Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-video-ati package

Screen resolution only 800x600

Asked by Christer Levlin

Installed UBUNTU 10.10 ( though it now after installing updates tells me it is v. 11.04 ) in VirtualBox on an HP Laptop.
The laptop has an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series display controller, but Ubuntu does not recognize it. It only tells that the monitor is "Unknown" and I can not get a higher resolution than 800x600 (4:3).
What to do ??

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu xserver-xorg-video-ati Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Maarten Jacobs
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Theodotos Andreou (theodotos) said : 		#1

You can use the "Additional Drivers" utility to install the ATI drivers. You can find this under System --> Administration --> Additional Drivers. See if you can install the ATI proprietary FGLRX drivers and restart the system. If all goes well it should solve your problem.

According to your description the "Unknown" refers to the monitor not the display controller.

Revision history for this message
Christer Levlin (christer-levlin) said : 		#2

I allready tried this, but there is no additional driveer to install / activate.

Revision history for this message
Theodotos Andreou (theodotos) said : 		#3

Did you run the ATI Catalyst Control Center? (System --> Preferences --> ATI Catalyst Control Center)

Revision history for this message
Christer Levlin (christer-levlin) said : 		#4

I can not find any ATI Catalyst Control Center.
Not under System / Preferenses or anywhere else...

Revision history for this message
Theodotos Andreou (theodotos) said : 		#5

Vety peculiar! Can you check if the driver is indeed installed?

  dpkg -s xserver-xorg-video-ati

If it installed try installing the ATI Catalyst Control Center

  sudo apt-get install fglrx-amdcccle

Then try again.

Revision history for this message
Christer Levlin (christer-levlin) said : 		#6

There was some development...

The commands performed OK and from the first command I understand that the driver is there and installed.
Now the ATI Catalyst Control Center also was installed, but when I try to start / open it, I only receive the error message

"There was a problem initializing Catalyst Control Center Linux edition. It could be caused by the following.

No ATI graphics driver is installed or the ATI driver is not functioning properly.
Please install the ATI driver appropriate for your hardware, or configure using aticonfig"

Revision history for this message
Maarten Jacobs (maarten256) said : 		#7

Christer,

Did you install the VirtualBox guest additions? I'm running Windows in Virtual Box and had to do the same to make the resolution work.

As far as other suggestions, I don't believe VirtualBox will expose the graphics card directly to the guest operating system it is running - I'm not 100% sure about this, but I do know (again in my Windows Guest OS running in Virtual Box) that the Graphics Card is only a logical extension being provided by VirtualBox, not the actual Graphics Card in my machine.

Furthermore, if you do want to try out the ATI Control Center you'll need to install all of the fglrx drivers and uninstall the xserver-xorg-video-ati and xserver-xorg-video-radeon drivers. The last ones are the open source implementation of the drivers, fxglr is the closed-source implementation provided by ATI. The two don't mix - hence you're ATI Control Center wouldn't work! That being said, if my hunch about VirtualBox above is right, the Guest Additions would install a different set of drivers to manage graphics and you wouldn't be able to run the ATI Control Center.

Anyways hope the above makes sense and helps.

Revision history for this message
Christer Levlin (christer-levlin) said : 		#8

No, I have only downloaded the VirtualBox installation file and installed VB.
It is only one .exe file and I can not find any Guest Additions from there.

Any hint where to find it ??

Revision history for this message
Best Maarten Jacobs (maarten256) said : 		#9

I assume you're running VirtualBox under windows - not sure though what specific version?

Assuming you're running VB 4, I can point you to the installation instructions, section 4.2.2 "Guest Additions for Linux" in the VB users guide http://dlc.sun.com.edgesuite.net/virtualbox/4.0.0/UserManual.pdf.

Essentially, from the "Devices" pull-down menu, you select "Install Guest Additions", which will download the iso (about 32mb) and mount it. The Users Manual has instructions on installing the extensions (essentially execute the correct .run file from the mounted iso image).

I've not done this myself (as I run windows in VB under Ubuntu, not the other way around) so I can't give you specifics on what to expect once you go through the installation instructions... However I do know that installing the additions in Windows works magic and allows me to run the Windows Guest OS in full-screen mode, etc.

Hope that helps!

Revision history for this message
Christer Levlin (christer-levlin) said : 		#10

Hi Maarten

Thanks for your advice.
I am running VB on Windows 7 Home Premium / 64bit
I was actually running VB 3.2.12, but upgraded to 4.0..
When studying how to install the Guest Additions, I "by mistake" under Places found VBOXADDITIONS_4.0.0.....
There I found the installation routine for this ( autorun.sh )
Now I have a resolution 1024x768 (4:3) which is quite OK for my needs.

Thank You all who have been working on my issue !!

Christer