GDM (Login Screen) Resolution Too Big to Fit Screen? Try this…
For the longest time after installing KDE in Ubuntu, my login screen became too big to fit my screen. The resolution was permanently set to 1600×1200. I tried everything to change it back to 1280×1024 and nothing worked. I searched the Ubuntu Forums, Googled my head off, and eventually gave up.
Today, I decided to try again with different keywords and found the solution on the Ubuntu Forums.
Edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf …and remove all 1600×1200 references (or the offending resolution) under the Section “Screen”. Perfect!
UPDATE (2008.01.29): Only remove all the offending resolutions if you do not plan on ever using them. I removed them all because I never change resolutions. And as Anne suggests in the comments below, changing your “Virtual” line to the correct resolution may also fix your problem. I say “may” because this had no effect in Ubuntu 7.10. It should work in Ubuntu 6.04 and 6.10. Anne suggests:
Choose the resolution you want for the login (say, 1280 x 1024)
edit your xorg.conf file.In the Section “Screen”, SubSection “Display”, you have two entries:
Modes and Virtual.For the login, X will default to the first resolution defined in the “mode” entry. Thus, you must select the resolution you want (say, “1280×1024@60″) and move it at the first position.
Next, the “Virtual” entry is used to have a larger desktop resolution than screen resolution (you can reach the zones “outside the screen” by moving your mouser pointer to the edges). Your Virtual section should have the same size you want for the login resolution (say 1280 1024).
Thank you Ubuntu Forum Users!
40 responses to “GDM (Login Screen) Resolution Too Big to Fit Screen? Try this…”
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how do i delete my computer screen is to big and the screen resolution will not let me move it. its a laptop computer screen . and i’ve had enough the screen ahs got really big anf i cant change it or anythign please help as soon as possible
i forgot hwo i normal laptop screen looks like.
x
Thank you! Now I can actually see the user name and password fields when I log on.
OH YEAH! That was just what I needed to get my login screen fixed after a monitor upgrade.
Thanks a ten billion.
Kevin,
Many thanks for this post. My login screen has been screwed up ever since I attempted adding a second monitor, and I never could figure out the problem. After reading the post and following along, my login screen looks as good as new.
Great! I used a DELL Optiplex GS240 and a DELL 1503 screen, but could not get the login screen visible as my monitor kept showing “cannot display this mode”.
After hours Googling, I found this thread and discovered that my xorg.conf did not specifiy any resolutions at all.
I added some common ones and this was the solution!
Thanks a lot.
Test.
I tried a long post with a lot of detail about my problems with the Login screen and how Anne’s suggestions don’t work on my fresh install of 8.10, pushed “SUBMIT COMMENT” and got a screen with one word on it:
discarded
If there is a length limit, I wish you would tell us what it is somewhere easy to find.
Jim
OK; that appeared to work.
So here’s my lspci:
jim@Roonwit2:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 Host Bridge
00:00.5 PIC: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 I/O APIC Interrupt Controller
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. [K8T890 North / VT8237 South] PCI Bridge
00:02.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:03.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:03.1 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:03.2 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:03.3 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV44A [GeForce 6200] (rev a1)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
jim@Roonwit2:~$
Hey, I’m on a roll !
Oops ! can’t do the whole relevant part of my xorg.conf, so here’s the first part:
Section “Device”
Identifier “Failsafe Device”
Boardname “NVIDIA GeForce”
Busid “PCI:0:5:0”
Driver “nv”
Screen 0
Vendorname “NVIDIA”
EndSection
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Failsafe Monitor”
Vendorname “Hitachi, Ltd.”
Modelname “Hitachi CM811”
Horizsync 31.0-96.0
Vertrefresh 50.0-160.0
I tried to include the modelines but they get discarded.
Here’s the end of the Monitor section:
Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Device “Failsafe Device”
Monitor “Failsafe Monitor”
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Virtual 1600 1200
Modes “1600×1200@75” “1024×768@60” “1024×768@43” “1024×768@70” “1152×864@75” “1024×768@75” “1280×1024@75” “1024×768@85” “1280×960@60” “832×624@75” “1280×960@85” “800×600@60” “1280×1024@85” “800×600@85” “1280×1024@60” “800×600@75” “1280×960@75” “800×600@72” “1400×1050@60” “800×600@56” “1400×1050@75” “640×480@85” “1600×1200@65” “640×480@75” “1600×1200@60” “640×480@72” “640×480@60” “1600×1200@70” “1792×1344@60” “1856×1392@60” “1920×1440@60” “2048×1536@60”
EndSubSection
EndSection
So, I tried everything Anne said but no joy.
This is on a more-or-less ordinary box on which 8.04 ran perfectly for months (including auto-detecting the video characteristics, and the Login screen was correct).
Then I wiped it clean and did an 8.10 standard install (no proprietary video drivers, envy, etc.) and the video was a mess, so I copied the old xorg.conf so I could return to my normal 1600×1200@70 Hz, but as I said I can’t get the login screen to display, and no, moving the mouse to the screen edges does not pan.
Does the Ubuntu team know about all this?
IHTH
Jim