xrandr reports wrong resolution

What video card does this use, and what driver is in use for it?

It is an Intel 855GM chipset together with driver "intel".

This command sets the correct resolution on my external monitor and resolves my GNOME issues in 8.10:

xrandr --output VGA --mode 1280x1024

Nevertheless xrandr still reports 1400x1050 as a supported resolution for my external monitor (which is only capable of 1280x1024).

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

xrandr (x11-xserver-utils 7.3+5) still reports resolutions that my external monitor does not support (everything beyond 1280x1024):

user@host:~/Desktop$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1600 x 1600
VGA connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 359mm x 287mm
   1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0 60.0 60.0*
   1600x1024 60.2
   1400x1050 60.0
   1440x900 59.9
   1280x960 75.0 60.0 60.0
   1360x768 59.8
   1152x864 85.1 85.0 75.0 75.0 75.0 70.0 60.0
   1024x768 85.0 85.0 75.1 75.0 70.1 60.0
   832x624 74.6
   800x600 85.0 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
   640x480 85.0 85.0 75.0 72.8 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0 59.9
   720x400 85.0 70.1
   640x400 85.1
   640x350 85.1
...

user@host:~/Desktop$ sudo ddcprobe
...
timing: 720x400@70 Hz (VGA 640x400, IBM)
timing: 720x400@88 Hz (XGA2)
timing: 640x480@60 Hz (VGA)
timing: 640x480@67 Hz (Mac II, Apple)
timing: 640x480@72 Hz (VESA)
timing: 640x480@75 Hz (VESA)
timing: 800x600@60 Hz (VESA)
timing: 800x600@72 Hz (VESA)
timing: 800x600@75 Hz (VESA)
timing: 832x624@75 Hz (Mac II)
timing: 1024x768@87 Hz Interlaced (8514A)
timing: 1024x768@70 Hz (VESA)
timing: 1024x768@75 Hz (VESA)
timing: 1280x1024@75 (VESA)
ctiming: 1280x960@60
ctiming: 1152x864@75
ctiming: 1280x960@75
ctiming: 1280x1024@60
ctiming: 640x480@85
ctiming: 800x600@85
ctiming: 1024x768@85
dtiming: 1280x1024@70
...

The man page of xrandr states:

"If invoked without any option, it will dump the state of the outputs, showing the existing modes for each of them"

So xrandr for some unknown reason reports resolutions far higher than actually supported by the hardware.

This problem is fixed in Ubuntu 9.04 (x11-xserver-utils 7.4+1).

Now xrandr correctly reports these resolutions for my external monitor:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1400 x 1400
VGA connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 359mm x 287mm
   1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0 60.0*
   1280x960 75.0 60.0
   1152x864 75.0
   1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
   832x624 74.6
   800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
   640x480 85.0 75.0 72.8 66.7 59.9
   720x400 70.1