Ubuntu – How to set the resolution to 1280×1024 on an Acer Aspire Revo 3700

aspireinstallationmonitornvidia

FINAL UPDATE: Here is the best solution that I found after going through this problem lots of times. The question below is outdated because as it turns out the computer is not the problem; the monitor is the problem.

I've just set up a new nettop computer (Acer Aspire Revo 3700: CPU:Atom D525, GPU:Nvidia ION2). I've just made a clean install of Ubuntu 10.10 using the standard USB pendrive method. Almost everything works OK, but the graphics are not OK: the recommended Nvidia driver is activated but the monitor is not detected, so the resolution is wrong.

How can I make Ubuntu detect my monitor?
How can I get the proper resolution (1280×1024) in Ubuntu?

I know that my monitor is not a CRT but an LCD: it's a BenQ, model T905, with 1280×1024 resolution at 60Hz, connected via a normal VGA cable. DVI or HDMI is not an option.

When I go to System>Prefs>Monitors, I get:

It appears that your graphics driver
does not support the necessary
extensions to use this tool. Do you
want to use your graphics driver
vendor's tool instead?
YES NO

If I say NO then I get a window:
enter image description here
or for YES I get this:
enter image description here

In both cases I don't see that I can fix this problem. The main reason for getting this new computer was that I was sick of having graphics problems on the old one with a very ugly solution that didn't give me hardware support – but at least I got the resultion. Why is this so difficult… sigh!

Best Answer

It's an EDID issue. Your monitor is trying to tell your graphics card which modes is supports (at various refresh rates) but one side of the conversation is failing.

The fix is fairly simple, you just manually tell the driver what modes you can work at. In this case it seems you can just set the refresh rates and it'll figure out the rest.

https://superuser.com/questions/60290/cant-set-1280x1024-on-ubuntu-with-nvidia-geforce-8400-gs

You might also have more luck with a digital cable going from your Revo's HDMI port to your monitors DVI-D port. You can buy conversion cables or add-on dongles that change one end of a HDMI or DVI cable. Both options are quite cheap. You can get a 2m DVI-D=>HDMI for about £6.

On a sidenote, you only ever want to use nvidia-settings. The closed nvidia drivers aren't compatible with the randr extensions... But that's not too bad as nvidia-settings isn't that bad.

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