Ubuntu

fix/troubleshoot video resolution used to be easy - no more

Asked by Simon Bridge

With reference to:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/changing-video-resolution-when-xorg-borks-it-up-726504/#post3543323
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+faq/128

... it took a long time for me to find the second one, and *I* was sure that it existed. In general, users that need it won't be so persistent.

Thankfully, advances in xorg have meant that manually editing xorg.conf is largly a thing of the past. This is a vast improvement. However, there are times when the autoconfig just does not work.

When this happens, I insist: it is *excessively* difficult to figure out what to do about it.

Googling around the question of how to change screen resolution in ubuntu, I find most users "solve" the problem by using proprietary drivers, third-party tools, changing distro, or changing to windows.

This is crazy. It should not be this hard but the user experience seems to be that it is intractable.

The solution is not difficult, it is just that the end user becomes too frustrated discovering them. This is a communication failure.

I observe that users do not generally attempt to adjust the screen resolution unless it is something goes wrong. They expect to find their solutions in the Screen Resolution dialog.

I suspect that it would be useful to include access to the displayconfig-gtk thingy as an "advanced settings" button under System > Preferences > Screen Resolution.

My question is: what would it take to do this?

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Bryan Basil
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Best Bryan Basil (bryanlbasil) said : 		#1

Hello, Simon Bridge. :-)

I'm sorry you had a tough time configuring everything. Believe me, I've been down that road.

You can add a custom application to your Ubuntu panel, if you feel it is necessary. All you have to do is Right-Click --> Add to Panel --> Custom Application Launcher --> Command: gksudo displayconfig-gtk.

As for a default option, you have to take it up with Canonical, I'm afraid, but you can go to Ubuntu's blueprints page, and add a new one. If the Ubuntu team at Canonical think it's an important enough idea, they will try to add it in to the next release, and I think it has potential to, certainly. :-)

I truly hope I've solved your question, and I believe that ideas that urge user-friendliness can only make the Ubuntu community grow.

Thanks a lot, Simon Bridge. Best to you, and good luck.

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Simon Bridge (simonbridge) said : 		#2

Well... I am not writing because *I* had a tough time ... I was able to troubleshoot using old skills (dating back to RH7.2 days) - reading logs and editing xorg.conf. It only took a few hours.

I was initially struck by the way this issue keeps reccurring. Googling around shows clearly that nobody seems to know what to do really but I'm not the only one who has this trouble. I was going to ask about this, but in phrasing the question I discovered that there is a packaged solution.

Having worked out that the problem is communication not function - I just need to figure out how to draw attention to this. But what I was *expecting* is to be told that this issue is well known and these ideas have already been discussed and rejected for some good and subtle reason which is too much for my poor intellect.

Curiously, the blueprints page won't let me log in ... but at least I now know where to talk about this.

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Bryan Basil (bryanlbasil) said : 		#3

Hmm.. That's strange about the blueprints page.

Anyway, this is something that I believe in as well, and I will try my best to get this case heard.

If you still can't get into the page, email me (you can see my email on my overview page) with what you'd like in the blueprint, and I'll post it for you.

Have a good night, Simon Bridge.

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Simon Bridge (simonbridge) said : 		#4

Hmmm ... I'm logged in *here*.
To get your email - I have to log in from your overview page.
Using firefox in 8.04: Cookies and javascript are enabled globally - in case the authentication site has a markedly different url - it happens.

So I try to log in - and there is no failure message or anything, but nothing changes.
Thing is - I thought I was already logged in... same thing happens with the blueprints.

Maybe I have an overview page? Anyway - the content of the question is pretty much the blueprint - though there is already a blueprint requesting an improved video-config dialog... it is pretty involved and advanced, which is probably why it was declined for jaunty.

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/screen-configuration-ui
... so I'd want
- link to the above blueprint as a reference
- link to this question as another reference
- then the argument that until the ui is ready, we want an interim solution
- propose that the depreciated, but still available and useful, gtk tool should be accessed via an "advanced settings" button on the screen-resolution dialog. This would provide a simple and clear stop-gap adressing those unusual situations where xorg autoconfig is not effective.

Adding this to existing installations is pointless, but to the install image updates - very useful. It would turn a lengthy troubleshooting trek into a one-click solve. Maybe ubuntu has to download the ui, maybe it is on the CD but not part of the default install - after all, it is a rare-use item.

But just putting the solution on the release notes may be all that is needed given we have a long-term solution in the pipeline.

(Aside: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/uniform-nvidia-support - have not figured out how to contribute to a blueprint:

windows does not make installing nvidia drivers any easier - it is nVidia which does this ... you gets the tools and drivers off the CD that comes with the card. Ubuntu nvidia config is even easier - one click only. All the rest is either out of date or what to do when this doesn't work. When it doesn't work in Windows you are simply screwed.)