So the problem is with Ubuntu - and pretty much every darn disrto out there - where it will not allow me to FORCE a screen resolution to anything beyond 800×600. That is, unless the monitor is connected directly to the video card which I’m not going to do (cause it would be too much of a PITA to do every time I wanted to fire up Linux).

This problem can also be replicated in a virtual machine where all you need to do is NOT install the guest additions. Cause if you don’t install guest additions in your guest OS (in this case, Ubuntu) then you will be stuck at a 800×600 screen with no ability to do anything other than maybe select 640×480. And that’s assuming you even have 800×600 in the first place!

Therefore, what script or startup item(s) needs a good kick in the head so I can force Ubuntu or even Debian to correctly use what I say it should use? I also understand the “dangers” here too. (But really. Has anyone actually damaged their monitor by going so far out of a monitors resolution capabilities?) This used to involve messing with a GRUB script somewhere but ever since GRUB went to version 2 I now can’t figure it out.

I’m sure I’m not alone here either cause what I really need is a way to FORCE Ubuntu to IGNORE anything it’s “sensing” at the VGA port or lack thereof, and use what I tell it to use. In my case, I use a KVM switch that doesn’t pass VGA info back to the card (sorry, it’s an older KVM). And as a result, I’m stuck in a 800×600 screen that will never change even though my monitor and card can easily display 1680×1050. That is, unless I bypass my KVM switch which is a “real” PITA!

I have to tell you this SUCKS when I am FORCED to use 800×600 graphics (with no acceleration) on my beautiful 22-inch wide screen. It’s also very frustrating when there’s absolutely zero FAQ’s or other “help” on this either. About the only thing worse is the extremely outdated “canned” info on how to update GRUB when we’re all using GRUB2!

Arunabh Das’s answer is Perfectly Correct for VirtualBox.

Thanks, bud. I thought I was going to have to Ubuntu somebody’s ass.

Okay, I tried kicking the DPI setting down even lower - a the way down to 50, one at a time - and stil lthe max I could get is 1024×768. Perhaps (and after a little more thought, I’ve kinda convinced myself that) this display simply doesn’t support anything higher than 1024×768. Which is fine for me… At least most webpages don’t need to be side-scrolled anymore so that I can see them in their entirety. Just thought I’d give it a try. Just for sh*ts and giggles, anyone with a better 4:3 monitor willing to slam their DPI into the weeds and see if it changes the resoution setting under System>Preferences>Appearance (…etc, as in my first post, two before this)? I don’t have the hardware to try it. It certainly won’t hurt your system to try… It’ll just make the fonts look smaller and smaller. All you do is click an up or down arrow to increase or decrease. Not something that’ll mess anyone’s system up to try.

1. Set your resolution to 1024×768.

2. Lower your DPI by 5-10 points and see if your resolution changed. If not, lower it another 5-10. Try it several times, or at least somewhere around 50-60dpi and see if it’ll change the assigned resolution. I’m interested to know if this was just a lucky fluke on my hardware, or if this method actually works as long as the hardware supports a higher resolution than assigned. Any other bored geeks out there?

I haven’t experimented enough yet, but I’m assuming at this point that if I wanted to try to get up to a 1280×1024 resolution, I could just keep kicking my DPI down a notch or two at a time until 1280×1024 shows up in my monitor’s configuration options. But on this little screen, that might be a little much.

Now, due to lack of hardware availability, I cannot warrant the suitability of this procedure for hardware combinations OTHER THAN the 82815 Intel chipset/monitor combination in DELL INSPIRON 2500 laptops. I only have this one laptop to test. BUT, where all other attempts have failed me, this simple little fix solved ALL of my display woes regarding an unachievable 1024×768 resolution. I just hope, for the sake of all the frustrated users whose countless posts I’ve scanned in the last several days, that this will help anyone and everyone with similar issues. Should save all the hassle of trying to fiddle with an xorg.conf file that suddenly no longer exists or doesn’t work when modded, or dealing with device capabilities or wrapping drivers or anything like that. If all you want is a resolution fix, this is it. Best part is, it’s SIMPLE!

Okay. So I just installed Lucid 10.04 LTS a few days ago, on an old laptop. It’s a Dell Inspiron 2500, with the ever-so-problematic 82815 chipset built in. Same problem this and a few similar chispets, e.g., 82915) - two resolution choices: 640×480 and 800×600. This display is capable of 1024×768, but for the last couple releases, 800×600 is max supported. Could fix previously with xorg.conf modification, but no more, to the chagrin of many who still use these old, archaic notebooks.

ALAS, I HAVE SOLVED MY ISSUE, and quite simply indeed!!

1. System > Preferences > Appearance

2. Click the “Fonts” tab

3. Click the “Details…” button (lower right, above “Close”)

4. At the top, set “Resolution:” to 83 dpi

5. Click “Close”

6. Click “Close” again.

7. System > Preferences > Monitors

8. 1024×768 is now already set for me. Should be an option for you, too.

Happy *nixing!

1. Start Virtual box and log into Ubuntu.

2. Hit the right ctrl key so you can get your mouse pointer outside the virtual machine.

3.Go to top of virtual window, click on devices then select “Install Guest Additions”
You will see a window pop up inside Ubuntu showing you that there are some new files mounted in a virtual CDROM drive. One of those files should be VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

You must run the file with some admin permissions so do that this way…

4. Click inside the Ubuntu screen again then go to Applications - Accessories then Terminal. The terminal window is where you will run the file from, but first we must navigate to the correct directory.

5. type this… cd /media/cdrom0 (then hit enter, there is a space after cd!)

6. next type… dir (You should see amongst the files displayed VBoxLinuxAdditions.run)

7. now type… sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run (yes, that is a full stop before the slash!)

after you hit enter and it has done its stuff, the files are now accessable from Ubuntu.

8. You now need to reboot the virtual machine or press Ctrl+Alt+backspace.

9. Log onto the Ubuntu desktop and this time go to System - Preferences then Screen Resolution. You should now have more options than the three low res options you had at the beginning of the day!

X.Org X Server 1.7.6
Release Date: 2010-03-17
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.24-25-server i686 Ubuntu
Current Operating System: Linux ali-PC 2.6.32-22-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 28 13:27:30 UTC 2010 i686
Kernel command line: root=UUID=bc05106b-e13c-4600-8af2-5909c9b16470 ro quiet splash
Build Date: 23 April 2010 05:11:50PM
xorg-server 2:1.7.6-2ubuntu7 (Bryce Harrington )
Current version of pixman: 0.16.4
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: “/var/log/Xorg.0.log”, Time: Tue May 25 20:10:19 2010
(==) Using config directory: “/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d”
(==) No Layout section. Using the first Screen section.
(==) No screen section available. Using defaults.
(**) |-->Screen “Default Screen Section” (0)
(**) | |-->Monitor “”
(==) No monitor specified for screen “Default Screen Section”.
Using a default monitor configuration.
(==) Automatically adding devices
(==) Automatically enabling devices
(WW) The directory “/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic” does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(==) FontPath set to:
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,
built-ins
(==) ModulePath set to “/usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules,/usr/lib/xorg/modules”
(II) The server relies on udev to provide the list of input devices.
If no devices become available, reconfigure udev or disable AutoAddDevices.
(II) Loader magic: 0x81f0e80
(II) Module ABI versions:
X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
X.Org Video Driver: 6.0
X.Org XInput driver : 7.0
X.Org Server Extension : 2.0
(++) using VT number 7

(--) PCI:*(0:0:2:0) 8086:2562:8086:4c59 Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device rev 1, Mem @ 0xf0000000/134217728, 0xffa80000/524288
(--) PCI: (0:1:1:0) 109e:036e:0000:0000 Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture rev 17, Mem @ 0xe6afd000/4096
(WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)
(II) LoadModule: “extmod”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libextmod.so
(II) Module extmod: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 1.0.0
Module class: X.Org Server Extension
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(II) Loading extension XFree86-VidModeExtension
(II) Loading extension XFree86-DGA
(II) Loading extension DPMS
(II) Loading extension XVideo
(II) Loading extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
(II) Loading extension X-Resource
(II) LoadModule: “dbe”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdbe.so
(II) Module dbe: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 1.0.0
Module class: X.Org Server Extension
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
(II) LoadModule: “glx”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
(II) Module glx: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 1.0.0
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(==) AIGLX enabled
(II) Loading extension GLX
(II) LoadModule: “record”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/librecord.so
(II) Module record: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 1.13.0
Module class: X.Org Server Extension
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension RECORD
(II) LoadModule: “dri”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdri.so
(II) Module dri: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 1.0.0
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension XFree86-DRI
(II) LoadModule: “dri2″
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdri2.so
(II) Module dri2: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 1.1.0
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension DRI2
(==) Matched intel as autoconfigured driver 0
(==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 1
(==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 2
(==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
(II) LoadModule: “intel”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so
(II) Module intel: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 2.11.0
Module class: X.Org Video Driver
ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 6.0
(II) LoadModule: “vesa”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/vesa_drv.so
(II) Module vesa: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 2.3.0
Module class: X.Org Video Driver
ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 6.0
(II) LoadModule: “fbdev”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/fbdev_drv.so
(II) Module fbdev: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 0.4.1
ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 6.0
(II) intel: Driver for Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets: i810,
i810-dc100, i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 852GM/855GM, 865G, 915G,
E7221 (i915), 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, Pineview GM, Pineview G,
965G, G35, 965Q, 946GZ, 965GM, 965GME/GLE, G33, Q35, Q33, GM45,
4 Series, G45/G43, Q45/Q43, G41, B43, Clarkdale, Arrandale
(II) VESA: driver for VESA chipsets: vesa
(II) FBDEV: driver for framebuffer: fbdev
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 00@00:02:0
(WW) Falling back to old probe method for vesa
(WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev
(II) Loading sub module “fbdevhw”
(II) LoadModule: “fbdevhw”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/linux/libfbdevhw.so
(II) Module fbdevhw: vendor=”X.Org Foundation”
compiled for 1.7.6, module version = 0.0.2
ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 6.0
(EE) intel(0): No kernel modesetting driver detected.
(II) UnloadModule: “intel”
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
at http://wiki.x.org
for help.
Please also check the log file at “/var/log/Xorg.0.log” for additional information.

ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log

Can any one help please!!!!