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My Dell laptop has an Intel Graphics HD 3000 driving a 1600x900 LCD. However, For some reason, Ubuntu 13.04 and 14.04 won't let me set the resolution above 1024x768. Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks!

$ lshw
<snip>
*-display UNCLAIMED
         description: VGA compatible controller
         product: 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
         vendor: Intel Corporation
         physical id: 2
         bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
         version: 09
         width: 64 bits
         clock: 33MHz
         capabilities: vga_controller cap_list
         configuration: latency=0
         resources: memory:f1400000-f17fffff memory:e0000000-efffffff ioport:5000(size=64)

$ xrandr
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 800 x 600, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       61.0*
   800x600        61.0

# lspci -vvnnk
<snip>
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
    Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:04c4]
    Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
    Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
    Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
    Region 0: Memory at f1400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
    Region 2: Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    Region 4: I/O ports at 5000 [size=64]
    Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
    Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
            Address: 00000000  Data: 0000
    Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
            Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
            Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
    Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features
            AFCap: TP+ FLR+
            AFCtrl: FLR-
            AFStatus: TP-
<snip>
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF108M [GeForce GT 525M] [10de:0df5] (rev ff) (prog-if ff)
    !!! Unknown header type 7f
user161768
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  • Notice the "UNCLAIMED" on that display entry -- do you have another display in the output? – ubfan1 May 25 '13 at 19:23
  • Nope. In fact, the snippet I posted above is actually the complete output of running lshw -C video. – user161768 May 26 '13 at 22:40
  • I should probably mention this is an Optimus laptop, meaning it has an nvidia GPU as well, but since it can't drive the screen directly I'm not worrying about that for now. – user161768 May 26 '13 at 22:41
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    Check out bumblebee for hybrid graphics configuration. Don't use it myself, no need. – ubfan1 May 27 '13 at 05:20
  • Yeah, bumblebee seems like the Linux way to use the nvidia GPU, but AFAIK it doesn't help with the resolution issue? – user161768 May 28 '13 at 02:31
  • Looks like driver (vesa?) limited resolution. try sudo lspci -vvnn to see what kernel driver you are using. Figure out if you have another one to use, either nvidia or intel like i915 maybe. Could force things by blacklisting the wrong one, and modprobe the right one in rc.local, or just put into /etc/modules – ubfan1 May 28 '13 at 04:50
  • Added the output of lspci -vvnn. (It doesn't mean much to me, but maybe someone else can interpret it.) Thanks for the suggestions at any rate. – user161768 May 31 '13 at 01:15
  • Without a kernel driver listed, 00:02.0 is certainly not in use, so is there another video device with a driver listed? Start with just lspci for the summary of devices and quickly identifying ones of interest. – ubfan1 Jun 02 '13 at 01:35
  • Updated the output of lspci. The only other video entry is a very abbreviated entry for the nvidia GPU, so I conclude that 0:0:2:0 must be the Intel GPU I'm trying to use. I'm perplexed that it doesn't seem to have a kernel module, but maybe that's the problem? – user161768 Jun 02 '13 at 15:06
  • I've also got an Optimus laptop. I can't exactly remember how, but installing Bumblebee solved a heap of problems for me. Before I discovered Bumblebee, I had to put all kinds of crazy stuff in grub just to boot. After installing it, my laptop just worked (more or less). Worth a shot anyway. – Sparhawk Jun 02 '13 at 16:17
  • I had the same problem with my Optimus laptop. Installing bumblebee did help me. You can find the manual here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/120857/nvidia-additional-drivers-empty-maximum-resolution-640x480-driver-disappears/123298#123298 – MrMuretto Jul 01 '13 at 00:47
  • Is this still an issue? Be sure not to boot with nomodeset. – Lekensteyn Jul 01 '14 at 09:42
  • @Lekensteyn yes, it is, as it also affects (at least) Ubuntu 14.04. Also note that may laptop won't boot without nomodeset, which I now understand to be the real problem. – user161768 Jul 01 '14 at 20:21
  • @Lekensteyn in any event, I actually discovered a solution only a few days ago and came back here to post it, but was blocked by the hold. :( – user161768 Jul 01 '14 at 20:28
  • @user161768 Since it affects 14.04 too, I've voted for re-open. Please monitor this question and add your answer :) – Lekensteyn Jul 01 '14 at 20:35
  • @user161768 I have reopened your question. Please, post that answer! Thanks :) – Seth Jul 01 '14 at 20:53

3 Answers3

1

After discovering recently that 14.04 was affected too, I did some more digging and discovered a few things:

  • Booting with nomodeset is the immediate cause of the problem; I only did this because the laptop in question wouldn't boot otherwise.
  • Booting with noacpi instead solved the video issue, but caused other problems. In particular, only one CPU was detected, when two (or four with HyperThreading) would otherwise be seen.
  • Booting with acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor instead fixed almost all of the problems; the only remaining issue was excessive fan noise.
  • Updating to the latest available BIOS (in combination with the previous bullet) gave me a complete solution.
user161768
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0

I know it's an old issue. But, still Posting the solution, as it might help someone who might have faced the same issue.

I had bought an Intel i5-12400 processor, Installed Ubuntu 21.10. The processor was very new and the kernel shipped with Ubuntu was old. So I installed the Mainline/Generic kernel and it worked.

Solution: If you have new hardware, always install the Mainline/Generic kernel instead.

Laungsh
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  • That may not be necessary as new kernels are released on a regular basis and may in fact be a bad idea. – David Mar 11 '22 at 08:10
  • @David It may indeed but it's probably the better interim solution for this brand new hardware. That this answer is totally NOT applicable or even remotely related to the actual 8 years old question is another issue. – ChanganAuto Mar 12 '22 at 15:17
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Make sure that the Intel graphics driver is installed

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel
Stefano Palazzo
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Felix Francis
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