KDE4 vs Gnome screen resolution (KDE stuck at 1024x768)

[tmarikle]

Greetings,

I have been quite happy with KDE until Fedora 9's early release which left me unable to use KDE. I switched to Gnome and life went on. I tried to give KDE4 another try after it stabilized and I really like what I see. However, in KDE4, I can't get my screen resolution to switch to 1600x1200 in my external LCD 20" screen (attached to my laptop). The 1600x1200 option is available in systemsettings -> display but it simply won't change and stays at 1024x768. 1600x1200 resolution in Gnome works fine.

I've been searching around but haven't found anything helpful at this point.

[Hlingler]

Log into KDE. Command:
xrandr -q

See what's on the list of available resolution and refresh rates. If 1600x1200 is there:
xrandr -s 1600x1200

Should take effect as soon as you press <ENTER>. You can also add a call for refresh rate by passing option: '-r XY.Z', as for example:
xrandr -s 1600x1200 -r 70.0

KDE4's Plasma engine may not handle screen resolution the same as GNOME, or perhaps there's some other goofiness going on. See what happens with the above.

HTH,
V

P.S. Did you update all packages to latest available?

[tmarikle]

See what's on the list of available resolution and refresh rates. If 1600x1200 is there:
xrandr -s 1600x1200

Should take effect as soon as you press <ENTER>...

That did it! Thanks.

P.S. Did you update all packages to latest available?

I believe that I am current with all of the stable rpms.

This certainly helps for now. Thanks again.

Thomas

[Hlingler]

I got the same krap on F9, and ended up writing a custom script to run xrandr -s YYYYxZZZZ on desktop start. Or you could try krandrtray - it's just a GUI for xrandr. Whatever works, I guess....

V

[tmarikle]

Good idea. I was probably going to create a script that I can launch from the desktop that can set the resolution since my laptop is only capable of 1280x800 but maybe I can script it like you did and add some more intelligence to it to first determine whether I have my 20" plugged in.

[KKJensen]

I got the same krap on F9, and ended up writing a custom script to run xrandr -s YYYYxZZZZ on desktop start. Or you could try krandrtray - it's just a GUI for xrandr. Whatever works, I guess....

V

I'm having some issues with an external LG W2242T on my laptop. The laptop res is 1280x800 but the external is 1680x1050. xrandr -q shows

[root@biggirl ~]# xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2304 x 800, maximum 2960 x 1850
VGA connected 1024x768+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 474mm x 296mm
   1024x768       60.0* 
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   640x480        60.0     59.9  
LVDS connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 207mm
   1280x800       60.0*+
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.3  
   640x480        59.9  
TV disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
[root@biggirl ~]#

I see a few places on the web that if a resolution is not present, it can be added:

[root@biggirl ~]# xrandr --addmode VGA 1280x800
[root@biggirl ~]# xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2304 x 800, maximum 2960 x 1850
VGA connected 1024x768+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 474mm x 296mm
   1024x768       60.0* 
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   640x480        60.0     59.9  
   1280x800       60.0  
LVDS connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 207mm
   1280x800       60.0*+
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.3  
   640x480        59.9  
TV disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
[root@biggirl ~]#

At this point I would expect the resolution 1280x800 to be available on both monitors with a "xrandr -s 1280x800" but the big screen falls back to 1024x768@60Hz like before. (EDIT: It actually outputs only to the big screen...LVDS is off completely and the big screen still runs at 1024x768

Trying to add the native resolution of 1680x1050 fails:

[root@biggirl ~]# xrandr --addmode VGA 1680x1050
xrandr: cannot find mode "1680x1050"
[root@biggirl ~]#

Here I'm stumped since I don't know how to add this mode. Help!

SUMMARY: My big screen is stuck at 1024x768@60Hz instead of 1680x1050@60Hz
Laptop: Acer Aspire 3610
Graphics adapter: Intel G915

[Hlingler]

I'm not very familiar with dual-head, since I don't have any, but I'm fairly certain that special rules apply both to dual-head resolution settings, and to LVDS. In any case, you cannot add a mode that has been invalidated for some reason by X11/Xorg/VESA/driver. Check man xrandr and see what options allow changing resolution for one screen only. See also the link in my How-To to Alexfyz' Dual-Head Guide for NVidia. EDIT: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=201652

V

P.S. Oh, I see: the --addmode worked. But you're still running 1024x768 as indicated by asterisk. OK, so switch the mode on the VGA (not sure of exact syntax here):
xrandr VGA -s 1280x800

[KKJensen]

Thanks....I'm still hunting. Surely I'm not the first person to plug a big LCD screen in a laptop...so I've got my fingers crossed that someone else has already had to do this.

One thing I did figure out is that the big screen is clipping the 1280x800 so only a 1024x768 grid of the top/middle is being displayed. So now I'm trying to figure out if it's the screen doing this...since xrandr shows the VGA port at 1280x800.

Adding the higher resolutions....there's got to be a way and it's probably something so obvious that nobody bothers writing about it anymore.

Thanks for the help!

[actaea]

I have followed all the ideas on this page, but my 1680x1050 monitor is still only set to a resolution of 1280x1024. My graphics card is ATI Technologies Inc Radeon HD 3850 and I'm running Fedora 10. I can also boot my machine with Kubuntu, while waiting for Fedora 10 to be official. I have the same monitor resolution issue with Kubuntu. Screen resolution is fine in Vista--though Vista is in every other way inferior. Should I report this as a bug? If so, to where?

[Hlingler]

Hi actaea:

Are you 100% positive that 1680x1050 mode is not being invalidated by the X11 start-up process? If it is, there is no fix possible....
grep "1680" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

V

P.S. Technically, since this refers to F10, it (A) belongs in F10 Alpha/Beta forum and (B) should wait for Tuesday's final release to see if it's fixed. But since we're so close to that anyway, I suggest that you wait until Tuesday's final release and see. And we'll leave the question posted here.

[Anthonywolfe]

Hey guys sorry for the bump but my screen is stuck at the highest 800X600.

I know it can go to 1024x786 because it is that high on my windows pc. (I just switch out the hard drives :P)

Any help?

My gfx card is a ATI radon express integrated XXXX frogot the number.

[Hlingler]

Hello Anthonywolfe:

And welcome to Fedora Forums.

Need some more info:
> Fedora Release number and architecture (F10?) ? Desktop (KDE?) ?
> Did you try the above steps, including full system software up-to-date? Please post output of xrandr -q.
> Post output:

su -
lspci -vv | grep -A 20 -i "vga "

> Output: grep -i "mem\|ram" /var/log/Xorg.0.log
> Output: grep -i driver /var/log/Xorg.0.log

V

[Anthonywolfe]

Heh sorry about the wait time supper and all.

Hey just wondering why is there a file called chucknoris.txt in root/lostandfound was it a joke or something?

Fedora 10 using kde and sometimes gnome.

Here is the output

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 [Radeon Xpress 200G Series] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 2a24
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 64 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
	Region 0: Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Region 1: I/O ports at ef00 [size=256]
	Region 2: Memory at fddf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	[virtual] Expansion ROM at fdd00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
		Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
		Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
	Kernel modules: radeon

02:01.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems V.92 56K WinModem (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Agere Systems Device 044c
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 64 (63000ns min, 3500ns max)
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 255

(WW) AllowEmptyInput is on, devices using drivers 'kbd' or 'mouse' will be disabled.
	X.Org Video Driver: 4.1
	X.Org XInput driver : 2.1
(II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers//radeon_drv.so
	Module class: X.Org Video Driver
	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 4.1
(II) RADEON: Driver for ATI Radeon chipsets:
	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 4.1
(II) RADEON(0): [drm] framebuffer mapped by ddx driver
(II) EXA(0): Driver allocated offscreen pixmaps
(II) EXA(0): Driver registered support for the following operations:
	Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
	ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 2.1

(--) PCI:*(0@1:5:0) ATI Technologies Inc RS480 [Radeon Xpress 200G Series] rev 0, Mem @ 0xd8000000/134217728, 0xfddf0000/65536, I/O @ 0x0000ef00/256, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
(**) RADEON(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(II) Loading sub module "ramdac"
(II) LoadModule: "ramdac"
(II) Module "ramdac" already built-in
(II) RADEON(0): [drm] framebuffer mapped by ddx driver
(II) RADEON(0): Remaining VRAM size (used for pixmaps): 27936K
(II) Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA

Good thing I have root and some knowledge of linux.

[Hlingler]

OK, so far so good, but what does the xrandr query say?

V

[Anthonywolfe]

I think it was the first one let me check... yea it was this one.

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 [Radeon Xpress 200G Series] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 2a24
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
Region 0: Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Region 1: I/O ports at ef00 [size=256]
Region 2: Memory at fddf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at fdd00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Kernel modules: radeon

02:01.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems V.92 56K WinModem (rev 03)
Subsystem: Agere Systems Device 044c
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 64 (63000ns min, 3500ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 255