Cannot change screen resolution in MATE

Question

I just installed mate. It seems so windows98'ish and I cannot change the screen resolution. I change it to 1280x960 and it shows that it's changed but it doesn't change and resolution is still the same.

I have installed the proprietary ATI drivers

Solution

I had the same experience myself, but resolved it with a fix to an ostensibly unrelated problem. From what I understand, this is an issue with gnome-settings-daemon and mate-settings-daemon conflicting.

Follow these steps:

cd /etc/xdg/autostart/

Always backup your files, just in case:

sudo cp gnome-settings-daemon.desktop gnome-settings-daemon.desktop.bak
sudo cp mate-settings-daemon.desktop mate-settings-daemon.desktop.bak

Now start the editing:

sudo nano gnome-settings-daemon.desktop 

Then replace the text with the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=MATE Settings Daemon
Exec=/usr/bin/mate-settings-daemon
OnlyShowIn=MATE;
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=Initialization
X-GNOME-Autostart-Notify=true
X-GNOME-AutoRestart=true
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gnome-settings-daemon

Then edit the mate daemon

sudo nano mate-settings-daemon.desktop

Replace the line beginning with Exec= with this:

Exec=/usr/bin/mate-settings-daemon --no-daemon &

You should be set after a reboot.