The reboot from the latest update (in Mint 19.3 Update manager suggestions as per 19 Jan 2020) maxed out my screen resolution and I can't find a way to fix it using the gui or terminal. I have tried the following:
1. Using the gui Timeshift to revert one step - can't see the 'GO' button
2. Ran xrandr --listactiveterminals -> failed to get size of gamma for output default
3. Ran xrandr -s 1440x90 -> not my screens res but worth a try ->not found in available modes
4. Ran rm ~/ .config/monitors.xml -> with and without spacing btw / and . same result -> no such file or directory
5. cd/ -> to go to root - bash: cd/: no such file or directory
6. Checked the Mate Terminal Manual for 'root' '.config' 'resolution' - nothing
7. Searched LQ Newbie forum for similar prob. Nothing that matched or was close.
8. Tried to log in as root -> permission denied! It's my computer!

Aaarrgghhh. Please help.
Possible coincidence that my graphics card failed at THAT PRECISE time?
Thank you in advance for your help,
echidnagirl

Some more information is needed. What version were you using before? What is the output of "inxi -Gx" (you may need to install inxi first)?

Also, for future reference with regards to your troubleshooting steps:
2. As far as I can tell, that isn't even a flag that exists on xrandr, but that might have to do with my distro.
3. I don't know if this was a typo here and not a command you actually entered, but 1440x90 is not a possible screen resolution. Try it with your actual screen resolution, though I'm pretty sure this won't work anyway (I had a similar problem at one point on Ubuntu MATE and that didn't work for me).
5. It should be written "cd /" (space between cd and /), not "cd/".
6. Terminal manuals aren't going to describe terminal commands, so this step is unnecessary in the future.
8. Mint and Ubuntu don't allow logging in as root. You can perform actions as root by using sudo.

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Not exactly sure what "maxed screen resolution" means. All LCDs/LED monitors are meant to run at native resolution, which is typically the maximum resolution they support. Do you mean the virtual screen is larger than the physical size of the monitor itself?

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holding down alt + left-click will often allow you to move the window so you can get to that button that is off the screen.

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You're right 'maxed' wasn't especially helpful. What I meant was that my 27" monitor is now showing enormous versions (as in really low res) of everything. The old res native for this monitor is 1920x1080 but it is now painful at 640x480.
Yes the '90' was a typo. So was the lack of space between cd and / but thanks that could have accounted for some of my problems.
The bits about xrandr I got from another post about a similar problem - thought it worth a try. Basically tried everything I could think of - which isn't that much at this stage in my linux-learning curve.
The previous version was also 19.3, the update was just one of those regular things that the Mint Update Manager wants me to do. I will try to find a list of exactly what was updated (I just need to read up on how to do that - which I will, of course).
I found inxi and worked out how to run it with some basic specifiers (I think you would call them flags?). Here is the output:
nina@tiggerbox:~$ inxi -c 5 -b
System:
Host: tiggerbox Kernel: 5.3.0-26-generic x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: MATE 1.22.2 Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P8B75-M LX v: Rev X.0x
serial: <root required> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 0405
date: 06/05/2012
CPU:
Quad Core: Intel Core i5-3570 type: MCP speed: 1844 MHz
min/max: 1600/3800 MHz
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 630] driver: N/A
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: fbdev,nouveau
unloaded: modesetting,vesa resolution: 640x480~73Hz
OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 9.0 256 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 19.2.1
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
driver: r8169
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1006.04 GiB used: 175.86 GiB (17.5%)
Info:
Processes: 185 Uptime: 52m Memory: 7.72 GiB used: 3.07 GiB (39.8%)
Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.32
nina@tiggerbox:~$

The monitor is an Acer KA270H.
I haven't tried running xrandr -s with the actual screen res.
I have read a bit about a program called Resetter but at this point am leery of messing about with my already wonky system so haven't tried it.
thanks,
echidnagirl (nina)

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Regarding the virtual screen - now that I'v worked out what it is you where talking about sevendogsbsd - yes I think the virtual screen is bigger than the actual monitor because hardly anything fits anymore - windows go off the sides so I can't access the 'x' for closing etc. The only program that seems uneffected is Firefox which is just hideously huge but at least the scrollbars are visible.
Thanks

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Are you using the nouveau driver or Nvidia? Can you get to the "driver manager" in Mint and see if reinstalling the driver or switching from one to the other fixes the issue? I don't use Mint so can't remember if there is an option to reinstall the driver but I know you can switch from nouveau to Nvidia and back.

Not saying that will work but was thinking during the update, somehow the kernel module for the video driver broke.

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my mint 19.3 virtual machine offers a Display settings program/applet in the menu under Preferences. it looks like it might be a gui frontend to xrandr like arandr, so it might not help if xrandr is not working correctly. it could be worth a try though.

you can also launch cinnamon-settings from a terminal if you can't get to the menu. Display shows up in the Hardware section if you do so.

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I think I found the problem but having just read your suggestion sevendogsbsd now I'm not sure. Here's why...

The next time after the last post that I tried to boot-up the monitor received no signal at all. After swapping from HDMI to VGA cable I got a picture again but still at 640x480. So tried a dif monitor. Same problem. Switched to onboard (from Nividia graphics card model P1071) - and remembered to remove the card before re-boot.

Smiley jig dance! Ok wriggly sitting dance, but joy as I got the native monitor res back.

However, now that sevendogsbsd has planted the idea in my head about the kernel module of the video driver being broken I'm not sure.

So my last question this time around (and thanks again everyone) if the monitor display is now again 'normal' - what it was before the calamity (I know its a bit OTT - but it looked beeping awful) - surely that means that the video driver is not broken and its kernel module is fine?? I would have to throw the card out and find out later something in the OS actually was broken by an update....
Thanks,
echidnagirl

If the system works now, the driver should be OK. I just threw that out there because I have seen updates where a driver module "broke" and caused issues until it was reinstalled. For example, the kernel got updated during a normal update, but the driver module failed to update. I don't know if that was the case but wanted to put it out there if that hasn't already been investigated.

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Did you remove the NVIDIA card then things worked? If so, please check our NVIDIA driver with the card in place.

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A system upgrade might have broken the graphics driver, or somehow switched to the wrong version, resulting in Xorg using the fallback driver.
I don't think the graphics card is broken.
If you want to recreate the problem, you could then show us the output of

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I put the Nvidia card back and have connected with vga - if down the line I can get this to work I'll try again with hdmi.
I haven't checked the driver but here is the results of the suggested code - note that I wrote the 'cat' part as a continuation of the first line NOT a separate line (was that wrong?):
nina@tiggerbox:~$ lspci -k | grep -iEA5 'vga|3d|display' cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log
grep: cat: No such file or directory
/var/log/Xorg.0.log:[ 110.916] (II) FBDEV(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
/var/log/Xorg.0.log- "Default Screen Section" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
/var/log/Xorg.0.log-[ 110.916] (==) FBDEV(0): Depth 24, (==) framebuffer bpp 32
/var/log/Xorg.0.log-[ 110.916] (==) FBDEV(0): RGB weight 888
/var/log/Xorg.0.log-[ 110.916] (==) FBDEV(0): Default visual is TrueColor
/var/log/Xorg.0.log-[ 110.916] (==) FBDEV(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
/var/log/Xorg.0.log:[ 110.916] (II) FBDEV(0): hardware: VESA VGA (video memory: 1216kB)
/var/log/Xorg.0.log-[ 110.916] (II) FBDEV(0): checking modes against framebuffer device...
/var/log/Xorg.0.log-[ 110.916] (II) FBDEV(0): checking modes against monitor...
/var/log/Xorg.0.log-[ 110.916] (--) FBDEV(0): Virtual size is 640x480 (pitch 640)
/var/log/Xorg.0.log-[ 110.916] (**) FBDEV(0): Built-in mode "current": 30.7 MHz, 36.9 kHz, 73.3 Hz
/var/log/Xorg.0.log-[ 110.916] (II) FBDEV(0): Modeline "current"x0.0 30.72 640 672 752 832 480 484 488 504 -hsync -vsync -csync (36.9 kHz b)

I will now check the driver - what I'm using and so on as per your suggestions above. I'll let you know what I find (hoping to 'save' the graphics card).

Thread: Updating the system via updates manager messed the nvidia driver
Posted By lpallard

His solution was to uninstall kernel 5.3.0 and go back to running 5.0.0. He said apparently the new kernel is buggy?

I am running the recommended nvidia-driver-390 (version 390.116-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 HOWEVER i get the same feedback as lpallard when I check the settings via CLI:
nina@tiggerbox:~$ nvidia-settings

ERROR: NVIDIA driver is not loaded


ERROR: Error querying enabled displays on GPU 0 (Missing Extension).


ERROR: Error querying connected displays on GPU 0 (Missing Extension).

** Message: 20:11:00.684: PRIME: No offloading required. Abort
** Message: 20:11:00.684: PRIME: is it supported? no

ERROR: nvidia-settings could not find the registry key file. This file
should have been installed along with this driver at
/usr/share/nvidia/nvidia-application-profiles-key-documentation. The
application profiles will continue to work, but values cannot be
prepopulated or validated, and will not be listed in the help text.
Please see the README for possible values and descriptions.



So now what? Should I follow the solution given by lpallard or try to reinstall the nvidia-driver? Which I don't know how to do (yet).

BTW what do you mean when you say 'our Nvidia driver'?

There are two drivers for NVIDIA: the nouveau driver that is builtin to the kernel, OR, a proprietary driver from NVIDIA. I use the proprietary driver, because I get better gaming performance, and therefore, I have the nouveau kernel module blacklisted, so it doesn't load and conflict with the proprietary driver. It's one or the other but never both at same time. After each kernel upgrade, I have to reinstall the proprietary driver from NVIDIA. This isn't difficult. Download the driver installer from NVIDIA, and remember where you save it. Leave your graphical environment and login at console as root (or use sudo before commands, if your user has superuser privileges) Make the installer file you downloaded from NVIDIA executable by typing Then to run this installer just prefix it with ./ as so:
. After that it's just a matter of following the prompts.

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