Linux xrandr change resolution

xrandr

xrandr is an official configuration utility to the RandR (Resize and Rotate) X Window System extension. It can be used to set the size, orientation or reflection of the outputs for a screen. For configuring multiple monitors see the Multihead page.

Contents

Installation

Graphical front-ends

• ARandR — Simple visual front end for XRandR. Relative monitor positions are shown graphically and can be changed in a drag-and-drop way.

https://christian.amsuess.com/tools/arandr/ || arandr

• LXRandR — Screen resolution and monitor position tool for LXDE. Also works in Openbox.

https://wiki.lxde.org/en/LXRandR || GTK 2: lxrandr , GTK 3: lxrandr-gtk3

CLI front-ends

• autorandr — Automatically select a display configuration based on connected devices.

https://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr || autorandr

• xlayoutdisplay — Detects and arranges displays. Handles: laptop lid state, highest available refresh rates, calculating and applying the actual DPI. Best used in .xinitrc, then can be invoked when plugging/unplugging monitors or closing laptop lid.

https://github.com/alex-courtis/xlayoutdisplay || xlayoutdisplayAUR

Testing configuration

When run without any option, xrandr shows the names of different outputs available on the system ( VGA-1 , HDMI-1 , etc.) and resolutions available on each, with a * after the current one and a + after the preferred one :

You can use xrandr to set different resolution (must be present in the above list) on some output:

When multiple refresh rates are present in the list, it may be changed by the —rate option, either at the same time or independently. For example:

The —auto option will turn the specified output on if it is off and set the preferred (maximum) resolution:

It is possible to specify multiple outputs in one command, e.g. to turn off HDMI-1 and turn on HDMI-2 with preferred resolution:

Configuration

xrandr is just a simple interface to the RandR extension and has no configuration file. However, there are multiple ways of achieving persistent configuration:

1. The RandR extension can be configured via X configuration files, see Multihead#RandR for details. This method provides only static configuration.
2. If you need dynamic configuration, you need to execute xrandr commands each time X server starts. See Autostarting#On Xorg startup for details. This method has the disadvantage of occurring fairly late in the startup process, thus it will not alter the resolution of the display manager if you use one.
3. Custom scripts calling xrandr can be bound to events (for example when external monitor is plugged in), see udev or acpid for details. The #Scripts section provides you with some example scripts that might be useful for this purpose.

Scripts

Toggle external monitor

This script toggles between an external monitor (specified by $extern ) and a default monitor (specified by $intern ), so that only one monitor is active at a time.

The default monitor should be connected when running the script, which is always true for a laptop.

Manage 2-monitors

mons AUR is a POSIX-compliant shell script to quickly manage 2-monitors display.

It provides well-known modes like computer, duplicate, extend and projector mode as well as selecting and positioning one or two monitors among those plugged in (for more details, see mons).

Example 3

The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.

This script iterates through connected monitors, selects currently active monitor, turns next one on and the others off:

Avoid X crash with xrasengan

Use this workaround to turn on connected outputs that may be in suspend mode and hence shown as disconnected, as is often the case of DisplayPort monitors:

xrasengan AUR is an xrandr wrapper with this workaround built in.

With the —force option, xrasengan will update status of all outputs before HDMI-0 is turned off, avoiding an X crash if they were the only connected/active outputs.

To force reload current settings, xrasengan provides a —try-reload-active-layout option, which uses —force and unxrandr from the arandr package to assemble the command line:

This can be used in systemd unit or in a keyboard binding to avoid blank screen when resuming DisplayPort monitors from suspend.

Configuration using arandr

arandr can graphically arrange your monitors, change resolutions, and save a script to duplicate your setup. By default, if you «Save As» it will be saved in

/.screenlayout/ . These files can then be added to your

/.profile . Sometimes problems arise from running the arandr script too soon after login.

The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.

Troubleshooting

Screen Blinking

For some LCD screens (e.g. Samsung 2343NW, Acer XB280HK, iiyama ProLite XUB3490WQSU-B1. ), the command cvt -r (i.e. with reduced blanking) is to be used. E.g with ProLite XUB3490WQSU-B1 and Thunderbolt HDMI 2.0 adapter on Dell XPS 13, with 60hz (59,94 selected) this screen is blinking (and the adapter+LCD screen works perfectly on Windows), you have to do :

cvt -r 3440 1440

Wich giving you :

# 3440×1440 59.97 Hz (CVT) hsync: 88.82 kHz; pclk: 319.75 MHz Modeline «3440x1440R» 319.75 3440 3488 3520 3600 1440 1443 1453 1481 +hsync -vsync

Then you have to do :

xrandr —newmode «3440x1440R» 319.75 3440 3488 3520 3600 1440 1443 1453 1481 +hsync -vsync

xrandr —addmode DP1 3440x1440R

Now you can select 59.97hz mode with the best screen resolution, wich not blinking anymore.

Adding undetected resolutions

Due to buggy hardware or drivers, your monitor’s correct resolutions may not always be detected by xrandr. For example, the EDID data block queried from the monitor may be incorrect. However, we can add the desired resolutions to xrandr. Also, this same procedure can be used to add refresh rates you know are supported, but not enabled by your driver.

First we run gtf or cvt to get the Modeline for the resolution we want:

You may also find similar lines for the modesetting driver.

Then we create a new xrandr mode. Note that the Modeline keyword needs to be omitted.

After creating it we need an extra step to add this new mode to our current output (VGA1). We use just the name of the mode, since the parameters have been set previously.

Now we change the resolution of the screen to the one we just added:

Note that these settings only take effect during this session.

If you are not sure about the resolution you will test, you may add a sleep 5 and a safe resolution command line following, like this:

Also, change VGA1 to correct output name.

EDID checksum is invalid

If the previous method results in an *ERROR* EDID checksum is invalid error during boot, see KMS#Forcing modes and EDID and [2].

Or xrandr —addmode might give you the error X Error of failed request: BadMatch . NVIDIA users should read NVIDIA/Troubleshooting#xrandr BadMatch. BadMatch could indicate an invalid EDID checksum. To verify that this is the case, run X in verbose mode (e.g. startx — -logverbose 6 ) and check your Xorg log for messages about a bad EDID.

Screen resolution reverts back after a blink

If you use GNOME and your monitor does not have an EDID, above #Adding undetected resolutions might not work, with your screen just blinking once, after xrandr —output .

Poke around with

/.config/monitors.xml , or delete the file completely, and then reboot.

It is better explained in this article.

Permanently adding undetected resolutions

Once a suitable resolution is found using xrandr , the mode can be permanently added by creating an entry in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ :

Replace intel with the right driver, e.g. nvidia . When the X server is restarted, you should be able to set the new resolution.

If this does not work for you, try removing the Screen and Device sections and just leaving the Monitor section. [3]

Resolution lower than expected

If your video card is recognized but the resolution is lower than you expect, you may try this.

Background: ATI X1550 based video card and two LCD monitors DELL 2408(up to 1920×1200) and Samsung 206BW(up to 1680×1050). Upon first login after installation, the resolution default to 1152×864. xrandr does not list any resolution higher than 1152×864. You may want to try editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf, add a section about virtual screen, logout, login and see if this helps. If not then read on.

About the numbers: DELL on the left and Samsung on the right. So the virtual width is of sum of both LCD width 3600=1920+1680; Height then is figured as the max of them, which is max(1200,1050)=1200. If you put one LCD above the other, use this calculation instead: (max(width1, width2), height1+height2).

Correction of overscan tv resolutions via the underscan property

With a flat panel TV, w:overscan looks like the picture is «zoomed in» so the edges are cut off.

Check your TV if there is a parameter to change. If not check if the output has support for the underscan property (xrandr —prop), if so apply an underscan and change border values. The required underscan vborder and underscan hborder values can be different for you, just check it and change it by more or less.

Correction of overscan tv resolutions via —transform

If underscan is not available another solution is using xrandr —transform a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i , which applies a transformation matrix on the output. See the xrandr(1) § RandR_version_1.3_options manual page for the explanation of the transformation.

For example, the transformation scaling horizontal coordinates by 0.8 , vertical coordinates by 1.04 and moving the screen by 35 pixels right and 19 pixels down, is:

Full RGB in HDMI

It may occur that the Intel driver will not configure correctly the output of the HDMI monitor. It will set a limited color range (16-235) using the Broadcast RGB property, and the black will not look black, it will be grey.

Disabling phantom monitor

In some cases, a non-existent monitor may be detected by the system. To disable it, find the name of the phantom output, e.g. VGA1, and turn it off with

To make this permanent, add the following to an entry in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ :

Dynamic interlace pattern artifacts with AOC G2590PX

If you are seeing very prominent interlace pattern artifacts (mesh or grid) when you see movement on the screen with this monitor, it might be happening because of a low refresh rate. Switching to a higher refresh rate (from 60 Hz to 119.98 Hz and perhaps even higher) might help reduce the effect.

Sample xrandr output for this monitor over HDMI:

As can be seen in the output above, the preferred refresh rate reported by xrandr is 60.00, but the artifacts are very visible with this refresh rate. Switching to 119.98 should help reduce the effect considerably.

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How to set custom resolution using xrandr when the resolution is not available in ‘Display Settings’

I’m a new Linux user trying to change the screen resolution as there is no option under display. I have successfully managed to add new resolutions by fluke by following online guide. I don’t have a GPU, I don’t know if this is the issue? Below is my xrandr -q output.

7 Answers 7

Here are the steps you need to add a new custom resolution and apply it. Following steps are for adding a 1920×1080 resolution, but you can use it for any other resolution you want. But make sure your monitor and onboard graphics support that resolution.

I also wrote a script that does all these steps automatically. You can try it out if the above steps seem too complicated for you: https://gist.github.com/chirag64/7853413

The option —size / -s can be used:

Should work with RandR version 1.1 or newer.

I had the same problem. In Display setting maximum resolution was 1280×720. So:

1. using xrandr command I have seen name of this monitor and resolution list.
2. I ‘ve executed the script: xrandr —output —mode

This is what I had to do on an #IntelMaker #Joule in order to make it work in the native resolution with a SUNFOUNDER 7 INCH TFT COLOR MONITOR, which is listed as having 1024*600 resolution, but was picked up as 1280×720 instead.

First, Intel Joule with Linux 4.4.15-yocto-standard x86_64 doesn’t seem to have gtf(1) , so, I had to use a different machine to calculate the appropriate numbers:

Then, create a file with the appropriate commands:

Then, startx or startxfce4 , and run ./1024×600.sh , after which, the following will be reported by xrandr(1) .

which gave me a list of size tags and corresponding pixel values

to select the 1920×1080 resolution

Save the script and launch it (bash script.sh 1024 720 60) you can set the custom resolution with that script but it is a temporary solution whenever you logout and login again you have to run the script again .you can add 2 lines of code in your bash.bashrc profile.to run the script directly from terminal.

My problem is the notebook resolution have this:

My primary/default screen is 1366×768.

But I would like to test a resolution 1920×1080 (DesireResolution) in my notebook.

I tried everything.

I couldn’ t find a solution because my notebook don’t accept addmode or newmode commands from xrandr to increase resolution, like this stackexchange question request.

So I did some maths!

and run this command

xrandr —output eDP1 —mode 1366×768 —panning 1920×1080 —scale 1.40556369×1.40625

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