Installing a custom resolution on a custom monitor in Ubuntu
May 20, 2014
There was this old cpmputer in office that no one was using and I wanted to install Ubuntu and test out some Microsoft alternative tech in there. The monitor was quite old. It was a Samsung 923nw. There was no available driver for Ubuntu or linux. The monitor supported 1440x900 pixels but the display properties was showing Unknown monitor and a highest resolution of 1024x728.
You can simply create custom resloution in linux and set that to a monitor. Here is how ...
1. First figure out the monitor ID in the system. Type the following command. (Command is in red, output is in blue)
sudo xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 728, maximum 32767 x 32767
VGA1 connected primary 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 60.0*
800x600 60.3 56.2
848x480 60.0
640x480 59.9
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
So the display id is "VGA1"
Then you have to generate a model line like this
cvt 1440 900 60
# 1440x900 59.89 Hz (CVT 1.30MA) hsync: 55.93 kHz; pclk: 106.50 MHz
Modeline "1440x900_60.00" 106.50 1440 1528 1672 1904 900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync
Now the name of the model line is "1440x900_60.00". We will add the resolution using xrandr.
sudo xrandr --newmode "1440x900_60.00" 106.50 1440 1528 1672 1904 900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync
sudo xrandr --addmode VGA1 "1440x900_60.00"
Now we are done. We will now find the resolution in the in display app in Ubuntu.
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