Originally reported at:
  https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/bugs/399727

Brief:

1. When choosing a new resolution, it expects you to reject a bad mode without being able to see the dialogue! This should be changed so you have to click to -accept- keeping the new resolution.

2. If the monitor resolution is not detectable in probing, it would be best for the resolution set by user control to affect both the display resolution (xorg.conf/Screen/Display/Viewport) AND virtual resolution (xorg.conf/Screen/Display/Virtual) as the later currently defaults to the maximum the video device can generate.

Thanks

**** Original bug report to https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/bugs/399727 ****

Installed Ubuntu 9.04 on a friends Amilo L7320GW.
LCD not recognised, so I ended up with just the top left 1280x800 of a 1600x1200 virtual screen.
It thought it was displaying the full 1600x1200.

However, when I tried to set 1280x800 resolution it still seemed to still think it was displaying on a 1600x1200 screen and the display was very corrupted. (i.e. the horizontals were out of sync, strange wrapping, etc, like the worst interlacing feathering ever! - and even stranger, the mouse pointer was unaffected and completely out of sync with all of the 'interlace feathered' dialogue boxes I could just about make out)

The Display dialogue then KEEPS this bad setting by default!
It should REJECT it if not confirmed within the time limit, that's the whole point of confirming right?
How do I reject the mode if I can't see or aim at the damn dialogue box!
So, I was FORCED to edit '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' to revert this - a scary enough proposition to me, let alone my friend.

I eventually discovered that in Section "Screen" I needed my SubSection "Display"s to have both 'Virtual' and 'Viewport' set to '1280 800'.

My initial xorg.conf was basically empty, so I guess setting a resolution was leaving the virtual resolution at the 1600x1200 size dictated by the lack of a useful monitor probe. (assumes monitor must cope with the highest resolution card is capable of, it would seem)

Maybe assuming Virtual/Viewport should match when monitor is 'unknown' would be safe way to do things, in the absence of a full blown 'tell me what resolution the monitor is' dialogue?