Comment 3 for bug 146828

I have the same symptoms on a Dell M1330 with a 1280x800 screen and an Nvidia 8400GM using proprietary drivers . I set the resolution once logged in, the screen's native.

When gdm/X starts I see a cropped Nvidia logo, as though zoomed in, then a large login box and mouse pointer aslo as if zoomed in. By moving the mouse I can pan around the virtual screen.

alex@martha:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8400M GS (rev a1)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
03:01.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61)

alex@martha:~$ xrandr -q --verbose
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1280 x 800, maximum 1920 x 1440
default connected 1280x800+0+0 (0x146) normal (normal) 0mm x 0mm
        Identifier: 0x140
        Timestamp: 1572990425
        Subpixel: unknown
        Clones:
        CRTC: 0
        CRTCs: 0
  640x480 (0x141) 15.4MHz
        h: width 640 start 0 end 0 total 640 skew 0 clock 24.0KHz
        v: height 480 start 0 end 0 total 480 clock 50.0Hz
  640x480 (0x142) 17.8MHz
        h: width 640 start 0 end 0 total 640 skew 0 clock 27.8KHz
        v: height 480 start 0 end 0 total 480 clock 58.0Hz
  640x480 (0x143) 18.1MHz
        h: width 640 start 0 end 0 total 640 skew 0 clock 28.3KHz
        v: height 480 start 0 end 0 total 480 clock 59.0Hz
  800x600 (0x144) 24.5MHz
        h: width 800 start 0 end 0 total 800 skew 0 clock 30.6KHz
        v: height 600 start 0 end 0 total 600 clock 51.0Hz
  1024x768 (0x145) 40.9MHz
        h: width 1024 start 0 end 0 total 1024 skew 0 clock 39.9KHz
        v: height 768 start 0 end 0 total 768 clock 52.0Hz
  1280x800 (0x146) 54.3MHz
        h: width 1280 start 0 end 0 total 1280 skew 0 clock 42.4KHz
        v: height 800 start 0 end 0 total 800 clock 53.0Hz
  800x512 (0x147) 22.1MHz
        h: width 800 start 0 end 0 total 800 skew 0 clock 27.6KHz
        v: height 512 start 0 end 0 total 512 clock 54.0Hz
  720x450 (0x148) 17.8MHz
        h: width 720 start 0 end 0 total 720 skew 0 clock 24.8KHz
        v: height 450 start 0 end 0 total 450 clock 55.0Hz
  700x525 (0x149) 20.6MHz
        h: width 700 start 0 end 0 total 700 skew 0 clock 29.4KHz
        v: height 525 start 0 end 0 total 525 clock 56.0Hz
  640x512 (0x14a) 18.7MHz
        h: width 640 start 0 end 0 total 640 skew 0 clock 29.2KHz
        v: height 512 start 0 end 0 total 512 clock 57.0Hz
  640x400 (0x14b) 15.4MHz
        h: width 640 start 0 end 0 total 640 skew 0 clock 24.0KHz
        v: height 400 start 0 end 0 total 400 clock 60.0Hz
  640x384 (0x14c) 15.0MHz
        h: width 640 start 0 end 0 total 640 skew 0 clock 23.4KHz
        v: height 384 start 0 end 0 total 384 clock 61.0Hz
  512x384 (0x14d) 12.2MHz
        h: width 512 start 0 end 0 total 512 skew 0 clock 23.8KHz
        v: height 384 start 0 end 0 total 384 clock 62.0Hz
  400x300 (0x14e) 7.6MHz
        h: width 400 start 0 end 0 total 400 skew 0 clock 18.9KHz
        v: height 300 start 0 end 0 total 300 clock 63.0Hz
  320x240 (0x14f) 4.9MHz
        h: width 320 start 0 end 0 total 320 skew 0 clock 15.4KHz
        v: height 240 start 0 end 0 total 240 clock 64.0Hz
  1920x1440 (0x150) 138.2MHz
        h: width 1920 start 0 end 0 total 1920 skew 0 clock 72.0KHz
        v: height 1440 start 0 end 0 total 1440 clock 50.0Hz