Ubuntu – limited resolution with Intel graphics

13.0414.04intel graphicsresolution

My Dell laptop has an Intel Graphics HD 3000 driving a 1600×900 LCD. However, For some reason, Ubuntu 13.04 and 14.04 won't let me set the resolution above 1024×768. 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

Best Answer

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.
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