Monitor size settings don't stick

I've 8.04.Try the following. Maybe it helps.

1: Copy the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak
2: In a Terminal enter sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
3: Have a look at the screen section (the sub section is important)

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Device "nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro]"
 Monitor "Generic Monitor"
 DefaultDepth 24
        SubSection "Display"
                   Modes "1280x800"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

4: Save the file
5: Restart the system

The update of the file shouldn't take more than 15 minutes – otherwise you're going to loose the root privileges and you wouldn't be able to save it.

Hope it helps.
Peter

I don't have a file xorg.conf in /etc/X11/, nor can I find it in another location. I did a search for the file at the root (/), but got no results - although I was surprised how little time the search took; less than a minute, so I'm not sure if that went right.

I guess this is strange, very strange. Did you make a search with File System? Because it's not a part of root.

Hope you will get a wise answer.
Peter

I did a search for xorg.conf in file:/// with subfolders included. I ran it again, and now I do get results, but that's because in the meantime I mounted several partitions, including ones with old Linux installations. So the search does work, but there's no xorg.conf in my present installation. Might it be an idea to simply copy one of those other files to /etc/X11/ ? Mind you, that may be either an old Ubuntu or a Suse installation. The device name is unintelligible to me (a9d8e25b-7709-4f7c-97ad-937c9b951810).
Btw, what you suggest is simply opening the file and saving it again, without any changes? How can that solve the problem?

No. In the screen subsection you have to define the resolution you want. In the example it's Modes "1280x800". But if you don't have an xorg.conf I don't know what you can do.
Peter

What distribution (as in 10.04 or 9.10) and was it a new install or upgrade?

What video adapter (card) and driver are you using?

If you look in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file and you have an nvidia card, you'll see a line like this:

(II) NVIDIA GLX Module 195.36.24 Thu Apr 22 19:52:00 PDT 2010

which is the propietary nvidia driver version 195...

Let us know...

It's 8.04 and it was new installed.

How can I find out the video adapter?
Peter

Try this out…

Open a terminal (window) and run this from the command line:

sudo lshw | grep -B 3 -A 12 ' VGA '

You will need your password. lshw outputs ALL hardware info, grep will limit it to what you want.

From my computer⋯
⋯:~$ sudo lshw | grep -B 3 -A 12 ' VGA '
                   capabilities: pci pm pciexpress bus_master cap_list
                   resources: ioport:9000(size=4096) memory:ca000000-cdffffff ioport:b0000000(size=268435456)
                 *-display
                      description: VGA compatible controller
                      product: G96 [GeForce 9400 GT]
                      vendor: nVidia Corporation
                      physical id: 0
                      bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
                      version: a1
                      width: 64 bits
                      clock: 33MHz
                      capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom
                      configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
                      resources: irq:16 memory:cc000000-ccffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff(prefetchable) memory:ca000000-cbffffff ioport:9c00(size=128) memory:cd000000-cd07ffff(prefetchable)
              *-pci:1
                   description: PCI bridge

You can see my computer has a Nvidia 9400 GT,

Let us know…

peter@linux-desktop:~# sudo lshw | grep -B 3 -A 12 ' VGA '
          clock: 33MHz
          configuration: driver=agpgart-intel module=intel_agp
        *-display
             description: VGA compatible controller
             product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
             version: 01
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=i810_smbus latency=0 module=i2c_i810
        *-usb:0
             description: USB Controller
             product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1

Good, now we know we're working with an Intel Graphics Adapter, an 82845G.

Since if there is no xorg.conf file, as there should be, perhaps we should check that there is or is not an xorg.conf

Run the following from a terminal:

sudo ls -slat /etx/X11 | grep 'xorg.conf'

This is what mine looks like
⋯:~$ sudo ls -slat /etc/X11 | grep 'xorg.conf'
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2928 2010-06-22 11:48 xorg.conf
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2745 2010-06-22 11:45 xorg.conf.backup
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2649 2010-05-18 12:49 xorg.conf-backup-100518124848
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2608 2010-05-18 11:49 xorg.conf-backup-100518114914
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2271 2010-05-18 11:41 xorg.conf~
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2608 2010-05-18 11:41 xorg.conf_xconfig.20100518114109

If one exists, looking at it will be helpful, if there isn't one, then we have a different problem.

Let us know

It's not likely, but occasionally xorg.conf is somewhere else. If the above fails, try...

sudo find /etc -name xorg.conf

then

sudo find /usr -name xorg.conf

And for more information, check out the manual page for xorg.conf. From terminal:

man xorg.conf

A little more about what may be happening and what might work.

From a terminal, input: man intel

Look for a heading "HARDWARE LVDS FIXED TIMINGS AND SCALING"

This worth trying and also why the xorg.conf file is important. If we cannot find it, we can create a new one.

Hang in there…