It's actually not as simple as that; resolutions are not just pluggable numbers, but are actually calculated from 'modelines' which describe the physical CRT or LCD drawing behaviors and refresh cycle rates which are fairly specific to a given piece of hardware.
So, you can't take a given 1280x800 modeline for a Sony CRT monitor and reuse it unchanged on a BENQ LCD flatscreen or a Fujitsu laptop; it's likely this would just result in a scrambled screen most of the time. The only modelines which are *guaranteed* to work on any monitor are the ones specified by the VESA standard. Those are the modelines corresponding to 1024x768, 800x600, and 640x480 - the "poor resolution options" that you're being presented with. Ideally VESA would put out newer standards, however even if they did that wouldn't solve it for all the hw already out there. One idea we've been pursuing to better address the case of EDID failures is to allow for saving and loading EDID blobs into the kernel. Then, you could either generate an EDID yourself through some sort of tool (e.g. perhaps deriving it from your monitor's setup cd), or save it off the monitor (or get it from someone with the same monitor), and then the system can load it at boot. This is already adequately covered by another bug report and the work is in progress (but no ETA on when it'll be available in the distro.) ** Changed in: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) Status: Expired => Won't Fix -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to gnome-control-center in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/769366 Title: Monitor prefs: poor resolution options when EDID fails Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Ubuntu: Won't Fix Bug description: Binary package hint: gnome-control-center If EDID/DDC fails, the resolution options are too restrictive; an exhaustive list of resolutions should be available. Use case: I run my third monitor through a DisplayPort-->DVI adapter, so no EDID information is returned. I cannot find any way to set the correct resolution short of generating an xorg.conf. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04 Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic-pae 2.6.38.2 Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae i686 NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx Architecture: i386 CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,animation,snap,expo,move,compiztoolbox,place,grid,imgpng,gnomecompat,wall,ezoom,workarounds,staticswitcher,resize,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,scale,session,unityshell] CompositorRunning: compiz Date: Fri Apr 22 23:42:38 2011 DistUpgraded: Fresh install DistroCodename: natty DistroVariant: ubuntu DkmsStatus: virtualbox-ose, 4.0.4, 2.6.38-8-generic-pae, i686: installed fglrx, 8.840, 2.6.38-8-generic-pae, i686: installed GraphicsCard: ATI Technologies Inc Cypress [Radeon HD 5800 Series] [1002:6899] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: Hightech Information System Ltd. Device [1787:2290] InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Beta i386 (20110413) JockeyStatus: xorg:fglrx - ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX graphics driver (Proprietary, Enabled, In use) MachineType: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-890GPA-UD3H ProcEnviron: LANGUAGE=en_US:en LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae root=UUID=7bd4798d-7a99-4476-820d-843bf0d1ced4 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7 Renderer: Unknown SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) dmi.bios.date: 07/23/2010 dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc. dmi.bios.version: FD dmi.board.name: GA-890GPA-UD3H dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. dmi.chassis.type: 3 dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrFD:bd07/23/2010:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnGA-890GPA-UD3H:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnGA-890GPA-UD3H:rvr:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr: dmi.product.name: GA-890GPA-UD3H dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110411-0ubuntu1 version.fglrx-installer: fglrx-installer N/A version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6 version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.2-0ubuntu1 version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.2-0ubuntu1 version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3 version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4 version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu7 version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu7 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/769366/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp