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Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

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    Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

    I got impatient and upgraded my 9.04 installation in place to Lucid. Now my usual kernel option vga=773 (or other values) only gives me a blank screen, sometimes with the monitor's OSD displaying "OUT THE RANGE" [sic].

    X seems to work fine, resolution, twinview, compositing and all. Card is an Nvidia 7950 GT with the proprietary nvidia driver.

    Any ideas?


    #2
    Re: Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

    Does nobody have this problem? Or does nobody have a solution? Or does nobody see it as a problem?

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      #3
      Re: Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

      I believe the vga= options have been removed from the newer kernels, in favor of modesetting options. This works properly with the nouveau driver for nvidia cards: I cannot test with anything else.

      You might try the gfxpayload option, though on my system, unless using nouveau, it gives a blank screen. Your system may work differently.

      To test this, when grub starts, highlight then menu option you want to boot, hit e to edit it, then insert a new line under the "insmod" line that says gfxpayload=1680x1050x24 substituting the proper resolution for your monitor. I beleive you can get the options that will work with you monitor from the vbeinfo command within the grub shell.


      We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet. -- Stephen Hawking

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        #4
        Re: Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

        Just what I needed, thanks! (Didn't have grub2 until a few minutes ago, either)

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          #5
          Re: Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

          Now X won't run, or not properly, under most circumstances. More and more often I just get the Ubuntu-will-run-in-low-graphics-mode dialogue (from which there is no escape except into an empty black screen or through Ctrl-Alt-Del) and the following error:

          (EE) Apr 10 11:13:17 NVIDIA(0): Failed to allocate primary surface: out of memory
          (EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***

          Googling the error comes up with nothing. It's another Abalone first. :P

          X still starts fine when I boot with a text console or, apparently, a GFXPAYLOAD of just 640x480. Other console resolutions may work... but usually only once. So if change the resolution every time I boot I can sort of muddle through with some trial and error. It's not ideal, though...

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            #6
            Re: Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

            You may need to reinstall the nvidia driver. Recent updates include several updates to X11, which sometimes partially break the nvidia driver. On my system, I got the login screen, but it crashed during kde startup. You might give reinstalling the driver, from a text console, with X stopped (i.e. sudo service kdm stop) a try and see if that helps. When my system is behaving strangely, that is often the fix.
            We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet. -- Stephen Hawking

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              #7
              Re: Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

              Thanks for the idea! Unfortunately, that didn't solve it.

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                #8
                Re: Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

                I'm not sure what's going on. On my system, if I boot set up for the nvidia driver using the 'nomodeset' kernel option, I can get only the 40x80 text console; if I use any gfxpayload options at all, I get a crash. If I boot set up for the nouveau driver (without nomodeset), I get 1680x1050 resolution, using the appropriate gfxpayload option.
                I think this is all tied up with how modesetting works, and how it doesn't work with the nvidia driver. I gave up and just live with the ugly console.
                We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet. -- Stephen Hawking

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                  #9
                  Re: Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

                  So it's odd that I get a gfx-y console at all...

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                    #10
                    Re: Can't increase console (tty1-6) resolution anymore

                    It seems the recent kernel upgrade to 2.6.32-20 fixed it! Either that or some other upgrade.

                    Edit: Never mind. It seems to come and go in spurts. First I could boot into 1280x1024 and 1024x768 as much as I wanted, then I got the dreaded Low Graphics Mode again until I switched to 640x480 or 800x600. Unfortunately, only 640x480 seems to work every time.

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