Back in mid August, my work computer decided one day that it wasn’t going to let me set the desktop resolution to anything over 1024×768. That’s a problem because my preferred resolution is 1280×1024. Some people say it’s too small, but I really can’t deal without the extra screen real estate.
The problem started after the power went out one day. After I rebooted, something had happened that caused the problem. What likely went on is I read about some tweak online, changed my config files, and never rebooted. For those who don’t know Linux, you can do things like that and still have the program running. I probably was working on something at the time and didn’t want to restart the computer (Yes, I know all I’d have to do was restart X, but rebooting is cleaner).
After hammering on the problem for about a day and a half, I was unable to fix it and I gave up. There was much more important work to be done than tweaking my desktop setup.
I’ve tried a few times since then to figure out a solution to the issue without any success. Today, the Ubuntu gods saw fit to bless me with the ability to select my desired resolution!
Of course and odd problem requires and odd solution. Yesterday, I upgraded to the latest version of Ubuntu, Edgy Eft. I was secretly hoping that would fix the issue, but it didn’t. Today, I downloaded the CD and was contemplating doing a full reinstall. I booted the disc, and just waded through the options to see if I could keep my files intact. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t let me do that so I rebooted out of the CD environment. Right away at the login screen, I noticed the resolution was back to 1280×1024. It was not the same for my desktop, but I was able to now select 1280×1024 from the Screen Resolution window. The only thing is it didn’t actually take the setting. It said it was at 1280×1024, but the size didn’t actually change. I just happened to log out and log back in and that was it!
Now I can work at my full resolution in happiness. I better get back to work.
