Ubuntu – There is no xorg.conf. How does ubuntu store user configurations of screen resolution

display-resolutionxorg

I am using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and the default desktop environment. I can't find /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ or similar files or directories. But, I can change the screen resolution, and the settings persist after I restart my computer. My question is: where does the system store the configurations of screen resolution set by a user? Are the configurations in a file somewhere?

Best Answer

You can check sudo ls /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ there you should find a bunch of files corresponding to your current video drivers etc.

The second part of your question, regarding knowing what resultion to display: this will be dependent on your current desktop environment in use. One user can end up with different screen resolutions upon login if they have two different desktop environments like Gnome and XFCE installed for their Ubuntu distro.

For example, I use XFCE4 and mine is in ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/displays.xml. If you use something else, you will likely find the display config file somewhere in your $HOME folder, for gnome if I recall correctly it can be found by cat ~/.config/monitors.xml

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Ubuntu – Error with xorg.conf when trying to add virtual screen to fix the problem of too small screen resolution for an application on 10.1″ screen

Ubuntu has a rather complicated set of ways of configuring X11. I would try to return the configuration to it's initial default state and then follow the advice here:

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution#Panning_viewport

Panning viewport

If you want to have a panning viewport, i.e., a virtual screen that’s bigger than your physical screen that moves when you move the mouse to the edge (“zoomed‐in” view), specify the desired physical resolution with --mode, the virtual screen size with --fb and the panning area (typically same as virtual screen size) with --panning.

For example:

xrandr --output VGA1 --rate 60 --mode 800x600 --fb 1280x1024 --panning 1280x1024

Ubuntu – Xubuntu 14.04: Screen Resolution 1440×900, no xorg.conf or lightdm.conf

Very good stuff.

I had some issues keeping my second monitor in the correct position. On boot the system would automatically try to mirror my screens even though I saved them in a specific position. I assume it was something to do with loading into a different resolution than last used (since it wasn't added yet through xrandr).

I was able to fix my issue with an additional step. After I had my desktop set up how I wanted (i.e. adding the new mode and initializing it) I installed "arandr" and saved my current desktop setup to a single line shell command. Then the final script made sure my desktop came up in the correct location every time. My full script now runs at autostart and works in my Kubuntu setup perfectly.

xrandr --newmode "1280x1024_60.00"  109.00  1280 1368 1496 1712  1024 1027 1034 1063 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA1 1280x1024_60.00
xrandr --output VIRTUAL1 --off --output DP3 --off --output DP2 --off --output DP1 --off --output HDMI3 --mode 1920x1080 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal --output HDMI2 --off --output HDMI1 --off --output VGA1 --mode 1280x1024_60.00 --pos 1920x104 --rotate normal

I hope this helps anyone in this situation.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Error with xorg.conf when trying to add virtual screen to fix the problem of too small screen resolution for an application on 10.1″ screen

Panning viewport

Ubuntu – Xubuntu 14.04: Screen Resolution 1440×900, no xorg.conf or lightdm.conf

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