I have a bit of a problem with my NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (a notebook graphics card) on Arch Linux, and was hoping that somebody here could help me.

I have a widescreen notebook computer, whose display can do 1440x900@60Hz. However, this is the only widescreen resolution available to me, as all the other listed available modes are the 4:3 ones (like 1024x768, 800x600 and 640x480).

I'm running Arch Linux, with all the packages up-to-date (as far as the repos are concerned). The xorg server I'm running is 1.6.3, and the nvidia driver version is 185.18.31 (again, the latest from the repo).

So, I know this behaviour is wrong. I also have Ubuntu installed on my notebook, and it has somehow correctly "autoconfigured" my graphics card - there is a wide (forgive the pun) variety of video modes available to me - among others there are 1360x768, 1152x864, 960x600, 960x540, 840x525, and so on. All of these modes work under Ubuntu flawlessly - so it shouldn't be a problem with either my hardware or the driver.

If anyone could shed some light on this issue, I'd be most grateful. I'd like to configure my Arch Linux so that I can use other video modes, just like I can under Ubuntu.

For the record, I have put my Xorg.0.log for Arch and Ubuntu in the pastebin; they are mostly the same, since there's not much configuration inside xorg.conf.

Additionally, if I try to edit the "Device" section in my xorg.conf under Arch and manually add the desired resolutions, like this:
my xorg still doesn't want to use them, and complains about it in Xorg.0.log:This is what I've mostly been able to piece together. I'm thinking there's another configuration file under Ubuntu somewhere, something that Arch doesn't have (or didn't configure properly). If anyone knows where or what is there to configure beside xorg.conf, please do tell me.
And of course, if there is any additional information which I should post, I'll do my best to post it.

I will be very grateful if anyone could shed some light on this.

Thanks in advance!

There is no other configuration file that you're missing. xorg.conf is *the one*.

There are some significant differences between the two files you paste-binned.

To simplify testing, and to save me from typing lots of stuff why not take the Ubuntu file, which works fine, and copy it over to the Arch installation, and see how it works?

That's what I'd do, under the circumstances.

Sasha

Not 100% clear : if you run Ubuntu on the same HW with the same xorg.conf, it works? If so, is Ubuntu using the same version of X and the same nvidia driver ?

Hi guys, and thanks for your quick replies! I hope we'll eventually solve this problem together.

What are the differences, and where did they come from? I know that the NVIDIA driver version was the same, and that there's not much in xorg.conf - actually almost nothing. I've tried using Ubuntu's xorg.conf under Arch, but it didn't fix the problem.

Which file? If you mean xorg.conf, I've tried that. What are the other files I could use?

I'm beginning to suspect there's some major patch(set) in Ubuntu's xorg server (or something like that)... is it worth it to dig though Ubuntu's source code repos and try compiling the sources under Arch?

Yes, it works.

The nvidia driver version is apparently the same; I've tried various versions on both systems with same results (on Ubuntu it always works, on Arch never).

However, the Xorg server version is different; Arch uses 1.6.3 (at the moment), while Ubuntu has 1.6.0 (the 9.04 version).

Both versions of Xorg (well if it's after the change, don't hold me to this because i don't remember when the change was for the xorg.conf file) but both versions of the xorg you people are running shouldn't even need the xorg.conf, and infact it shouldn't have the res sizes in there. Everything is going towards auto-detection and they are trying to remove the xorg.conf file completly, after installing nvidia drivers and running nvidia-xserver or whatever the program is that creates a new xorg.conf you should have all the proper screen sizes that nvidia detects. Other than that you can try the nvidia-settings manager and try to do the screen sizes in that. My XFCE/xorg config only allows me to do very minimal screen resolutions but my nvidia stuff lists and allows me to go with higher resolutions! worth a look eh?

Unless I'm missing something painfully obvious, the two files you put on Pastebin are xorg.conf files, NOT logfiles. Have a look -- they're different too.

Sasha

When I ran Arch with Nvidia, an xorg.conf wasn't even needed and could be deleted and still boot to X server and a new xorg.conf would be written.
Following the Beginners guide there was also successful for me using the same Nvidia driver you are using.
Hint: Do NOT do an xorg-configure or you may as well go ahead and do a reinstall.
How are you trying to change your screen resolution?
Did you try using the Nvidia screen Server Settings app?
You can also try opening a terminal and type:

xrandr -q , this will tell you the resolutions that are supported for your hardware.

xrandr -s [resolution desired] will also work if your system.

p.s. xorg.conf is the only way I know of to edit the settings for your monitor and your xorg.conf should be something similar to:


Section "Device"

#VideoRam 4096
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
Identifier "VESA Framebuffer"
Driver "nvidia"
# Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
EndSection

Section "Screen"


# is highly recommended.
# DefaultDepth 8
# DefaultDepth 16
# DefaultDepth 32
# "1024x768" is also a conservative usable default resolution. If you
# have a better monitor, feel free to try resolutions such as
# "1152x864", "1280x1024", "1600x1200", and "1800x1400" (or whatever your
# card/monitor can produce)
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "VESA Framebuffer"
Monitor "My Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "True"
Option "TripleBuffer" "True"
Option "BackingStore" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Ok, I feel very stupid right now. Here are the Xorg.0.log files - for Arch and Ubuntu. Ok these are very different, but I don't know what to make out of it :-/

And I do, at least under Ubuntu. Not under Arch, though. Take a look at my xorg.conf files linked in the first post - I haven't changed a single thing there - you'll see that no modes are listed. This has lead me to believe the available modes are written elsewhere; however I don't know where that would be. Could it be that they're hardcoded inside the xorg-server?

It was; however, I've looked into this several times before, and every time I try something I look at the both places - in nvidia-settings (both as root and user) and GNOME display settings. However, there's no change.

thanks for those, I'll try playing around with them, and will post if I find out something useful. However I do recall playing with xrandr a little with no success

Tried nvidia-settings app, tried display settings in GNOME and XFCE.
As for the modes and modelines, xorg-server under Arch just complains about the modes being "not validated" and discards them, as shown in the log snippet above.

Thanks everybody for your patience... and please bear with me a little more

Question because I know others had overlooked it from the beginners guide wiki.
When you installed your driver did you depmod -a, add hal to your daemons and reboot?
If the guide was followed correctly the driver should work fine.
If not, it's possible you have a bad install.
Very simple to just pacman -Rm nvidia or use shaman to first uninstall nvidia and then reinstall it and reboot.
Note: unless you know what you're doing on a black screen, don't uninstall,reboot then try and reinstall.
Uninstall and reinstall in one fell swoop or you'll be back here cussing me out.

I also noticed you had placed your desired resolutions in depth 24 of your xorg.conf.
Check just upwards a few lines of that placement and ensure that 24 is your default depth.
The line should read plainly:

Default Depth 24.

Totally off-topics

Scary. How does one configure if HW is not correctly detected or not detectable (e.g. old monitors)?

The xorg.conf is not by default included with *very* new Xorg implementations. It seems HAL and/or other new methods are being used to auto-detect hardware.

This does NOT however imply that xorg.conf is no longer used at all, because it IS if you put the file in place.

Slack-current is such an example where no file exists at first. And in this case, HAL is used to do the auto-configuring/detection, BUT: HAL can be told to buzz off (at least wrt input devices) by placing a couple of lines (three to be exact) in the xorg.conf file.

As for very old monitors and the like, I'd still use an xorg.conf (and for my setup, with multiple cards & monitors, no amount of auto-detection/auto-configging is going to make my setup work, so I use my xorg.conf as I always have, on Slack-current).

Sasha

Yeah it's not completely out yet but they are working towards it. You can run xorg without it as of now. Like if I deleted mine it would still run xorg and I would get visual just on generic drivers. =) Which is an AWSOME thing to have, that means any setup can now do xorg off the bat without having to worry "are my drivers installed" because the generic drivers have been doing well lately.

Back on topic, it seems that I've managed to - with your help - solved the problem.
I can now view my Arch Linux in any (sane) resolution I like. Here's the xorg.conf which I am using now, and this way both GNOME and nvidia-settings are allowing me to pick any resolution listed here.
(Also, here's the Xorg.0.log.)

However, one more thing still bugs me - how the hell did the Ubuntu guys solve it? I eventually had to enter all the modelines in the xorg.conf, and somehow it magically worked then. Ubuntu's xorg.conf doesn't have that. Weeeeird.
It could be the patchset in the xorg-server (I've seen it adds modelines in the code itself), however when I patch compile that xorg-server on Arch, it doesn't work. It could be that I have to patch and compile some of it's dependencies as well. Weeeird.
I'd really like to get some of that stuff that Ubuntu's devs are smoking.

Anyway, thank you everyone for your patience and your helpful advice! I was really desperate and didn't even know where to look at anymore. Glad it's solved, now I can completely return to my dear Arch.