nVidia TwinView resolution not supported by X

Bug #577640 reported by byork
116
This bug affects 20 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-desktop (Ubuntu)
Triaged
Undecided
Unassigned
Lucid
Won't Fix
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

[Problem]
The proprietary nVidia driver seems to be treating the two 1920x1200 monitors as one 3840x1200 monitor. This resolution is then not supported by the X Server, causing the error message on login:

'Could not apply the stored configuration for monitors
X Server does not support size requested'

However, the display still works as expected.

[Original]
Since upgrading to Lucid, I am getting the following dialog warning on login:

'Could not apply the stored configuration for monitors
X Server does not support size requested'

I think this is related to the reported dimensions when using the NVIDIA proprietary driver with dual heads in twin view. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1477254 for details.

Revision history for this message
Stenten (stenten) wrote :

Please run the following in a terminal:
apport-collect 577640

affects: ubuntu → xorg (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Stenten (stenten) wrote :

The nVidia driver seems to be treating the two 1920x1200 monitors as one 3840x1200 monitor. This resolution is then not supported by the X Server, causing the error message. However, the display still works as expected.

Bryce Harrington (bryce)
affects: xorg (Ubuntu) → xorg-server (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Hi byork,

Please run the command 'apport-collect BUGNUMBER', which will attach several files we need for debugging.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

tags: added: needs-xorglog
tags: added: needs-lspci-vvnn
Changed in xorg-server (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
byork (brandon-bny) wrote :

output of apport-collect 577640:

Package xorg-server not installed and no hook available, ignoring

I looked for this package to install it, but couldnt find it.

Revision history for this message
Arto Jalkanen (ajalkane) wrote :

I have the same bug and similar system (nvidia, twinview). If I can run some command to gather the data, I can do it. The apport-collect command does not work for me as it seems to require I am the poster of the bug.

Revision history for this message
Stenten (stenten) wrote :

byork,

You can add these manually by running:

lspci -vvnn > lspci.txt
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log > Xorg.0.log.txt

and then uploading both file to this bug. They should be in your home directory.

Revision history for this message
munzli (munzli) wrote :

i've narrowed the problem down to what everest wrote (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/577640/comments/2) but don't have a solution on how to get rid of the message.

Revision history for this message
byork (brandon-bny) wrote :

Requested logs attached.

Revision history for this message
byork (brandon-bny) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Wybo Dekker (wybo) wrote :

I have the same pop-up with twinview 1920x1080 + 1280x1024 monitors,
NVIDIA Quadro 290 with 195.36.24 driver, on Lucid

Everything works fine, /except/ for Thunderbird3, which freezes 10 or 20 times a day

Revision history for this message
scorp123 (scorp123) wrote :

Same problem here. Two screens: 1920 x 1080 + 1280 x 1024, in TwinView. And each time I login I briefly get that pop-up message too.

kenig151 (emt-dang)
Changed in xorg-server (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → kenig151 (emt-dang)
Stenten (stenten)
Changed in xorg-server (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
tags: added: hardy
Revision history for this message
Stenten (stenten) wrote :

? Bryce, do you mind if I ask why you added a "hardy" tag to this? The OP and all those who commented are running Lucid.

Stenten (stenten)
tags: removed: needs-lspci-vvnn needs-xorglog
Stenten (stenten)
description: updated
summary: - X Server error on login with twinview conf
+ nVidia TwinView resolution not supported by X
Revision history for this message
Γουργιώτης Γιώργος (aka Gourgi) (gourgi) wrote :

i have only one screen but i can see this message at every login both on lucid and maverick.
i 've attached xorg.0.log, lspci -vvnn output and parsedid output.

tags: added: lucid maverick
Revision history for this message
Stenten (stenten) wrote :

2010/6/5 Γουργιώτης Γιώργος (aka Gourgi) <email address hidden>

> i have only one screen but i can see this message at every login both on
> lucid and maverick.
> i 've attached xorg.0.log, lspci -vvnn output and parsedid output.

If the details in this bug report don't describe your bug exactly, then it's
not the same bug. Please file a new bug report by typing "ubuntu-bug xorg"
in a terminal.

tags: added: dual-head resolution
removed: hardy maverick
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
tags: added: hardy
Revision history for this message
TimMadden (timmadden) wrote :

I have this bug too. At first it was super annoying as the configuration reverted to what was in my xorg.conf file which was set to an older configuration set up with different monitors. The annoying part was it switched my monitors so that the left one was on the right. My set up is a 1680x1050 on the left and a 1280x1024 on the right. I edited the xorg.conf file to put the 1680 first and made the other +1680 for the position. I will attach the log files in a second in case they help.

Revision history for this message
TimMadden (timmadden) wrote :
Revision history for this message
TimMadden (timmadden) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Jamie Furness (reines) wrote :

I'm having the same issue here when trying to use 3 monitors. xrandr seems to be outputting a huge error log to notify-osd for some reason, which is causing notify-osd to use 100% cpu. I've attached a debug log from notify-osd, showing the error output from xrandr, in-case it helps.

Revision history for this message
Paul (p37307) wrote :

I filed a duplicate bug at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/700088 with my fresh data.

Revision history for this message
Gabriel Thörnblad (gabriel-thornblad) wrote :

The bug is still here in Oneiric and unfortunately, it's now worse. Before, the error message was just an annoyance, but now it apparently kills compiz and leaves you with a very ugly looking desktop. Combined with other bugs for nVida in a dual monitor setup, Oneiric is just about unusable for me and my laptop + separate screen.

Revision history for this message
psypher (psypher246) wrote :

I have just installed Oneiric final release and this issue is worse for me too. I cannot setup dualview with nvidia settings at. But when I try and set it, the screen goes completely corrupted for 20 seconds and then when it comes back I save the xorg.conf. When I log out and log in I do however have the dual screen that I want but something is still wrong. When I go into expo mode the screen on the left draws the animation fine but the screen on the right looks terrible, it's like it shows a snapshot of frames in between the zoom out animation. really not a pleasant experience at all.

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

The expo mode corruption is a different bug, although I don't know if a bug report has been filed about it. I see it on Intel graphics as well.

Changed in xorg-server (Ubuntu):
assignee: kenig151 (emt-dang) → nobody
tags: added: natty oneiric
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

From http://www.ubuntugeek.com/dual-monitors-with-nvidia.html someone left this suggestion:

Hi guys, I figured this out with natty 11.04, and wanted to post what i did. From the arch linux wiki, i used
nvidia-xconfig --twinview
to enable twinview, then
nvidia-settings --load-config-only
to make sure the settings pages loaded. Then in unity i went into the nvidia settings program and tweaked. Much easier then editing the x11 file manually.

Changed in xorg-server (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

The error message comes from this patch to gnome-desktop:

./debian/patches/100_load_desired_settings.patch:+ "X server does not support size requested");

So, gnome is attempting to load your existing ~/.config/monitors.xml however in some situations gnome will attempt to use Xrandr 1.2 functionality (such as to arrange monitors side-by-side), which nvidia does not support (nvidia only has xrandr 1.0 support currently). Of course, the xorg.conf setting up NVIDIA has already established the desired layout so gnome's action here is entirely superfluous (and should not be attempted).

If I'm correct, then one simple workaround would be to delete your ~/.config/monitors.xml. With Twinview set in your xorg.conf you don't need a monitors.xml.

At some point NVIDIA will likely support xrandr 1.4, which is one possible way this will be resolved. I don't have a public ETA on that, but if that happens in the next few months and gets included in Precise we might consider that a "solution" (although unless Twinview is removed from nvidia (unlikely), it will still be possible to turn that on and still see this problem.)

The more proper solution, and the one I think this bug report should focus on, would be for gnome-desktop to recognize when TwinView (or Xinerama) is enabled, and in those cases don't attempt to process monitors.xml and just bail out.

affects: xorg-server (Ubuntu) → gnome-desktop (Ubuntu)
Changed in gnome-desktop (Ubuntu Lucid):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Btw, I expect this still affects Precise, but if someone would like to verify that, it would boost the priority of this bug for our development work.

If you don't want to install Ubuntu Precise, it should be sufficient to boot a Live USB session, configure the monitors, and see if it is working properly now. You can get the current Live USB desktop image at http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ and create a USB boot drive using usb-creator.

Revision history for this message
Antoine Gomez (e-autoine-l) wrote :

I confirm I have this bug on Precise.

nvidia + twinview.

Revision history for this message
Rolf Leggewie (r0lf) wrote :

lucid has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the lucid task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".

Changed in gnome-desktop (Ubuntu Lucid):
status: Confirmed → Won't Fix
To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Duplicates of this bug

Other bug subscribers

Related questions

Related blueprints

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.