Custom Resolution not Persisting Across Reboots

Question

I have a problem regarding setting a custom resolution on my built-in display for my laptop. My desired resolution is 1600x900. It's not shown in the Display Settings in Ubuntu 16.04, but after running the following,

sudo xrandr --newmode "1600x900_60.00" 118.25 1600 1696 1856 2112 900 903 908 934 -hsync +vsync and
sudo xrandr --addmode eDP-1 "1600x900_60.00"

the resolution is added to Displays Settings and I can apply it. Additionally, I put the 2 commands at the end of my ~/.profile file, as this tutorial recommended. The problem is that it does not persist after a restart, rather I get an error: "Could not apply the stored configuration for monitors".

Additionally, I lack the /etc/gdm/init/Default file to place these commands in that script.

Answer 1

(Posting this as an answer from the comments)

The lines in ~/.profile should not be prepended with sudo. Thus, the lines to be appended should be as such:

xrandr --newmode "1600x900_60.00" 118.25 1600 1696 1856 2112 900 903 908 934 -hsync +vsync and
xrandr --addmode eDP-1 "1600x900_60.00"

Answer 2

Assuming 16.04 still uses lightdm (I think it does) you can set up a script to do your monitor settings.

Modify /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf to add the following options:

display-setup-script > calls your "xrandr scriptname.sh" before the login screen appears

session-setup-script > calls your "xrandr scriptname.sh" before the user desktop session starts

[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity-greeter
user-session=ubuntu
# for your login screen, e.g. LightDM (Ubuntu 11.10) or GDM (11.04 or earlier)
display-setup-script=[your xrandr script goes here]
# for your desktop session (I didn't do this one)
session-setup-script=[your xrandr script goes here]