How to change screen resolution

Aijalon · 2017-12-13 18:01:52

I just installed BL on a new Dell Inspiron 13.

The screen resolution is too high, so that menus, icons and text are too small.

Preference > Display > Arandr only gives me the one output "option" of the current display resolution of 1920x1080, which is too high.

My understanding is that I need to add a new resolution, but I am running into problems making this happen.

I have tried adding a new resolution with these instructions (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xr … esolutions), but my system gives me an error about the size of gamma.

Here are a few outputs:

$ lspci -knn | grep '\''[030[02]\]'

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:5917] (rev 07)

$ xrandr

xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 1920 x 1080, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1080
default connected 1920x1080+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1920x1080      0.00* 
  1440x810_60.00 (0x244) 95.000MHz
        h: width  1440 start 1520 end 1664 total 1888 skew    0 clock  50.32KHz
        v: height  810 start  813 end  818 total  841           clock  59.83Hz

$ xrandr --output default --mode 1920x1080 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal

xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default

Any ideas on how to add another (lower) resolution to my system?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-12-13 20:38:50

Hello and welcome, Aijalon

Aijalon wrote:

$ lspci -knn | grep '\''[030[02]\]'

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:5917] (rev 07)

You have missed out the critical "-A2" flag from the grep command, that will show the next two lines of `lspci` output which should reveal the "kernel driver in use" (which I suspect will be missing for your machine); to be clear:

lspci -knn | grep -A2 '\''[030[02]\]'

However, that [VID:PID] doesn't make much sense so please run this command first:

sudo update-pciids

Anyway, the guide you need to follow is here:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1185

Hopefully we will have a new release out soon that will support your hardware better.

Aijalon · 2017-12-13 23:15:23

Thanks for the quick reply, @HOAS.

I followed the advice on https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1185, and the display now works wonderfully.

Unfortunately, now networking is completely broken. The icon shows the disconnected image.

ifconfig does not list my wifi anymore.

I have switched back to the old kernel for now.

Maybe I'll just wait on BL until the new version comes out. I'm not sure how much I want to mess with hardware and kernel compatibility issues.

I do hope to use BL in the future. I love the forums where we get instant, high quality answers. Some of the forums for other distros could learn from BL.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-12-14 06:50:13

Aijalon wrote:

Unfortunately, now networking is completely broken

Quick fix:

sudo apt install firmware-iwlwifi/jessie-backports

If that doesn't work then we just need to find the ID of your wireless card and add the matching firmware, this a peculiarity of Debian — the kernel and firmware are packaged separately and must match

ohnonot · 2017-12-17 08:50:41

i don't understand how this problem got so out of hand.

this:

Aijalon wrote:

The screen resolution is too high, so that menus, icons and text are too small.

has nothing to do with drivers, and is not fixed by changing the screen resolution.
the first and easiest fix would be to use a larger system font, which should affect most applications.
the next step is to tell the X server to use a different dpi setting; a higher number would be better here i guess.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-12-17 15:43:23

ohnonot wrote:

Aijalon wrote:
The screen resolution is too high, so that menus, icons and text are too small.
has nothing to do with drivers

You are completely wrong about that, did you not read the OP's subsequent posts?

For example:

Aijalon wrote:

the display now works wonderfully

Seems to indicate that perhaps I was right, no?

#1 2017-12-13 18:01:52

How to change screen resolution

#2 2017-12-13 20:38:50

Re: How to change screen resolution

#3 2017-12-13 23:15:23

Re: How to change screen resolution

#4 2017-12-14 06:50:13

Re: How to change screen resolution

#5 2017-12-17 08:50:41

Re: How to change screen resolution

#6 2017-12-17 15:43:23

Re: How to change screen resolution

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