on that? Couldn't find any solutions and in other forums, nobody answered me.

Also I would like to attach a picture, so you can see how my screen looks like when I try to change, but it won't let me upload this PNG, says the file is too big (600kb).

[Hoser Rob]

You're going to have to post more system info. Copy/paste this to the terminal and copy/paste the text output here:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

[Wolf64]

Oh you're right, sorry I forgot in the hurry...

inxi -Fxz:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: wolf-ideapad320 Kernel: 4.13.0-39-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: LENOVO (portable) product: 80XL v: Lenovo ideapad 320-15IKB
           Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: SDK0J40709 WIN
           Bios: LENOVO v: 4WCN29WW date: 09/30/2017
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-7200U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 10848
           clock speeds: max: 3100 MHz 1: 717 MHz 2: 701 MHz 3: 713 MHz
           4: 712 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Device 5916 bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA GM108M [GeForce 940MX] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.01hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 620 (Kaby Lake GT2)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Device 9d71 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-39-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 4000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8821AE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
           driver: rtl8821ae port: 3000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 2000.4GB (12.4% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST2000LM007 size: 2000.4GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 419G used: 49G (13%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
           ID-2: /home size: 419G used: 175G (44%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.39GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda7
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 27.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 261 Uptime: 6:30 Memory: 4377.8/7760.0MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 

[Hoser Rob]

According to this line from inxi ...

GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 620 (Kaby Lake GT2)

... you're using the Intel card, not the Nvidia. Not an expert on dual graphics myself, and with a Kaby Lake Intel gpu, which is pretty new, I seem to remember seeing here somewhere that you may need a newer kernel. Can't seem to find the exact reference even with site specific search at the moment. Someone else should know or try searching yourself.

[Wolf64]

Well as I said, most of the time the Intel card is active. That's to reduce power consumption on my laptop's battery. Using the Nvidia card it seems to work just fine though, but it's not very convenient to always manually switch between them.

Concerning a newer kernel I was hoping that the upcoming LM 19 will fix most of the problems I have anyway (also with other machines running AMD hardware), also I wanted to try out Ubuntu 18.04 before that, just to see how it goes with the 4.15 kernel.
Well if there's no "hotfix" for that I guess I'll just wait for Tara and avoid switching or simply use the Nvidia card instead, but it's already nice to know where this issue is coming from, thank you for that.