How to Change the Screen Resolution in Ubuntu

Although it’s a rare problem, it’s possible for your desktop to get stuck on the wrong resolution. This could happen because, for example, a bug in your GPU’s drivers doesn’t identify your monitor correctly. If your desktop looks like a thumbnail in the center of your monitor, or you have to scroll around to see everything, you could try setting the resolution manually. Let’s see how you can change the resolution in Ubuntu.

The Display Settings

The resolution settings are found in the Display Settings. To access the Display Settings, right-click on the desktop and select “Display Settings.”

From there, click on the “Resolution” option.

Select your monitor’s native resolution.

Also read: How to Hide the Top Bar and Side Panel in Ubuntu

Use XRandR

You can also set your resolution through the xrandr command, which is included in most modern Linux distributions. Try typing xrandr into your favorite terminal, press Enter, and a bunch of information about your monitor and its resolutions will appear. The active resolution will have an asterisk next to it.

Note your monitor’s alias in the information appearing directly after the command but before the resolutions list. In our case, since we used a Thinkpad X200 to capture the screenshots in our article, this was “LVDS-1.”

To choose a different resolution, you can tell xrandr which monitor to target and what resolution to apply with:

xrandr --output MONITOR_ALIAS --mode SUPPORTED_RESOLUTION

You can choose any of the supported resolutions, even if it isn’t native to your monitor. Our command looks like:

xrandr --output LVDS-1 --mode 1024x576

If the correct resolution wasn’t detected or you want to use a custom one for any reason, xrandr can help with that, too. You shouldn’t deviate from VESA standards, though, and cvt is here to lend a helping hand.

Also available by default in most distributions, cvt can calculate VESA Coordinated Video Timing modes. Its use is simple: type cvt followed by the desired horizontal and vertical resolutions. To calculate the parameters for a non-standard 1500×900 resolution, we entered:

cvt 1500 900

Select and copy to the clipboard everything from “Modeline” up to the end.

Use it to create a new resolution from scratch with xrandr:

xrandr --newmode CLIPBOARD_CONTENTS

Note that the “1504x900_60.00” in our case refers to the desired resolution and refresh rate of our monitor and is a name that cvt generated automatically. You are free to change it to anything you wish for the sake of convenience. We used:

xrandr --newmode "MyMode" 111.00 1504 1592 1744 1984 900 903 913 934 -hsync +vsync

That’s not all, as you also have to add the new mode as an option to the specific monitor. You can do that with:

xrandr --addmode MONITOR_ALIAS "NAME_OF_XRANDR-CREATED_MODE"

Following everything until this point, our command looks like:

xrandr --addmode LVDS-1 "MyMode"

Our new resolution is selectable from the Display Settings.

If your desktop insists on remaining stuck on the wrong resolution, maybe it’s time you upgrade or optimize your GPU kernel modules by installing a custom kernel.

Lastly, if your issue lies with the text on the screen becoming very tiny on a high-resolution monitor, then you probably need to do a fractional scaling instead of changing the resolution.

Tip: XRandR can also help you set up dual monitors in Ubuntu.

Use ARandR

On the other hand, it is also possible to use a Graphical User Interface (GUI) when interacting with XRandR. This is helpful in situations where you want to apply a custom layout without going through menus.

To install the GUI component of XRandR, run the following command in your terminal:

sudo apt install arandr

From there, you can run the GUI by pressing the Win key and typing “arandr.” Doing this will display a small window that will show all the displays that your system currently detects.

Once inside, right-click on the display that you want to modify to bring up a context menu where you can choose a number of options for this specific display.

To change your screen resolution in Ubuntu, select the “Resolutions” option. This will show all the available XRandR dimensions for your Ubuntu system. In my case, I chose “800×600.”

Select “Layout” from ARandR’s menu bar and highlight the “Save As” option. This will also bring up a dialog box where you can write a name for your custom screen layout.

Load your custom screen resolution by selecting “Open” under the “Layout” menu and picking your layout file from the dialog box. Once done, press the green checkmark to apply your new resolution.

Also read: What Is Screen Resolution, and Why Does It Matter?

Frequently Asked Questions

Image credit: Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons All alterations and screenshots by Ramces Red

Ramces Red - Staff Writer

Ramces is a technology writer that lived with computers all his life. A prolific reader and a student of Anthropology, he is an eccentric character that writes articles about Linux and anything *nix.