[EdLUG] Graphics issues

Sat Nov 12 00:45:56 UTC 2016

Hi all,

Thanks for the input!! It seems I have the GRUB question answered, and you
seem to be saying that it might not be to to with the xorg.conf file, which
seems to make sense given what you said, so I'd like to see if we can
figure out what's actually going on before I go addressing why I can't
create xorg.conf as that may not be the solution.

So, additional info:

The desktop environment is Cinnamon
There is indeed a display settings dialog box which does change the
settings (but sometimes causes a freeze) but the settings are not
preserved, which is the only reason I looked into xrandr in the first place.
The screen resolutions I am trying to hit are either 1280x720 or 1360x768,
which are both listed in xrandr
The lspci output is here: http://pastebin.com/zdSDfPt6 though I suspect the
line you're after is:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Integrated
Graphics (rev 09)

The contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log are here: http://pastebin.com/uAgNNAxz
- but a lot of the log is from me calling xrandr way after boot (I
presume).
On line 181 it says "....switch to mode 1920x1080 at 60.0..." still as part of
boot (I presume) but I don't know why it picks that.
Other than that, I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

Regards,

Andrew.

On Fri, Nov 11, 2016 at 8:32 PM, Edinburgh Linux Users Group <
edlug at lists.edlug.org.uk> wrote:

> On 2016.11.10 23:03, Edinburgh Linux Users Group wrote:
>
> Andrew,
>
> I'm a Gentoo guy, not Mint but since help seems thin on the ground,
> some of this may be useful.
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm running Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon on a Dell laptop, and have trouble
> > with
> > my (intel) graphics card. I want my screen resolution to be different
> > to
> > the default, but any changes I make (with xrandr for example) get
> > reset
> > after a restart or even a screen lock.
>
> This indicates that its probably not an xorg.conf issue. xorg.conf
> is read once when Xorg starts.  These days most users have
> xorg.conf file fragments in xorg.conf.d if they do anything at all
> to the defaults.
>
> What desktop are you using?
> Both GNOME and KDE provide screen resolution settings controls.
> I'm an Xfce4 user, so all I can suggest is that its buried in a
> settings menu somewhere.
>
> >
> > So I made a script to set the resolution I want using xrandr and run
> > it on
> > startup, but have to run it again after a screen lock.
> >
> > Also, sometimes the screen is split into 4 after I unlock (like a
> > partially
> > zoomed out view of 4 desktops) and everything is unresponsive and I
> > have to
> > reboot with the power button, which has caused me to lose work.
> > Fiddling about with the screen resolution or plugging into external
> > outputs
> > can also cause the thing to freeze.
> >
> > I filed a bug for Linux Mint, and also asked on the Mint forums, but
> > didn't
> > get very far.
> >
> > Then I tried creating an xorg.conf file using X -configure in recovery
> > mode, but get an error:
>
> I thought X -configure hand been abandoned years ago.
>
> >
> > "Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices."
> >
> Intel chip sets support multiple screens and  X -configure is very basic.
> It can detect that two screens are supported by your hardware so it
> wants you two define two.
>
> From memory X -configure, never delivered a correct working xorg.conf,
> it always needed some edits to make it do what you really wanted.
>
> > And can't seem to find my way past that, really not finding much on
> > google,
> > as it all seems to be people setting up second monitors, or who
> > already
> > have an xorg.conf file.
>
> No xorg.conf is needed for a single display with automagic settings.
> As soon as you want something out of the ordinary, you begin to
> need a stub xorg.conf, just with the sections of interest.
>
> >
> > I also tried to set GRUB_GFXMODE in the grub, but this seems to have
> > no
> > effect (should it even?)
>
> The pixel buffers used by Grub, the kernel framebuffer and the Intel
> Xorg drivers can all be in different regions of RAM. Its unlikely this
> would have any effect.
>
> >
> > So, what I'm wondering is.. Should I be creating an xorg.conf in the
> > first
> > place? If so, how can I do that given that I can't run X -configure?
> > If
> > not, what should I do? I can't have a system that forces me to reboot
> > every
> > 5 times I unlock the screen (gross guesstimate)
>
> You will have a file called /var/log/Xorg.0.log sight of that will tell
> what Xorg is doing when it starts.  Put that file on a pastebin site
> and tell us the link.  There are lots of sites that offer this service.
> http://pastebin.com/ is probably the oldest.
> Don't paste it in an email to the list as its a fairly big file.
>
> Knowing your hardware may help too. Make another pastebin
> with the output of lspci.
>
> What desktop do you use?
>
> What screen resolution do you want to use?
>
> >
> > I'm new to Linux btw. Any pointers or suggestions most welcome!
> >
> > Many thanks,
> >
> > Andrew
> >
>
> Being old fashioned, my Xorg still has a complete xorg.conf. Its
> at https://paste.pound-python.org/show/9E1LD75UAz4NhFy49LsS/
>
> You may just need a suitable
> Section "Screen"
> Mine is not it. Its full of clutter that has accumulated for a long time.
>
>
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> >
>
> Regards,
>
> Roy Bamford
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