Using 915resolution to change resolution
13 03 2007I went to change my resolution in Ubuntu last night, but there were no options in the resolution list, but since my graphics card is an integrated Intel one, I’m able to change my resolution using a ‘hack’ called 915resolution, heres how to do it
1. To install the package run the command ” sudo apt-get install 915resolution “
2. Now run ” sudo 915resolution -l “
3. You should see a list of different modes of resolution, like this,
Intel 915GM VBIOS Hack : version 0.1
Chipset: 915GM
Mode 30 : 640×480, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 32 : 800×600, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 34 : 1024×768, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 38 : 1280×1000, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3a : 1600×1200, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3c : 1920×1440, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 41 : 640×480, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 43 : 800×600, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 45 : 1024×768, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 49 : 1280×800, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4b : 1600×1200, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4d : 1920×1440, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 50 : 640×480, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 52 : 800×600, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 54 : 1024×768, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 58 : 1280×800, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5a : 1600×1200, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5c : 1920×1440, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 60 : 1280×770, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 61 : 1280×770, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 62 : 1280×770, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 63 : 512×771, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 64 : 512×771, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 65 : 512×771, 32 bits/pixel
3. To change to the desired mode, say for example, mode 5a, which is 1600×1200 with 32 bpp, you would run
” 915resolution 5a 1600 1200 32 “
Now to fully set the mode, type sudo gedit /etc/default/915resolution, a relatively short text file will pop up, edit this file by changing MODE to the MODE that you selected. Eg, the mode line should now be ;
MODE=5a
Change the XRESO and YRESO values to correspond with your selection, for our example, they should look like this;
XRESO=1600
YRESO=1280
Finally, set the BIT value to the bpp you selected, in our case,32;
BIT=32
Now save the file and exit it.
4. Now restart x by pressing <CTRL>-<ALT>-<BACKSPACE>. The 1st time i logged in, x crashed and restarted itself, and when it did, it was at the new resolution, so don’t worry if it does that!
This works just fine and I had a great 1200 x 1024 resolution. The problem was that after I rebooted once the same old 1024 x 748 came back and I still unable to fix it. It is driving me crazy. I was just wondering if you know of a way to make it stay at 1200 x 1024? Thanks for all your help already!
Well i’m afraid i can’t offer any particular advice, cos i’m not an expert, i picked this up from blogs just like you did, but the usual advice applies, try again, i actually think i may have the same problem. Try posting in the forums, ubuntuforums.org , they should be able to help better than me!
Finally in order to run 915resolution at every boot before X starts, add to’/etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh’, before “exit”, the following (change the variables for your desired configuration):
/usr/sbin/915resolution 5a 1200 1024 32
And Save that File
And restart X in order for the changes to take effect.
okay.. I am COMPLETELY new at this whole linux thing.. never used anything but windows my whole life.. so when I tried to change the screen resolution to 1280×800, and I couldnt, I went on the net to read blogs and stuff to look for help. All I found was a bunch of codes and how-to’s that i simply did not understand.. i just realised what a “terminal” is and how you have to manually type all that geeky code in to do things in linux.. basically.. i have no idea.. i just want the resolution to be correct! I even downloaded this 915resolution file.. but i don’t know what to do with it.. ubuntu is just soo different! Any EASY help?
I’m running Ubuntu 6.06 on my dell laptop. thanks
On the post, where it has something in brackets, thats what you type into the terminal, the big long list is what’ll come up when you type the second command.
Then, from that list, find your desired resolution, ie above, for 1200×800, the mode is 58, so you run this command, ‘915resolution 58 1200 800 32′ which is of the form “915resolution ‘MODE’ ‘1ST DIMENSION’ ‘SECOND DIMENSION’ ‘BITS PER PIXEL’”
Now type sudo gedit /etc/default/915resolution, this opens a text file and there will be lines in it that say MODE= and XRESO=
What you do here is enter after MODE= is what the mode is, eg 58 and the same fo the X and Y resolutions, i.e 1200 and 800, save the file and quit, hope that helps
Hi, nice blog, good idea.
Apart from the intel issue, there is also the possibility that the X11 config is not correctly configured. From what I have read, (i have only been using ubuntu since last night) there is a new auto detect feature for monitors, but doesnt always work. The following article explains why, and how to possibly fix it.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FixVideoResolutionHowto?highlight=%28resolution%29
I have tried the directions and everything goes well. then i restart x and nothing happens. still stuck with 800×600. so confused!this is what i did:
jinggs@beastie:~$ sudo -i
Password:
root@beastie:~# 915resolution -l 7d 1280 800 16
Intel 800/900 Series VBIOS Hack : version 0.5.2
Chipset: 855GM
BIOS: TYPE 1
Mode Table Offset: $C0000 + $29f
Mode Table Entries: 39
Mode 30 : 640×480, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 32 : 800×600, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 34 : 1024×768, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 38 : 1280×1024, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3a : 1600×1200, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3c : 1920×1440, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 41 : 640×480, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 43 : 800×600, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 45 : 1024×768, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 49 : 1280×1024, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4b : 1600×1200, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4d : 1920×1440, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 50 : 640×480, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 52 : 800×600, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 54 : 1024×768, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 58 : 1280×1024, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5a : 1600×1200, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5c : 1920×1440, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 7c : 1280×800, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 7d : 1280×800, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 7e : 1280×800, 32 bits/pixel
Patch mode 7d to resolution 1280×800 complete
Mode 30 : 640×480, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 32 : 800×600, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 34 : 1024×768, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 38 : 1280×1024, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3a : 1600×1200, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3c : 1920×1440, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 41 : 640×480, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 43 : 800×600, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 45 : 1024×768, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 49 : 1280×1024, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4b : 1600×1200, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4d : 1920×1440, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 50 : 640×480, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 52 : 800×600, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 54 : 1024×768, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 58 : 1280×1024, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5a : 1600×1200, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5c : 1920×1440, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 7c : 1280×800, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 7d : 1280×800, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 7e : 1280×800, 32 bits/pixel
root@beastie:~# sudo gedit /etc/default/915resolution
I then saved the changes and exited. Then restarted and logged on, but still nothing changed. What am I doing wrong?
regards, jinggs.
nice blog. thanks silbuntu. i followed every word in your procedure and my laptop is now running great. no more headache caused by incorrect resolution. thank you linux geniuses…
plz im new to linux and my resolution is killing me its at 640×480, i tryed what u said to do up ther and go an error saying alec@alec-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install 915resolution
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
915resolution is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 115 not upgraded.
alec@alec-laptop:~$ sudo 915resolution -l
Intel 800/900 Series VBIOS Hack : version 0.5.2
Chipset: 845G
BIOS: TYPE 2
Mode Table Offset: $C0000 + $38a
Mode Table Entries: 18
Mode 30 : 640×480, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 32 : 800×600, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 34 : 1024×768, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 38 : 1280×1024, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3a : 1600×1200, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3c : 1920×1440, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 41 : 640×480, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 43 : 800×600, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 45 : 1024×768, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 49 : 1280×1024, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4b : 1600×1200, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4d : 1920×1440, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 50 : 640×480, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 52 : 800×600, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 54 : 1024×768, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 58 : 1280×1024, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5a : 1600×1200, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5c : 1920×1440, 32 bits/pixel
alec@alec-laptop:~$ 915resolution 5a 1600 1200 32
Intel 800/900 Series VBIOS Hack : version 0.5.2
Unable to obtain the proper IO permissions: Operation not permitted
alec@alec-laptop:~$ 915 45 1024 768 16
bash: 915: command not found
alec@alec-laptop:~$ 915resolution 45 1024 768 16
Intel 800/900 Series VBIOS Hack : version 0.5.2
Unable to obtain the proper IO permissions: Operation not permitted
alec@alec-laptop:~$
i tryed everything to get my resolution fix, i have a dell inspiron 1100 and i think my screen is 17″
It tells me i cant get the IO permissions… any advice?
Did you run all commands using ’sudo’? It could be a problem with root permissons. If you copy and paste the exact error message you encountered and at which stage of the process it was at, it might help me pinpoint what the problem is.
@Alec,
Sorry about the delay, your comment got marked as spam and so i only
got it now, i think the problem you’re having there could just be a
permissions one, try running all commands using sudo.
If that fails, let me know.
Slibuntu.
P.S. Please enter your correct email addresses when commenting, so i can contact you with my suggestions instead of you having to come to the site