With some googling I found a way to circumvent the problem, adapting ways described in http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/RandR I created the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45custom_xrandr-settings using values I computed issuing cvt.
xrandr --newmode "1280x960_105.00" 187.00 1280 1376 1512 1744 960 963 967 1023 -hsync +vsync xrandr --addmode VGA1 1280x960_105.00 xrandr --newmode "1600x1200_85.00" 235.00 1600 1728 1896 2192 1200 1203 1207 1262 -hsync +vsync xrandr --addmode VGA1 1600x1200_85.00 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1600x1200_85.00 This will circumvent the problem. A little cumbersome, and showing some oddities: X starts in 800x600, so login dialog is in this resolution. After logging in, the desktop initializes in 800x600 and is immediately changed to 1600 x 1200, which makes the background go into four tiles. As the desktop recognizes this it rescales the background. So all in all: Speaking in ITIL terms this is _not_ a solution, but merely a workaround. It is still my firm belief that a modern operating system _must_ have a GUI that allows manual mode setting if the automatic procedure fails, and it must fail on each and every analog monitor... -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/685516 Title: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is unable to handle analog monitors (resolution cannot be set) -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs