Stuck at 640x480 resolution;

Question

Okay so today I turn on my pc and my monitor is stuck at 640x480, I attempt to change the display settings but it wont let me change any of the options. I tried to switch to a different Nvidia driver (open source and proprietary) to no avail, tried switching back to the Nouveau driver too, still no luck. Not sure what caused this, but I think its happened due to something that updated, I remember when I was last on my pc letting it do some updates. How can I diagnose this and fix it?

Am on Xbuntu Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS Release: 18.04 Codename: bionic

Solution 1

This worked for me:

1. Search Nvidia packages

   $ dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia
   

2. Remove all the Nvidia drivers

   $ sudo apt-get remove --purge '^nvidia-.*'
   

3. Go to: Software Updates⇢Additional Drivers⇢select first one⇢Apply Changes⇢reboot

Solution 2

This looks like nomodeset.

Make sure that it isn't set somwhere in your ubuntu configuration

grep nomodeset /etc/ -rs

This should print by default only:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_RECOVERY="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_RECOVERY nomodeset"

If it appears somwhere else, i.e. in /etc/default/grub - remove it and update grub configuration with

sudo update-grub2

Then reboot.

Also check which graphics driver is in use.

lspci -v

Look for your graphics card or VGA string sections.

In case it's

Kernel driver in use: nouveau

open applications menu and go to Updates -> Settings -> Additional Drivers

or via terminal:

/usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/software-properties-gtk --open-tab 4

and install one of proprietary drivers available.

Keep in mind that after switching drivers you need to reboot your PC.

Comments

[Perestroika]

This worked for me. Thank you.

[Jonas Stumph Stevnsvig]

I had set nomodeset during installation, due to excessive screen tearing. But the installer worked at a higher resolution, so my initial thoughts were not to look for this item set in the actual installed grub conf

[gpasse]

Thank you so much. That worked for me.

[stephan]

This worked for me too!

[AJN]

This worked for me!