How do I set a custom resolution?

Question

I tried to use xrandr to set 1680x1050 as a new mode to VGA output, but it says:

sudo xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1680
X Error of failed request:  BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
Major opcode of failed request:  140 (RANDR)
Minor opcode of failed request:  18 (RRAddOutputMode)
Serial number of failed request:  35
Current serial number in output stream:  36

score 231 · Answer 1 · edited May 26 '23 at 21:34

231

First generate a "modeline" by using cvt
Syntax is: cvt width height refreshrate

cvt 1680 1050 60

this gives you:

# 1680x1050 59.95 Hz (CVT 1.76MA) hsync: 65.29 kHz; pclk: 146.25 MHz
Modeline "1680x1050_60.00"  146.25  1680 1784 1960 2240  1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync

Now tell this to xrandr:

xrandr --newmode "1680x1050_60.00"  146.25  1680 1784 1960 2240  1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync

Then you can now add it to the table of possible resolutions of an output of your choice:

xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1680x1050_60.00

The changes are lost after reboot, to set up the resolution persistently, create the file ~/.xprofile with the content:

#!/bin/sh
xrandr --newmode "1680x1050_60.00"  146.25  1680 1784 1960 2240  1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1680x1050_60.00

You need to replace VGA-0 with your monitor connection. Use xrandr --listmonitors.

edited May 26 '23 at 21:34

Elder Geek

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answered Nov 16 '13 at 13:42

thom

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The connected device might not be VGA-0. If you get the message xrandr: cannot find output "VGA-0", try running the following command: xrandr | grep -e " connected [^(]" | sed -e "s/$[A-Z0-9]\+$ connected.*/\1/" (source: xrandr on ArchWiki). The output of that command should be the correct device identifier. – thirdender Jul 09 '14 at 06:25
14

You do not need sudo with xrandr – Panther Oct 12 '15 at 18:14
3

I would like to add that I have the same error - and the above does not solve the problem at all – TellMeWhy Oct 13 '15 at 09:35
5

If you're on a VM, the display is usually Virtual1 instead of VGA-0. – CyberEd Mar 22 '16 at 22:37
Ubuntu freezes when I try that solution. Using Ctrl+Alt+F1 I can restart Unity, but then the custom resolution disappears – Nitay Jun 08 '16 at 15:26
1

@thirdender after your command, with xrandr --addmode "DVI-I-1" "1280x800_60.00" gave me the same error "BadMatch", any idea? – Aquarius Power Jan 01 '17 at 21:00
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@AquariusPower, try adding --verbose to your command and see if there is any useful output. Also see Why do xrandr errors “BadMatch”, “BadName”, “Gamma Failed” happen? – thirdender Jan 02 '17 at 03:01
use arandr to find the VGA number instead of default VGA-0 as in the answer – kittu May 07 '17 at 07:31
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I get this error : X Error of failed request: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes) Major opcode of failed request: 140 (RANDR) Minor opcode of failed request: 18 (RRAddOutputMode) Serial number of failed request: 37 Current serial number in output stream: 38 – ChameleonScales Jul 07 '17 at 18:06
1

After xrandr --newmode command - you can reconnect your display and it will automagically pick the newly added resolution ;) – jabu.hlong Feb 15 '18 at 21:24
10

You need to replace VGA-0 with your monitor connection. Use xrandr --listmonitors. See How to fix error 'xrandr: cannot find output “VGA1”'? – Human Mar 07 '18 at 05:27
Also, for Ubuntu 17.10 I had to Disable Wayland for this to work. – Human Mar 07 '18 at 05:32
This worked perfectly for me. I have an MST dock, with a monitor that outputs 1080p over DVI. A DVI -> DisplayPort adapter. The monitor only reported 1024x768 to xrandr, but I knew it would support 1080p. – MattBoothDev May 22 '19 at 08:25
To only see active monitors, use xrandr --listactivemonitors – Simon Baars Aug 22 '19 at 06:33
Thank you! Magic happens with this answer. – Ahmed Ibrahim Jun 04 '20 at 18:09
1

I get this error after newmode: "Failed to get size of gamma for output default" – roadev Aug 23 '21 at 19:32
It was not working in ubuntu 21.04, finally I have update the file /etc/gdm3/custom.conf by uncommenting the line WaylandEnable=false to make it work. Thank you – Shyju M Aug 30 '21 at 13:05
This works, except that the login screen still runs at a low resolution. How do I make this resolution work at the login screen? – Aaron Franke Dec 16 '21 at 03:05
The modeline generated by cvt didn't work for me, maybe my monitor uses different standard. Using grep -n Modeline /var/log/Xorg.0.log I noticed that the newly added modeline was much different from the pre-existing ones. For example, my pre-existing modelines had +hsync -vsync whereas output of cvt had -hsync +vsync. So I had to change cvt output to match pre-existing modelines to make it work. – Nafiur Rahman Khadem Feb 21 '22 at 13:53
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I had to use cvt -r to create a reduced blanking modeline for my 4K setup (3840x2160@60Hz). Without -r it didn't work. – sebastian May 12 '22 at 12:35
@sebastian Thanks for sharing! This also works on my LG 2500x1080... Thanks for sharing! Works on Fedora 36 with XFCE Spin with xorg :) – Benyamin Limanto Nov 29 '22 at 13:12
if you get "Xrandr not recognizing '-HSync' as an option" - https://superuser.com/questions/1279750/xrandr-not-recognizing-hsync-as-an-option basically don't copy the "Modeline", just the part after that :-) – jave.web Feb 23 '23 at 09:48

score 23 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 27 '15 at 08:23

23

How to set a custom resolution previously specified. After executing the other steps defined to create the resolution, run:

xrandr -s 1680x1050

edited Dec 27 '15 at 08:23

Eric Leschinski

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answered Apr 25 '15 at 00:20

GuiRitter

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This yield an error: Size [width]x[height] not found in available modes – aggregate1166877 Jan 30 '23 at 00:23
You have to do both "--newmode" to define a mode ("add mode to server") and "--addmode" to allow the newly added mode to be used for a given output ("add mode to output connetor"). Only then you can activate that mode for that output. – Mikko Rantalainen Oct 17 '23 at 13:14

score 14 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 03 '17 at 07:32

14

How to set a custom resolution previously specified when running multiple monitors. After executing the other steps defined to create the resolution, run:

xrandr --output DVI-0 --mode 1680x1050

Replace DVI-0 with your device-id, e.g. VGA-0

answered Jul 03 '17 at 07:32

zwessels

267

Great, how do I get my device-id? – aggregate1166877 Jan 30 '23 at 00:22
@aggregate1166877 you can see it through "xrandr" without options. there is a list of devices and if they are connected. mines are DP-0 & DP-2 – Omphaloskopie Mar 26 '23 at 19:04

score 13 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 29 '20 at 09:27

Thanks to thom and thirdender this is basically a single command configuration based on the most voted answer.

RES="1920 1200 60" && \
DISP=$(xrandr | grep -e " connected [^(]" | sed -e "s/\([A-Z0-9]\+\) connected.*/\1/") && \
MODELINE=$(cvt $(echo $RES) | grep -e "Modeline [^(]" | sed -r 's/.*Modeline (.*)/\1/') && \
MODERES=$(echo $MODELINE | grep -o -P '(?<=").*(?=")') && \
cat > ~/.xprofile << _EOF
#!/bin/sh
xrandr --newmode $MODELINE
xrandr --addmode $DISP $MODERES
_EOF

The above command will generate the desired ~/.xprofile file. Just make sure you use the resolution (i.e. the RES variable) of your liking. More info here.

You could replace

xrandr | grep -e " connected [^(]" | sed -e "s/\([A-Z0-9]\+\) connected.*/\1/"

with

xrandr | grep -e " connected [^(]" | cut -d\  -f1

in $DISP variable if that does not work for you.

Thanx for this one. It did the job for me. But to make it work, the user should run "cvt 1920 1200 60" command first. Because resolution isn't exist yet. — deeptionary, May 13 '21 at 10:22
The script contains MODELINE=$(cvt $(echo $RES) ... which will run the required cvt command to generate the correct modeline. — Mikko Rantalainen, Oct 17 '23 at 13:02

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 30 '21 at 15:04

Definitely you have to take a look at autorandr, there seems to be no easier way.

This is the man page (from Ubuntu): http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/man1/autorandr.1.html

And this is the source code: https://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr

Install it in Ubuntu with:

sudo apt install autorandr

Then just save your current config with:

autorandr -s myFaveConfig

and change config and save others with

autorandr -s myOtherConfig

Then just apply them whenever you want with:

autorandr [theConfigIwant]

for example:

autorandr myFaveConfig

will load the first config you saved in this example.

Nothing easier !!

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 15 '23 at 08:58

Have you already installed the nvidia video driver? I had problems with low resolution and discovered that my system was without nvidia driver. I don't have the exact command now, but is something like this, I suggest doing a resarch for it:

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-[version]

How do I set a custom resolution?

6 Answers6

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