36

I'm trying to adjust resolution on my new MSI GT70 2OC. In settings, only one resolution is available: 1920x1080. This is fine, except that I need to decrease the resolution and make it more rectangular for the laptop to work well with my old PL-550 tablet.

Here's what I do:

cvt 1200 1000 60
    # 1200x1000 59.91 Hz (CVT) hsync: 62.19 kHz; pclk: 99.50 MHz
    Modeline "1200x1000_60.00"   99.50  1200 1280 1400 1600  1000 1003 1013 1038 -hsync +vsync
sudo xrandr --newmode "1200_1000_60"   99.50  1200 1280 1400 1600  1000 1003 1013 1038 -hsync +vsync
    xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default

How do I get past this step?

UPDATE Here's the output of 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 primary 1920x1080+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1920x1080       0.0*
Sylvain Pineau
  • 63,229
Arsen Zahray
  • 529

6 Answers6

35

I tried almost all the answers with xrandr in English version, and I always have the same error message xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default.

Then, there is one solution in Chinese saved my life, I just want to share that.

open the file

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

find the line

#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

edit 640x480 to your resolution eg: 1920x1080, remove the #

for example:

GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080

Update by the command

sudo update-grub

Then reboot your computer.

sudo reboot

Reference: https://blog.csdn.net/u013764485/article/details/78007370

Community
  • 1
Weijie Sun
  • 477
13

You don't need sudo to register the new mode with xrandr, try without sudo. Then you'll have to apply the new resolution with:

xrandr --addmode <your_connection_type> 1200x1000_60.00

Where <your_connection_type> is usually VGA1, DP1 or HDMI1. Check the output of xrandr to know the exact name of the connected output.

Ionică Bizău
  • 9,803
  • 25
  • 89
  • 129
Sylvain Pineau
  • 63,229
4

If you have an nVidia or ATI GPU, have you tried changing your driver, either from proprietary to non-proprietary or vice versa?

My system: 

~$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA C61 [GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a] 
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NV4C GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3

Depending on what kernel/distribution I am running, sometimes the proprietary nVidia 304 driver works, on others, e.g. Bodhi 3.0, with the same setup, can fail to read properly the size of the screen and also fail to read the gamma.

You can try to set your output with the following line, which will at least fix your error report, but may not fix your output:

xrandr --output default --gamma 0:0:0 --mode 1200x1000

You may also want to install the inxi utility and post the output of inxi -G here for more help.

Volker Siegel
  • 13,295
cwsnyder
  • 41
3

I ve been pulling my hair out with this issue for some time. In my case I am running Kali Linux as a Live CD in VirtualBox and want to change the screen resolution.

:~$ xrandr --newmode "1200x900_60.00"   88.50  1200 1272 1392 1584  900 903 907 934 -hsync +vsync

Then check if the mode has been added:

:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 64 x 64, current 640 x 480, maximum 16384 x 16384
VGA-0 connected 640x480+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   640x480        60.0*+   60.0* 
   1600x1200      60.0  
   1440x1050      60.0  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.0  
   1200x900_60.00 (0x1b2)   88.5MHz
    h: width  1200 start 1272 end 1392 total 1584 skew    0 clock   55.9KHz
    v: height  900 start  903 end  907 total  934           clock   59.8Hz

Next assign it to the video output. This was listed in the previous step and in this case is VGA-0. With a LiveCD it may also be Default

:~$ xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1200x900_60.00

:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 64 x 64, current 640 x 480, maximum 16384 x 16384
VGA-0 connected 640x480+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   640x480        60.0*+   60.0* 
   1600x1200      60.0  
   1440x1050      60.0  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.0  
   1200x900_60.00   59.8

If you get the error:

xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default

Then try restarting X Server:

:~$ killall Xorg

And the new resolution now appears in the Monitor Setting resolution options.

a3rd
  • 31
1

Just install NVIDIA driver 

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install inxi

Then in the next command, replace 361 with the right driver. You can find this from the NVIDIA site or inxi -G.

sudo apt-get install nvidia-361

Once you update, run

sudo killlall Xorg
wjandrea
  • 14,504
Mahaveer Jain
  • 19
0

I had this same problem after upgrading from 14.04 to 16.04.

It turns out I had a third-party video driver I'd installed years ago to better utilise my AMD Radeon video card - the driver was called fglrx-core.

Ubuntu had warned me the driver was out of date and no longer needed, so I uninstalled it and the orphaned dependencies (two of them identified by apt-get remove).

After a cold restart Ubuntu correctly detected my DVI monitor and gave me a new default resolution - magical really. :)

U9-C4 buntu
  • 11