Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by 1/2 Icon

Try to launch xvidtune from a shell prompt. Click on Left button a couple of time and then click on Test to show what happened. Repeat this procedure if needed and, when ready, click on Show button and exit xvidtune.
Now your console reports a line with some numbers. Open /etc/init.d/xorg.conf (using root privileges) and write under section "Monitor" the word ModeLine followed by the line obtained from xvidtune. Save the file and restart X.org.

To Start, i'm now running Edgy. And xorg.conf was in /etc/X11, not /etc/init.d.

Luca,

I just tried your fix, but X failed to start, probably because of a syntax error. However, for some reason, my backup copy of xorg.conf failed to be saved, and I didn't realize it until I had removed my modified version. Disaster, you say? No! Ubuntu must have a fail-safe backup file somewhere, and gnome starts up anyway -- only now the screen offset is gone!

The response is much slower, so the radeon driver probably isn't being loaded. Also, when I use the system/preferences menu to change the resolution, it doesn't work. I think that I can live with this until edgy is released, then I'll re-install and get the xorg.conf file back that way.

Martins

Oops, you're right, xorg.conf is in /etc/X11. I'm asking myself why I wrote /etc/init.d ;)

Anyway, you could try to follow https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FixVideoResolutionHowto if you want to adjust your screen resolution.

Clicking the test button in xvidtune without making any changes seems to fix the problem, bu only for that session. When you next log in, the offset is back.

A fter going to the help link, I ran the dpkg-reconfigure script as it suggested. It ran through all the configuration settings and I answered all the questions. At the end it said tha no changes were made because the md5sum check failed. This makes sense as I had blown away my xorg.conf file and couldn't create the md5sum. However, it seems to have written an xorg.conf file anyway. Of course the offset is back.

Remember that X was running without an xorg.conf file (at least as far as I could figure out. The nautilus search tool couldn't find one in the file system) when I tried dpkg-reconfigure.

Martins

In order to get the right configuration, you have to copy the string obtained from xvidtune when clicking on Show and paste in your xorg.conf Monitor section as argument of Modeline parameter. See http://wiki.x.org/wiki/FAQVideoModes for further reference.

Are you still having this problem?

This might be a stupid suggestion, but have you tried using the controls on the monitor for adjusting screen position/zoom/etc.?

I'd run into a very similar issue today with a black strip on the left when I went to a new resolution, but it was just because the monitor was off-centered.

Since you encounter this same issue at this resolution on SuSE, then it's more likely to be the hardware than the software, so I wonder if you're having the same issue?

My monitor is N LCD flat panel and it has no resizing or repositioning
features when using the DVI
Interface.

Yes I still have this issue. I'm currently running Ubuntu Edgy and I no
longer have Suse on my
system. Incidently, the problem goes away when I momentarily change the
screen resolution and
change it back. It's all good then until the next reboot. The gdm screen is
ok also.

If you want me to run any tests, email me after Monday as I am not in town
this week.

I guess I could give up and try kde, but I suspect that it's a driver
initialization string
type of issue.

Martins

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of
Bryce Harrington
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2007 12:22 PM
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 48289] Re: Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by
1/2Icon

Are you still having this problem?

This might be a stupid suggestion, but have you tried using the controls on
the monitor for adjusting screen position/zoom/etc.?

I'd run into a very similar issue today with a black strip on the left when
I went to a new resolution, but it was just because the monitor was
off-centered.

Since you encounter this same issue at this resolution on SuSE, then it's
more likely to be the hardware than the software, so I wonder if you're
having the same issue?

--
Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by 1/2 Icon
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/48289
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber of
the bug.

Hi Martins,

Hmm, this is quite unusual. by chance have you searched in the xorg bug tracker at http://freedesktop.org/ to see if someone has already reported this upstream?

It couldn't hurt to try it with KDE. I'm going to bet it won't make a difference, but sometimes KDE works differently than GNOME, so it could be a useful data point. Let me know if you do this.

When I have some time I'll try to do some additional research into this one. Seems quite odd.

Bryce

Okay, I've this issue too.

When I run WinXP, everything is okay and there's no black border.

Here's a snapshot with a digicam and notice how the trash icon is being cut off?
http://img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=monitorblackborder1kn3.jpg

Also please take note that various Ubuntu users have complained about this issue in the forums for quite some time. However, it's strange how so few ever report their issues.

Oh and I actually reset my monitor settings because I uninstalled my default graphics drivers. I'd to boot into REcovery mode and reset xorg.conf

Anyways, even after I reconfigured xorg.conf , the problem was still there.

Hi Yuri,

Cool, thanks for the photo. I've just recently started looking into X bugs, so if you can point me to additional reports about this I would very much appreciate it.

Here's a few guesses, could you guys let me know what you think on them?

1. It could just be the monitor settings. If the monitor does have some manual controls on the front of them, that's the first thing to try. Yuri - I couldn't see if your monitor has H/V adjustment controls? Your monitor also looks like it could use some pincushion adjustment as well.

2. Xorg may have failed to detect hardware H/v rates and may be selecting a resolution that your monitor clips. A LOT of people have been reporting various issues related to improperly detected monitor H/V rates, resulting in misdetected resolutions. This shows up as a descrepancy between the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file. If those of you experiencing this problem find that #1 doesn't seem suitable, please upload these two files here in this bug, and we can take a look at them and see. For people that find running xvidtune fixes the issue temporarily, that makes this sound like a likely reason. The workaround for this is to make absolutely sure the hsync and v refresh rates exactly match your monitor's documentation (X ought to be able to detect your monitor settings, but it proves to be rather hit or miss).

3. Driver issue. Martins, you suspect a driver issue and you could very well be right. I'd like to rule out #2 first, especially since you notice it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. If it's a driver issue then I'd expect it to not work all the time, but the monitor misdetection can sometimes have a random nature to it.

4. Something completely different. Possibly it's a known xorg bug, in which case we can check the freedesktop.org bug tracker. But first let's try ruling out the above.

Here is another data point. I just bought a new monitor, HP LP2465, The
screen on this new monitor is not offset, either at the original resolution
of 1280x1024 or the new 1920x1200. The old monitor is a Princeton VL1916.
I didn't suspect the monitior because Windows displays correctly and you
can fix it by changing the resolution back and forth in system/preferences.

I can still run some experiments for you as I still have the Princeton
monitor and I saved the old xorg.conf file. It will just go slower than it
would have before I installed the new monitor.

Incidently, I had to edit the xorg.conf file by hand to get the right
Resolution. Isn't there a configuration utility that will probe the
Plug'nplay information for you when you change the monitior? Or read
The .inf file that comes with the windows driver disk?

I did boot into single user mode and ran Xorg -configure, but it didn't
Give me a useful xorg.conf file. The monitor name wasn't found and all
The resolutions were 0.

Martins

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of
Bryce Harrington
Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2007 12:57 AM
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 48289] Re: Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by
1/2Icon

Hi Martins,

Hmm, this is quite unusual. by chance have you searched in the xorg bug
tracker at http://freedesktop.org/ to see if someone has already
reported this upstream?

It couldn't hurt to try it with KDE. I'm going to bet it won't make a
difference, but sometimes KDE works differently than GNOME, so it could
be a useful data point. Let me know if you do this.

When I have some time I'll try to do some additional research into this
one. Seems quite odd.

Bryce

--
Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by 1/2 Icon
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/48289
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Item 2 is definitely something to check out. With luck, I'll have time to
reconfigure my system some time tomorrow. I'll send you the log file, which
I didn't know to look for. It seems that I saw in passing that the
refresh rate wasn't exactly 60Hz, but 59.7Hz. But I don't remember now
whether that ws with the new or with the old monitor.

Martins

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of
Bryce Harrington
Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2007 10:45 AM
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 48289] Re: Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by
1/2Icon

Hi Yuri,

Cool, thanks for the photo. I've just recently started looking into X
bugs, so if you can point me to additional reports about this I would
very much appreciate it.

Here's a few guesses, could you guys let me know what you think on them?

1. It could just be the monitor settings. If the monitor does have
some manual controls on the front of them, that's the first thing to
try. Yuri - I couldn't see if your monitor has H/V adjustment controls?
Your monitor also looks like it could use some pincushion adjustment as
well.

2. Xorg may have failed to detect hardware H/v rates and may be
selecting a resolution that your monitor clips. A LOT of people have
been reporting various issues related to improperly detected monitor H/V
rates, resulting in misdetected resolutions. This shows up as a
descrepancy between the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and the
/var/log/Xorg.0.log file. If those of you experiencing this problem
find that #1 doesn't seem suitable, please upload these two files here
in this bug, and we can take a look at them and see. For people that
find running xvidtune fixes the issue temporarily, that makes this sound
like a likely reason. The workaround for this is to make absolutely
sure the hsync and v refresh rates exactly match your monitor's
documentation (X ought to be able to detect your monitor settings, but
it proves to be rather hit or miss).

3. Driver issue. Martins, you suspect a driver issue and you could
very well be right. I'd like to rule out #2 first, especially since you
notice it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. If it's a driver issue
then I'd expect it to not work all the time, but the monitor
misdetection can sometimes have a random nature to it.

4. Something completely different. Possibly it's a known xorg bug, in
which case we can check the freedesktop.org bug tracker. But first
let's try ruling out the above.

--
Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by 1/2 Icon
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/48289
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Hi Martins,

Thanks, yes I appreciate it if you can do some testing. It would be a useful piece of information if we can prove that this is yet another symptom of bug 3731 as my gut says it probably is.

Regarding plug-n-play detection, yes you're definitely right that it *should* work like that, but in practice the detection does not work that well. I think it will be better as we upgrade to newer versions of X, but we'll have to see.

Yes, for issue #2, the work around is to handcode the correct rates into the xorg.conf file. But really we want the autodetection to work properly, since who wants to handcode config files? :-)

Hi Bryce, thank you for the suggestions.

1. All right, I did adjust the monitor settings a little. However, that's the most I could adjust without the Trash icon being cut off by the "black border". Btw, what's H/V adjustment controls? If you're referring to the monitor controls, well, they are on the side of the monitor.
Please refer to the attached photo for further details.

2. Okay, here're my files attached. I've not run xvidtune yet 'cos I found it really useless to run a temporary fix. Btw, how do you attach multiple files? I've seen some people do it and I'm interested in not leaving multiple posts all over a thread.

3. Driver issues? Heh, perhaps...

4. Yes, let's rule out the first 2 points and then, move on, then. After all, Martin and I might have the same issue but the cause might be totally different.

Oh and btw, yeah, I'll try the pincushion settings later on.

Oh and it looks like the screen settings are REALLY out of whack!!! O_O;; Yeech... ><;;

Oh and my monitor is Samsung 793DF and my graphics card is ATI 9600 Pro .

Bryce Harrington wrote:
> Hi Martins,
>
> Thanks, yes I appreciate it if you can do some testing. It would be a
> useful piece of information if we can prove that this is yet another
> symptom of bug 3731 as my gut says it probably is.
>
> Regarding plug-n-play detection, yes you're definitely right that it
> *should* work like that, but in practice the detection does not work
> that well. I think it will be better as we upgrade to newer versions of
> X, but we'll have to see.
>
> Yes, for issue #2, the work around is to handcode the correct rates into
> the xorg.conf file. But really we want the autodetection to work
> properly, since who wants to handcode config files? :-)
>
>
In line with the conjectures in my previous email.
Adding vga=0x31b to the boot options in menu.lst didn't help. It gave a
higher resolution boot splash, but once it got to the GDM log in screen
it was the same as before.

That's all for now. If you need me to try more stuff, it will be next
weekend.

Martins

Bryce Harrington wrote:
> Hi Martins,
>
> Thanks, yes I appreciate it if you can do some testing. It would be a
> useful piece of information if we can prove that this is yet another
> symptom of bug 3731 as my gut says it probably is.
>
> Regarding plug-n-play detection, yes you're definitely right that it
> *should* work like that, but in practice the detection does not work
> that well. I think it will be better as we upgrade to newer versions of
> X, but we'll have to see.
>
> Yes, for issue #2, the work around is to handcode the correct rates into
> the xorg.conf file. But really we want the autodetection to work
> properly, since who wants to handcode config files? :-)
>
>
I was planning to upgrade to Feisty next weekend. It will be interesting
to see if upstart makes anything change. Or should I wait another week
or two to upgrade?

martins

I'm not certain but I don't think the vga= option to the kernel affects X, I think that's just for the console.

I don't know of any advantage to waiting on upgrading to Feisty once it's officially out, so I'd suggest doing it whenever is convenient to you.

Have a good week!
Bryce

Does this bug still occur with the released version of Feisty?

I now have a new monitor (HP LP2465) and it doesn't have the problem. I got
the new monitor at about the time that we were corresponding before.

Martins

I wouldn't call it a high priority bug, but please don't dismiss it
as defective monitor. It worked after resetting the resolution, and the
behavior was there in at least three distros. It worked fine in Windows.

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of
Bryce Harrington
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 5:36 PM
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 48289] Re: Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by
1/2Icon

Does this bug still occur with the released version of Feisty?

--
Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by 1/2 Icon
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/48289
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

You both have ATI cards. Please try Hardy alpha4 livecd if it works now.

I have a new monitor now. It doesn't exhibit the problem

That doesn't mean that it was the monitor all along, since the old
monitor worked under windows XP

Martins

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of Timo
Aaltonen
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 2:38 PM
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 48289] Re: Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by
1/2Icon

You both have ATI cards. Please try Hardy alpha4 livecd if it works now.

** Changed in: xserver-xorg-video-ati (Ubuntu)
Sourcepackagename: xorg => xserver-xorg-video-ati
   Importance: Medium => Low
     Assignee: Ubuntu-X (ubuntu-x-swat) => (unassigned)

--
Gnome desktop screen is offset to the right by 1/2 Icon
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/48289
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. In the development cycle for Intrepid there have been some vast improvements in the open source ati video driver and we could use your help testing them. Could you please download the latest Alpha CD image of Intrepid and test this particular bug just using the Live CD? You can find the latest image at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . Your testing can help make Ubuntu and the open source ati driver even better! Thanks in advance.

Since the hardware is no longer available for doing troubleshooting with, we'll have to close the bug for now. However please feel free to reopen if you or anyone else has the same HW and can reproduce this issue using the latest development version of Ubuntu and is willing to do some troubleshooting with it.