How to move screen display

RastaDog · 2016-09-14 14:14:44

Hello all. I'm new to BL but have CB on an old netbook. I installed BL on a Packard Bell Imax Mini (Intel Atom 230 CPU, NVIDIA ION, GeForce 9400M) nettop and the screen display is slightly off-centre; I need to move it slightly down and to the right. Vertically, I lose about half the top panel (vanilla install).

At first I thought it was an Nvidia driver issue so I tried a few things out after searching the forum.

'nvidia-detect' does say to install nvidia-driver or legacy 304 but, after doing that, I lost my maximum screen resolution. Resetting back to the nouveau driver does at least give me the '1024x768_60' resolution that I want (from vbeinfo, btw).

Do I use xrandr to adjust the screen position (trying it though arandr, the screen just snaps back to original position after I move it).

Or should I use the nvidia-driver and try and add back the resolution? If so, how?

Current situation:

xrandr

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA-1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768      60.00* 
   800x600       60.32    56.25  
   848x480       60.00  
   640x480       59.94

lspci -k | grep -iA2 'vga\|3d'

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation ION VGA (rev b1)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0222
	Kernel driver in use: nouveau

nvidia-detect

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation ION VGA [10de:087d] (rev b1)
Your card is supported by the default drivers and legacy driver series 304.
It is recommended to install the
    nvidia-driver

Thanks in advance for any advice

Last edited by RastaDog (2016-09-14 18:04:19)

damo · 2016-09-14 14:56:29

Did you create an xorg.conf for the nvidia settings after installing the driver? This needs to be done outside an X session, so do it from a tty (Control-Alt-F1) and log in. Then...

sudo systemctl stop lightdm.service
sudo nvidia-xconfig
sudo systemctl start lightdm.service

Then Control-Alt-F7

If this causes a problem, then you can restore the backup xorg.conf created by nvidia-xconfig.

You probably installed nvidia-settings when you installed the driver, and this can be used instead of arandr to save screen settings.

Last edited by damo (2016-09-14 14:58:41)

RastaDog · 2016-09-14 16:00:07

damo wrote:

Did you create an xorg.conf for the nvidia settings after installing the driver?

I did but I went through the process again ensuring that I did those steps and I still don't get the maximum screen resolution (not available as an option in nvidia-settings). This is at at level I don't understand but is it possible the available resolutions are not being reported/interogated correctly by the nvidia-driver??

Btw, I tried it twice; once following exactly those instructions and second time simply rebooting rather than restarting lightdm. Same result both times.

As an aside, when I removed the nvidia-driver, the process didn't unblacklist the nouveau driver and I had to do that manually.

damo · 2016-09-14 16:21:28

Maybe google "clock phase netbook" - it sounds like a hardware setting.

RastaDog · 2016-09-14 16:51:34

I've just had a potential 'doh' moment... I wonder if I can adjust the display on the monitor itself? I'll give it a go tomorrow, it's wine o'clock now (and I'm on a different PC)

Horizon_Brave · 2016-09-14 16:57:58

RastaDog wrote:

I've just had a potential 'doh' moment... I wonder if I can adjust the display on the monitor itself? I'll give it a go tomorrow, it's wine o'clock now (and I'm on a different PC)

Wine o'clock... good idea in stopping then..as seen here: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=2713

drinking and experimenting don't mix!

And just a quick question what *is* the exact resolution you're looking for to use?

Last edited by Horizon_Brave (2016-09-14 16:59:29)

damo · 2016-09-14 17:00:32

RastaDog wrote:

I've just had a potential 'doh' moment... I wonder if I can adjust the display on the monitor itself? I'll give it a go tomorrow, it's wine o'clock now (and I'm on a different PC)

If it is a separate monitor then that is the easy way

RastaDog · 2016-09-14 17:57:49

Sorry damo, I've just realised I said 'netbook' in my OP - it's a NetTOP... so, yes, a separate screen.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-09-14 20:53:13

+1 for checking the monitor settings, I've seen this on forums before.

In respect of the screen resolution, you should check the auto-generated xorg configuration file as this tends to contain superfluous options -- one of these may be forcing a lower resolution.

This is all that should be needed to configure the proprietary driver:

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf
Section "Device"
        Identifier "My GPU"
        Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#Manual

If this is not the problem, you could try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xr … esolutions & https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xr … esolutions to force an undetected screen resolution.

ohnonot · 2016-09-15 06:23:42

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

+1 for checking the monitor settings, I've seen this on forums before.

here's one very dumb thing that happened to me (and others) once:
don't we all love dark themes?
when your screen is pretty dark, and you hit some sort of auto calibration button on your monitor, it goes all out of whack.
solution: open a browser window with a light theme and some black text on white bg, maximize it, press that auto-calibration button again.

RastaDog · 2016-09-16 09:48:28

Sorry guys, I've given up and installed XUbuntu. I just wanted a distro that pretty much worked out of the box and I'd reached the end of my abilities trying to find a solution. What I did do though;

1. Yes, adjusting the screen itself was possible and nearly gave me a perfect positioned screen. Nearly.

2. I tried the suggestions posted by HoaS (thank you )

- As you know, I could install the nvidia-driver ok, it was recognised and played ok at the lower resolution. From the links, I generated the modeline for the undetected 1024x768 resolution and did a 'xrandr --newmode'. It worked BUT added it only to the HDMI config (the nettop has a VGA and HDMI port). Doing 'xrandr --addmode VGA' just responded something like 'mode not available'. It seems I cannot force the resolution to the VGA config. I could find no way around this.

- I added the resolution to xorg.conf section (there was no xorg.congf.d btw, only the conf file) but it did nothing. I guess it didn't because the resolution was undetected.

So as to why the nouveau driver saw the resolution and the nvidia-driver didn't, I don't know and, more to the point, I thought it beyond my understanding to fix.

Thanks for all the help guys, I appreciate it.

(Btw, if someone wants to dig deeper then I'm quite happy to reinstall BL and play with stuff, even though I won't know what I'm doing. But I suspect it's just an odd qwerk though, due to old kit and probably of little real value in pursuing )

Last edited by RastaDog (2016-09-16 09:48:52)

RastaDog · 2016-09-16 11:20:14

By way of comparison, Xubuntu with the nvidia legacy 340 driver gives me 1360x768 and 1152x864 resolutions. Maybe something somewhere is going wrong in BL/nvidia with the interrogation of this monitor's EDID.

Do you think I can somehow save the EDID from nvidia-settings in Xubu and then import it under BL to override the interrogated one?

Last edited by RastaDog (2016-09-16 11:26:31)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-09-16 20:03:37

RastaDog wrote:

From the links, I generated the modeline for the undetected 1024x768 resolution and did a 'xrandr --newmode'. It worked BUT added it only to the HDMI config (the nettop has a VGA and HDMI port). Doing 'xrandr --addmode VGA' just responded something like 'mode not available'. It seems I cannot force the resolution to the VGA config. I could find no way around this.

You should post the exact commands used and the exact error messages reported rather than vague descriptions.

I added the resolution to xorg.conf section (there was no xorg.congf.d btw, only the conf file) but it did nothing.

You should post the exact file that you used.

Also, you need to create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d yourself and place the configuration file within it.

#1 2016-09-14 14:14:44

How to move screen display

#2 2016-09-14 14:56:29

Re: How to move screen display

#3 2016-09-14 16:00:07

Re: How to move screen display

#4 2016-09-14 16:21:28

Re: How to move screen display

#5 2016-09-14 16:51:34

Re: How to move screen display

#6 2016-09-14 16:57:58

Re: How to move screen display

#7 2016-09-14 17:00:32

Re: How to move screen display

#8 2016-09-14 17:57:49

Re: How to move screen display

#9 2016-09-14 20:53:13

Re: How to move screen display

#10 2016-09-15 06:23:42

Re: How to move screen display

#11 2016-09-16 09:48:28

Re: How to move screen display

#12 2016-09-16 11:20:14

Re: How to move screen display

#13 2016-09-16 20:03:37

Re: How to move screen display

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