Nouveau driver problems

[Trespasser]

Hi,
I'm running Cinnamon 19 64bit. In cinnamon-settings display the default resolution is 1280x800 (16:10) for my 9300M GS nvidia graphics card on my laptop. Whenever I try to change the resolution to my preferred 1024x768 (4:3) and I click "Apply", the screen goes black, stays that way for about 30 seconds, then it reverts back to the default 1280x800 (16:10) resolution. I tried changing it in xrandr but with the same result, though I do have to reboot my laptop to get back to normal.

Obviously, there is something wrong in the kernel, or the nouveau driver, for my graphics card. And, yes, I tried the proprietary Nvidia driver (nvidia-340). It does list 1024x768, and I can change to it, but there are black bars showing on the left and right side of the screen. I tried the viewportin and viewportout section, but I can't seem to find the right setting to give me a true full screen mode.

Can someone offer some help please? I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[Pjotr]

First of all: there are other tools for improving the desktop experience, without setting it to a non-optimal resolution. For example this one:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... ursor-size
(item 3.10, right column)

[Trespasser]

Thanks, Pjotr, for the reply. I do appreciate it. .

Yes, increasing the font and cursor size is one approach to making a Desktop environment usable, and I have tried it before, but what I described is actually a bug that should be fixed. It's not a LinuxMint bug (it's present in other modern distros as well such as Ubuntu 18.04, PepperMint 9, and Manjaro Cinnamon 17.1.0). The display resolution setting is listed (1024x768), but when you apply it the operating system doesn't accept it and a few seconds later reverts back to the original default setting. I've been using Ubuntu (and later LinuxMint) since 2005 and I've never had this happen to me before.

Again, thanks for the reply. .

[Hoser Rob]

I'm no nvidia expert but that's a legacy card and AFAIK there should be a legacy driver for it, check Driver Manager. From looking at this ...

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverRe ... 0398/en-us

... your card is listed. I'd still use Driver Manager though.

BTW open source video drivers for legacy cards DO tend to get buggy.