How do I get Ubuntu 12.04 to detect my monitor correctly?

Question

I am using an old CTX monitor (CRT). The computer is also old (processor is Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz) operating with VESA drivers. Ubuntu 12.04 detects this monitor as "Laptop" (even though it is a CRT)and will not give me any higher resolution than 1024x768, even though xrandr tells me that the monitor can go to 1280x960 with the graphics card installed (SIS661/741/760 PCI/AGP). The SIS drivers are installed but the machine will not use them. I have also used xrandr to add a new mode but the "Display" GUI does not show it. Ubuntu 11.10 gave no problems. Can anyone help?

Answer 1

Same issues here. I have an intel integrated graphics. Doesn't detect my display, lets me get 1024x768 res when I should be able to get 1680x1050. They have seriously messed this one up and I dont think they'll fix it as I've been having these issues for over a month. There's a dirty fix it do every time i turn on my computer but it causes lots of errors and crashing but it gives me the right resolution i suppose.. Think I'm going to switch to Winblows tonight, it's more stable and these issues just don't exist.

$ xrandr --newmode "1680x1050" 146.25 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync

$ xrandr --addmode VGA1 1680x1050

$ xrandr -s 1680x1050

Answer 2

Could it be as simple as a driver issue? Have you looked for restricted drivers that might be available for the graphic card you're using? (You can do this from the "restricted drivers" option in the menus)

Answer 3

I'm experiencing a similar problem. Both the proprietary NVIDIA drivers are the problem. Once installed they both identify my monitors as Laptop. Once I reverted back to the open source nouveau driver, it properly identified both monitors by the hardware ID, but also allowed me to select a primary monitor for the unity launcher. The display control panel now works properly, but when I had either of the two proprietary drivers installed, the display control panel only identified one large monitor as laptop which then limited my ability to control which screen I wanted the unity launcher. The Nvidia setting manager properly identified the two screen, but I could not override whatever is feeding the Display control panel. Very strange. Simply reverting to the open source default driver corrected the propblem for me, with the only annoying caveat that the GPU fan now runs rather loudly compared to the silky smooth quiet of the proprietary driver. For me its listening to the fan and having the desktop look and feel like I want or run the nvidia drivers and have a quiet running GPU, but a desktop that misidentifies my monitor and limits my ability to control my desktop. GRRRRRRRRR......