I installed Linux Mint (Mate, but Updated). The icons are huge. I went in and made them smaller, but even after, way to big.

The window boarders of the browser is way to big. The File menu letters are way to big. Even if you make them small.

If I watch a video, Full Screen, the little window that pops up (To exit full screen push Esc) takes up 1/3 of the screen.

Everything is way to big. I notice my highest Video Resolution available is 1024 X 768. My Monitor is 1680 X 1050.

How can I get higher resolutions to show up in the settings?

Thank you,

Chris.

So correct video driver is not loaded, you are using fallback VESA driver. Did you inspect your Xorg log to see what's going wrong?

When I checked the Driver, showed it was using the latest one (recommended). Did not inspect my Xorg, since I didn't know it even existed.

What would I be looking for in the Xorg?

Chris.

How did you check the driver without looking at Xorg log?

Open a terminal and issue
and paste the results here please.

When Mint first starts up, I get window that pops up and one of the choices is, "Drivers."

I had 3 to chose from. One was X-serverXorg 1:7.3.0-1 (latest, Recommended). The other was fglrx-udates ubunto 14.04.0. I 'reverted' to the second one and it restarted with the right resolution. This looks really nice now!!! I love it!!!

The only thing left now is to figure out how to install "freac" (Linux 'Software' Forum) and I'll be a very happy camper!!

Thank you for the help.

Chris.

Cool!

I checked in terminal (after I reverted drivers) and got these results.

System: Hostdidn't want to post this part) Kernel: 3.19.0-32-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
Desktop: MATE 1.12.0 Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Sumo [Radeon HD 6410D]
Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: ati,fglrx (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,radeon)
Resolution: 1680x1050@59.9hz, 1680x1050@59.9hz
GLX Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 6410D
GLX Version: 4.5.13399 - CPC 15.201.1151


I see I'm running Mint 17.3 but Mate 1.12.0 Desktop. Since Mint 17.3 would not load on my computer, documentation said I could install an older one, then update, which I did. Not sure why it didn't update the desktop?

Chris.

It may be the original driver you were using did not have correct firmware to load. No telling without looking at kernel log and Xorg log. But your problem is solved, so lets leave it alone.

Yeah, AMD/ATI video cards (especially older ones) can be a pain in linux from my experience. I had mint 17.3 on an old Dell Inspiron from 2005, and the vga adapter was ATI. Luckily it worked for the most part, but some stuff that I like to use (S-video) did not. I only use NVIDIA cards now, because they work best for me (and they seem to be a better value in some cases)

what's freac?
generally, you install software from the software center (NOT the wild web!)


i am not familiar with inxi, so i cannot tell whether inxi is wrong or the downgrade failed.

but if it's working, don't bother.
maybe you'll understand it later, when you become more familiar with linux.

btw, for the sake of clarity it is recommended to stick to 1 topic (video problems) per thread.

Thanks for the help.

Everything looks good, except, I have a monitor and a TV hooked up to my computer. In windows it sees both displays, but with Linux it only sees the monitor.
I'll post in another thread.

Chris.

so how did you solve it?
it is important to incleude the solution in your help thread: others will benefit.
also please mark it [SOLVED] from "Thread Tools".