Linux Mint 20.2 no display resolution alternatives SOLVED

[dude1941]

I recently bought a new Lenovo E15 with Windows 10. I upgraded it to Linux Mint 20.2, and first time had a screen resolution of 640x480, and restarted with resolution 1920x1080. It now has only 1920x1080. The Display GUI shows 'Unknown monitor'). I located the same problem for 20.1, and tried to implement the solution, to obtain 1600x900 (required by my 80 year old eyes).

I keyed cvt 1600 900 and got the line needed for the next command, (xrandr --newmode "1600x900_60.00" 118.25 1600 1696 1856 2112 900 903 908 934 -hsync +vsync) but got the error message "xandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default".

Has anyone any idea how to proceed?

[DPM]

I located the same problem for 20.1, and tried to implement the solution, to obtain 1600x900 (required by my 80 year old eyes).

Alternative idea: use the accessibility options for larger text (Menu, Preferences, Accessibility, then tab Visual). Despite much younger eyes, I had a similar problem with a 15-6" Full-HD display. That method also avoids display blurring due to non-matching resolutions.

[SMG]

Has anyone any idea how to proceed?

Welcome to the forum, dude1941.

Are you sure the proper graphics drivers are installed? Sometimes that is a reason for that type of message. If you post your system information as requested in Section 5 of READ: How To Get Help! we could help verify they are installed. Many newer laptops need a newer kernel than the 5.4 LTS kernel which comes with LM20.

Please give us information about your install by entering this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.

[dude1941]

Code: Select all

dude@gary-E15:~$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-80-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: MATE 1.24.0 info: mate-panel wm: marco 1.24.0 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20TD003KUS v: ThinkPad E15 Gen 2 
  serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20TD003KUS v: SDK0J40697 WIN serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: LENOVO v: R1EET32W(1.32 ) date: 01/05/2021 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 35.4 Wh condition: 46.7/45.7 Wh (102%) volts: 11.7/11.1 
  model: SMP 5B10X026 type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: Discharging 
  cycles: 3 
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325 
  serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes 
  status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 bits: 64 
  type: MT MCP arch: Tiger Lake rev: 1 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 38707 
  Speed: 1201 MHz min/max: 400/4200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1200 2: 1203 
  3: 1200 4: 1200 5: 1201 6: 1200 7: 1200 8: 1203 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Lenovo driver: N/A bus ID: 00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:9a49 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: fbdev unloaded: modesetting,vesa 
  compositor: marco v: 1.24.0 resolution: 1920x1080~77Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.6 
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Lenovo driver: sof-audio-pci bus ID: 00:1f.3 
  chip ID: 8086:a0c8 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-80-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 4000 bus ID: 00:14.3 
  chip ID: 8086:a0f0 
  IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 04:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp4s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 13.93 GiB (5.8%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZALQ256HAJD-000L1 
  size: 238.47 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: BL1QFXV7 
  scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 233.24 GiB used: 13.92 GiB (6.0%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: 42.0 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cybermax-dexter-sdl2-backport-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/cybermax-dexter/sdl2-backport/ubuntu focal 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: 248 Uptime: 10m Memory: 7.48 GiB used: 1.29 GiB (17.2%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: mate-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

[SMG]

No, the graphics driver is not installed. That is most likely the reason for the issue you are experiencing.

Graphics:
Device-1: Intel vendor: Lenovo driver: N/A bus ID: 00:02.0
chip ID: 8086:9a49
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: fbdev unloaded: modesetting,vesa
compositor: marco v: 1.24.0 resolution: 1920x1080~77Hz
OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.6
compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes

The Intel drivers are included in the kernel, but with an 11th gen Intel cpu, your computer needs to be using the 5.11 kernel. It is available in Update Manager.

Open Update Manager. Select View > Linux Kernels and click Continue. Make sure 5.11 is selected on the left panel and then click the top-most option on the right panel. An "Install" button will appear. Install the kernel and then reboot for it to become active.

Then check the output of inxi -Gx and make sure instead of N/A there is i915. I expect you will then be able to make changes in the Display app. You will also have hardware rendering instead of llvmpipe (software rendering) on the next-to-last line.

[dude1941]

Thank you so much! It now works fine.
An old man typing on Linux Mint Mate 20.2

[SMG]

Thank you so much! It now works fine.

Glad to hear the issue is resolved. Please go to your first post in this thread, click the pencil icon, and add [SOLVED] to the title so others know you are no longer seeking help on this issue.

[dude1941]

i keyed in my Id and got the full list of the post but can't find a pencil icon on it. If this is NOT the original, how do I find the original?

[dude1941]

Please excuse my 80 year old eyes; I found it.]