[ale] help forcing Ubuntu NOT to scramble my screen resolution

[John Mills]

Good question - I had a similar, slightly less troublesome problem with 
ubuntu-9.x and never really resolved it.

My Samsung LCD monitor was quite sharp at its maximum resolution, but 
lower resolutions had nasty blur and aspect distortion - terrible to stare 
at all day! Each time the system was rebooted my regular screen dropped 
into a bad resolution and the higher, crisp setting was not available in 
the configuration. If I logged on as 'root' I had the full range of 
settings and could choose the top resolution. After that, an ordinary 
login also got the higher resolution screen.

An old 2-port, PS-2 KVM passed its signals through a maze of adapters to 
handle old and newer boxes, and was by-passed by one of the displays in 
favor of the monitor's input selector. This setup was probably part of the 
issue but it was the only way I ever found to get all the controls to 
function for both units.

Mercifully this didn't happen each time I switched between displays, but 
at one point it happened each time I logged in. I developed the habit of 
using screen-lock instead of logging out.

Now that computer is someone else's problem. &8-)X

  - Mills

On Thu, 27 Jan 2011, Ron Frazier wrote:

> I have an interesting situation that I need help with.  I am running
> Ubuntu 10.04.  I have a laptop with a screen resolution of 1280 x 800.
> I have a desktop monitor with a max resolution of 1280 x 1024.  So,
> coincidentally, the horizontal resolution of the monitor is the same as
> the laptop.  I have an Iogear KVM switch that I use to switch the
> desktop monitor from my desktop computer to my laptop.

> In Windows, when I connect the laptop to the KVM and switch to the
> desktop monitor, I am still able to output a 1200 x 800 image, and
> maintain aspect ratio, on the desktop monitor.  Therefore, the desktop
> monitor displays a replica of the laptop image, with black bars at the
> top and bottom.

> However, when I'm running Ubuntu, and I connect the laptop to the KVM
> and switch over to the desktop monitor, Ubuntu decides that the maximum
> resolution is now 1024 x 768 instead of 1200 x 800.  It resizes my
> windows and scrambles my icons, which drives me insane.  So, how do I
> force Ubuntu to output 1280 x 800, regardless of what it THINKS the
> monitor is capable of.

> Any help is greatly appreciated.

> Sincerely,

> Ron