Nvidia G98M (Quadro NVS 160M) in Belanos
I recently updated a machine from Toutatis(12.04) to Belanos(14.04) and since doing so I can't get a decent video mode. The only available video mode that fits the monitor now is 1024*768 where as before I had a much higher resolution, of which I can't remember, that was the correct aspect ratio for the monitor. The video card is an nvidia G98M. This is a Dell Latitude e6500 laptop. I don't expect top performance out of it but I do want a nice video resolution. Can anyone suggest what I can do to resolve this?
After weeks of struggle, I gave up on Nvidia, ATI/AMD Radeon, and ProSavage GPU's altogether and went the farmer's axe route by simply getting an Intel-chipset motherboard to replace the one with a proprietary GPU in the desktop PC's motherboard. Contrary to my pessimistic outlook, the "new" (actually, 2004 vintage) motherboard was recognized w/o delay and my monitor's native 1680x1050 native resolution appeared as if by magic. Trisquel 7 is only civil to Intel GPU's in my experience, and it does so with precision.
My thing is that I know it worked with Toutatis and it worked as expected. There must be something I can change or adjust to allow it to behave the way it did before.
Let us see if your laptop has an Intel graphical chipset too. Show us the output of this command (executed in a terminal):
$ lspci
If it does, then the best solution will be to physically remove the nVidia card. Not only you would get the correct resolution but also better performances and a smaller energy consumption.
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G98M [Quadro NVS 160M] (rev a1)
I'm pretty sure this is soldered into the motherboard. Removal is not an option. Trust me though, if I had the choice this card would be long gone
Magic Banana said:
> If it does, then the best solution will be to physically remove the nVidia card.
> Not only you would get the correct resolution but also better performances and a
> smaller energy consumption.
From a laptop ? Where is there room inside most laptops for an add-on GPU card ?
I was forced to replace the screen on a Sony VAIO once, and I would not repeat that effort light-heartedly, as that meant following extremely complex instructions and prying reluctant cables from delicate sockets.
Continuing ... Doesn't the Display program let one simply choose which GPU to use when there's more than one (in a desktop PC, at least) ? On second thought, when I was struggling with my former motherboard's ProSavage vs. the add-on Radeon card, I wasn't presented with much of an alternative; I thought that was because neither GPU had a suitable driver.
Nvidia GPUs are only available as cards AFAIK, so you definitely have a card in there. Some "gaming" laptops do this.
Beneath that, you should have an integrated graphics controller, either an Intel one if your CPU is an Intel one, or a Radeon one if your CPU is an AMD one. Radeon GPUs suck, but Intel integrated GPUs are the best for Linux-libre systems.
> Doesn't the Display program let one simply choose which GPU
> to use when there's more than one (in a desktop PC, at
> least) ?
There might be a setting in your BIOS.
Did you use the kernel that came with Toutatis when you were using it? Or perhaps some newer?
I did check the bios for a setting but there isn't one. I'm not seeing any way to use an alternate card.
After looking at the differences in this it seems to be mostly an aspect ratio issue. For some reason Gnome Shell is squishing things to where cirlcles are obviously squished into tall ovals. Not really bad, but noticeably. I'm not sure that I can do anything about that, but live with it.