Debian: very low resolution and an "unknown monitor" problem
Solution 1
Edit: I've found an actual solution that doesn't require you to install CrunchBang instead of Debian!
I was using Debian Squeeze, that used a kernel version that, apparently, did not support my graphics card.
The solution is simply upgrading to Debian testing (Wheezy).
Change your etc/apt/sources.list
to:
deb http://ftp.hr.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.hr.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
And then execute sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
.
Bam! Now you have a newer (and almost completely stable, as in, you probably wont experience any errors) version of Debian, which probably supports your card better than the older one.
Solution 2:
I have installed #! (CrunchBang) and all the problems were gone.
#! is pretty much Debian with some default configurations and Openbox by default.
Solution 2
It's rare for for the monitor to not be auto-detected properly. Try making sure the appropriate drivers for your video card are installed, if you are using proprietary drivers, try using their utilities to generate the adequate xorg.conf
file(s). Or you can try making a editing or creating one yourself. (Don't forget to change the driver to the one you are using.
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "layout1"
Screen 0 "screen1" 0 0
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor1"
Option "VendorName" "ACME"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "videocard1"
Driver "nv" # change your driver here.
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen1"
Device "videocard1"
Monitor "monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1080" "1280x720" "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Add or remove the resolutions you want.
Related videos on Youtube
Comments
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jcora over 1 year
Edit: I have installed CrunchBang (or #!, a Debian-based distro), and that seems to have solved all of my resolution problems.
I've just installed Debian after using Linux Mint for a few months.
Everything went on smooth, however, when the installation was over I noticed that the resolution was set really low.
I went to
System > Preferences > Monitors
, and that told me that the highest available resolution was 1024 * 768.It also did not recognize my monitor properly as it was listed as "Unknown", the only rotation option was "Normal" and the refresh rate was "0 Hz" (although I'm having no problems with the refresh rate at the moment).
How can I get an optimal resolution (the native one)?
xrandr
says:xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default Screen 0: minimum 800 x 600, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768 default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm 1024x768 0.0* 800x600 61.0
lspci -v | grep VGA
says:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Sandy Bridge Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc NI Seymour [AMD Radeon HD 6470M] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
I'm not sure why there seem to be two graphics cards.
Currently I'm trying to install the non-free AMD/ATI r6xx r7xx drivers. Is this a good move? <- this changed nothing
I'm also missing the
Xorg.conf
file. <- As suggested I've created one, but that only made my computer unable to start displaying anything after Grub. I'll have to delete it from Ubunto.If there's any more potentially useful info please tell me so I could share it.
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Admin about 11 yearsYou probably have one on-board graphics card (chip) on the motherboard, and another off-board graphics card (the ATI one). That would explain why you are seeing two, on separate buses (00 and 01, respectively).
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Admin about 11 yearsYou can use GRUB to add the parameter
single
at the end of thekernel
command line. That will boot into single-user mode with only a minimum of services running. Particularly in your case, X will not be started. Then you can delete (or edit) yourxorg.conf
file to fix this non-functional X server problem. -
Admin about 11 years@MichaelKjörling probably so. Could that be a (the) problem?
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Admin about 11 years@MichaelKjörling, thanks for your device, but I had already fixed the problem. I booted to a Ubuntu LiveCD and deveted
xorg.conf
. Now it starts up just fine... -
Admin about 11 yearsI doubt that having two graphics controllers is the source of your problem, but you can always try moving the graphics cable (the one between the monitor and the computer) from one connector to the other and see what happens. Worst case you'll have to move it back. (This can be done while the computer is up and running, if you are only a little careful when inserting the cable.)
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jcora about 11 yearsI'm trying to install the proprietary drivers at the moment, as I've heard that it could solve the problem. Also, I've put some new info into the question, please check it out.
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lmcanavals about 11 years
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jcora about 11 yearsI'm following it now but almost none of the tools they're using seem to be installed or even included in the repo. This is quite annoying.
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rzetterberg about 11 yearsI ran Ubuntu first and it worked fine, then when I switched to Debian I had the same problems stated in the question. Tried updating to Wheezy and it solved the problem for me as well :)
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syntaxerror over 10 yearsIt's rare for for the monitor to not be auto-detected properly. Nope! It's not rare at all. I have an EIZO L985EX attached to an older NVIDIA card (via DVI), and it turned out the culprit was
nouveau
. When I changed to proprietarynv
driver (just for a test), my monitor was instantly detected correctly.nouveau
can still be horribly buggy at times (no wonder, it's reverse-engineered stuff)