ubuntu 11.10 display problem

in additional, my monitor is not recognized (when i open display in system settings, it says "Unknown".
I'm opting for a 1440x900 resolution but i'm stuck on 3 lower resolutions. I tried adding the 1440x900 resolution but it doesn't seem to work through xrandr. i don't know what to do anymore... :((

The alignment problem could be a display driver problem, or a sync problem, or it could just be a monitor alignment problem. I don't know why it's never mentioned when this problem comes up, but doing some basic monitor alignment should be the first thing people think of.

All monitors these days have a menu system that is there to fine tune the screen. It think people assume that because it's an LCD monitor that this is not necessary, but this is not the case. Try the monitor setup for size and position and see if there's enough adjustment to fix the problem (though I agree this is a pretty extreme case if it is just alignment). CRT monitors used to fold at the edges when the alignment was this bad (electron reflections off the side of the glass tube) but LCD monitors can appear to wrap to the other side because of timing issues. It could just be that the resolution and refresh rate is so far out of what the monitor is designed for that it's doing the best it can. Given your problems of the monitor not being recognised and the fact that you can't set the ideal res for the screen I think this is quite likely.

If the monitor is not being identified then it may indicate a problem with the monitor EDID data:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data

This is data sent to the computer from the monitor that helps the system know what resolutions and signal types the monitor supports, amongst other stuff. Things that cause the data to not be recognised are: Monitor does not send data that conforms to the VESA standard, Video card is not able to interpret the data (broken), monitor is not sending EDID (broken), cable connections are faulty, monitor is connected through a KVM switch or similar that does not pass the EDID data correctly, and so on.

The solution is to make an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that provides enough information to Xorg so that it can correctly support the monitor resolution that you want to use. Prior to 11.04 Natty I found that it was sufficient to give it the HorizSync and VertRefresh parameters, but from Natty onwards I found it was necessary to specify valid modelines. Generally, playing with xorg.conf can be quite frustrating because it doesn't seem to work until you get the syntax and format *just*right*. Currently my xorg.conf has both VertRefresh and Modelines specified. I can post it here if you want to see it but you'll have to change all of the parameters to reflect what your monitor is capable of - getting the format of the file right is 50% of the battle since the documentations is confusing and conflicting and there's a great deal of old invalid information to be found from a Google search.

I have to use xorg.conf to set these parameters because I'm running two computers from one monitor using a KVM switch. I've certainly had my share of frustrations with Xorg and getting it to support the resolutions my monitor is capable off. The use of xorg.conf is really a deprecated feature - if they ever remove support for it completely I'm stuffed.

Chris

Thank u very much four ur response, Chris!
yes, i have tried playing around with my xorg.conf but that's all i ever do. play around with it. honestly, i don't know it pretty well. i just installed ubuntu few days ago and i haven't really got around with this OS because of this problem. currently, this is what my xorg.conf looks like:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Samsung SyncMaster 920NW"
 VendorName "Samsung"
 ModelName "920nw"
 HorizSync 30-81
 VertRefresh 56-75
 Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Samsung SyncMaster 920NW"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
 Defaultdepth 24
 Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
 SubSection "Display"
 Depth 24
 Modes "1440x900" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
 Viewport 0 0
 EndSubSection
EndSection

NOTE: the 1440x900 resolution is not working. i can't get it to work. i can provide a screenshot of my desktop if u need some, not just printscreen so you might understand me more.

also, i edited etc/default/grub with
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

because i couldn't access ubuntu prior to that. I don't know if this move bore the screen problem and i get these errors: (gksudo: 1807) and (gedit:1809) saying "unable to..." and "failed to..." respectively.

will buying a video card help me on this? i'm using just what comes with the intel i3 processor.

I think i have similar problem. I was setting up compiz cube and grid options and realized that when i use keyboard shortcut ctl+alt+KP6 then window goes to the right side of the screen and extends little bit too far...so theres a thin line in next workspaces left side and the unitys menu doesnt show up because of that. So i have to use win button to get Unitys menu open. I have LCD 23 LG Flatron W2343T monitor working at 1920X1080 resolution.
The monitor is detected as Goldstar Company LTD W2343. The monitor has autoset button that automatically corrects any error and i have never had any so i think its more like driver or xorg probem or something. I have to say that everything else is working correctly and fast. I have ati x1950 pro videocard. The problem only appears when grid to right with shortcut! Just tested that when i grid google chrome it doesnt extend to next workspace.

I'm not sure anyone know that much about how to set up xorg.conf :-)

Double check the Vertrefresh and HorizSync with your monitor manual. They seem rather low. I've also never had any luck setting Modes on their own. It would be the simplest way, but I've never got it to work with them, even before Natty came along.

There's a program called gtf that can be used to generate the modeline. eg
gtf 1440 900 60
gives the output:

Modeline "1440x900_60.00" 106.47 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -HSync +Vsync

I've used 60Hz as a 'safe' refresh rate. You might want to calculate one with a higher refresh rate

I suggest you incorporate this into your xorg:

======================8<----------------------------------
Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
                          Identifier "Samsung SyncMaster 920NW"
                         VendorName "Samsung"
                         ModelName "920nw"
                         HorizSync 30-81
                         VertRefresh 56-75
                         Modeline "1440x900_60.00" 106.47 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -HSync +Vsync
                         Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
                         Identifier "Default Screen"
                        Monitor "Samsung SyncMaster 920NW"
                        Device "Configured Video Device"
                        Defaultdepth 24
                        Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"

              SubSection "Display"
                                   Depth 24
                                   Modes "1140x900_60.00"
              EndSubSection
EndSection

======================8<----------------------------------

Note that I've also changed your "Modes" line to reflect the later information that I used, though truthfully I don't know if it's redundant if you give a full modeline. I don't have depth or default depth in the monitor section, and I don't have "option" DPMS in the monitor section, nor "AddARGBGLXVisuals".

I can only suggest that you give the modeline a go as it's the only thing that worked for me from Natty onwards. I only left the HorizSync and VertRefresh in there because it was working previously.

Chris