Ubuntu 14 display problems

I'm having issues with Ubuntu 14 (both 14.04 and 14.10) choosing what seems to be the wrong display resolution. My screen is 1920x1200.

On 14.10, I can get through the whole install process (correct screen resolution), but as soon as I install the first set of updates, the screen goes to some strange 4:3 resolution that results in the text becoming garbled and completely illegible. The system is unusable from that point forward. I managed to navigate to the display control panel, but the system wouldn't allow me to change the resolution for reasons that were illegible.

On 14.04, even the LiveCD picks the wrong screen resolution, but only after it loads. Everything looks fine, and then the screen resolution changes itself to the same illegible resolution that 14.10 chooses after an update.

12.04 doesn't exhibit this sort of behavior, but my Intel 7260AC doesn't work in that version and internet access is kind of a key these days.

I feel like I can't be the only person to experience this, but my searches all lead to people having issues with installs on a VirtualBox machine. You guys have any ideas?

What video card do you have?

EVGA 660ti. The system I'm attempting to load this on is as seen in my sig.

Have you installed the nvidia driver, or are you using the default one? and if you installed the nvidia driver, did you get it from Ubuntu's driver thing or nvidias website?

EDIT---

probably a stupid question, but have you tried going into settings and setting your monitor to the correct res? I've had a few Linux installs where the res wasn't picked up right but setting manually worked.

14.04 LiveCD would be using the default driver. 14.10 after the initial update should be as well. I never installed the nVidia driver intentionally and I doubt the update process installs it.

Then go install nvidias propetiary driver via the repos.

I just installed ubuntu 14.04 and no issues at all with a 760 during the install, the first maxwell driver install went off poorly, but after purging it and reinstalling it all is normal.

jlnx said:

Then go install nvidias propetiary driver via the repos.

Click to expand...

What an excellent idea, now could you tell me how to accomplish that when the LiveCD screen loads like this? I generally prefer to stay on the LTS edition, and it's very strange to me that I can't get this one working. I wonder if my monitor is sending bad ID info or it's getting misinterpreted somehow. Can I force a screen resolution for the install somehow?

Yes, it's a picture of a screen, but it's not distorted due to compression or resizing. I simply cropped a full resolution section so the uploader would accept it. The aspect ratio is wrong and the text is completely unreadable for the most part.

have you tried a fresh download of ubuntu and a fresh disk burn?

No, not since the problem started. Image size was correct, but I don't recall seeing MD5 for it anywhere. I guess maybe that's the next step.

JeremyCT said:

What an excellent idea, now could you tell me how to accomplish that when the LiveCD screen loads like this? I generally prefer to stay on the LTS edition, and it's very strange to me that I can't get this one working. I wonder if my monitor is sending bad ID info or it's getting misinterpreted somehow. Can I force a screen resolution for the install somehow?

Yes, it's a picture of a screen, but it's not distorted due to compression or resizing. I simply cropped a full resolution section so the uploader would accept it. The aspect ratio is wrong and the text is completely unreadable for the most part.

Click to expand...

Yes, if you click 'Try Ubuntu', find settings, click the 'monitor' section, than change the resolution. Worth a shot.

jlnx said:

Yes, if you click 'Try Ubuntu', find settings, click the 'monitor' section, than change the resolution. Worth a shot.

Click to expand...

JeremyCT said:

I managed to navigate to the display control panel, but the system wouldn't allow me to change the resolution for reasons that were illegible.

Click to expand...

I kinda tried that, no dice unfortunately. I'm away for the weekend, I'll see what happens with a fresh download of the image when I get home.

when you stick in the disk press F5. From there select the option that is like "safe graphics mode" or something similar

EDIT: The have changed their options since I last looked.

What you want is F6 -> nomodeset

Success!!

I tried downloading 14.04.2 again. No dice.
I tried nomodset. No dice. (which was strange, I totally thought that would work)

Then, on a lark, I downloaded the original 14.04 release. The very first public stable release of 14.04. No issues. I got it up and running, installed the nVidia driver immediately, and aside from some issues that everyone seems to be having with nVidia and 14.04, it works a peach. There must be some bug in the current release code that I was getting caught up on with regards to my display issues. Who knows.