The title describes my problem in brief. Here are the slightly more involved details:
RaspiOS Bookworm works fine at full resolution on some identical older monitors I happen to have knocking about (of which more below), as does Ubuntu 24.04, which I run from a NVME SSD using one of the GeeekPi hats - no problems whatsoever. A standard Pi cooling fan is installed by the way, and heatsinks on the SSD. All pretty sensible stuff.
Indeed, neither of these OSes when plugged in directly to a huge, ultra-modern Samsung 32:9 ultra-wide monitor at its native 5120x1440 resolution @ 120 Hz (though I use it mainly for Windows 10/11) experiences any problems. Even Kali works properly on this monitor! - just by default, without messing with any setup beyond the usual steps one would expect (like running sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade regularly). (Though I should mention I've noticed some glitching video playback in Firefox which I suspect has something to do with using WI-C100 bluetooth buds for the audio).
But having used RPI Imager to make an image of Kali (and to do this, I use a good quality USB3 to NVME converter usually on my Windows computer, just as for the other OSes), neither Raspberry Pi 5 (I couldn't resist buying two of them, since I had these identical older monitors lying around) will allow any other resolution than 640x480.
So what are these monitors? Well, they may be old (2007/2008), but they were top-notch in their day (a 2 ms response time was one of their major selling points as I recall): the venerable Samsung SyncMaster 226BW. I actually bought three and had them arranged in an array for flight-sims and so on. Showing my age a bit, there.
The only "odd" thing about them is they aren't quite full HD, instead topping out at 1680x1050, and are equipped with only DVI-D and VGA ports - no HDMI as it was just emerging as a standard consumer feature back then. But this hasn't ever proved a problem before since I simply use DVI-D to HDMI adapters plugged into each of them (currently trying out these ones: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CXY79KR? ... asin_title).
And naturally, I have done the "obvious things" like swapping out different cables and adapters, etc, with no success.
When booted into Kali XFCE (logged in as the default kali user account) in that horrible low resolution and attempting to change it in the Display page of Settings, I am greeted by a window with the following info:
default (which refers to the profile being used - and can't be changed despite my efforts to use the GUI to add some new profiles)
Resolution: 640x480* 4:3
Scale: 1x
Refresh rate: 0.00 Hz (yes zero! Even though the monitor is clearly working at what I would imagine would be about 60 Hz)
Rotation: None
Reflection: None
There's an Advanced tab but it offers no promising options.
So I tried the following after opening a user terminal because I reckon in my gut that this must be a Kali / XFCE problem rather than a Pi 5 problem; and I attempted to add a custom resolution via the cvt and xrandr commands (and besides, I saw the method posted on some website and it seemed promising). Here's the consequent to-ing and fro-ing:
Does it work? No. But what's interesting perhaps is when, as you can see, I repeat the command, I get a different, more detailed output. Does this help? I checked the figures in the back of the the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW manual, and they do match up, despite the procedure not working for me:
Display Mode: VESA, 1680 X 1050
Horizonta Frequency (kHz): 65,290
Vertical Frequency (Hz): 59,954
Pixel Clock (MHz): 146,250
Sync Polarity: (H/V): -/+
So that's the state of play. I promise undying love to anyone who can help me further / solve this problem.
RaspiOS Bookworm works fine at full resolution on some identical older monitors I happen to have knocking about (of which more below), as does Ubuntu 24.04, which I run from a NVME SSD using one of the GeeekPi hats - no problems whatsoever. A standard Pi cooling fan is installed by the way, and heatsinks on the SSD. All pretty sensible stuff.
Indeed, neither of these OSes when plugged in directly to a huge, ultra-modern Samsung 32:9 ultra-wide monitor at its native 5120x1440 resolution @ 120 Hz (though I use it mainly for Windows 10/11) experiences any problems. Even Kali works properly on this monitor! - just by default, without messing with any setup beyond the usual steps one would expect (like running sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade regularly). (Though I should mention I've noticed some glitching video playback in Firefox which I suspect has something to do with using WI-C100 bluetooth buds for the audio).
But having used RPI Imager to make an image of Kali (and to do this, I use a good quality USB3 to NVME converter usually on my Windows computer, just as for the other OSes), neither Raspberry Pi 5 (I couldn't resist buying two of them, since I had these identical older monitors lying around) will allow any other resolution than 640x480.
So what are these monitors? Well, they may be old (2007/2008), but they were top-notch in their day (a 2 ms response time was one of their major selling points as I recall): the venerable Samsung SyncMaster 226BW. I actually bought three and had them arranged in an array for flight-sims and so on. Showing my age a bit, there.
The only "odd" thing about them is they aren't quite full HD, instead topping out at 1680x1050, and are equipped with only DVI-D and VGA ports - no HDMI as it was just emerging as a standard consumer feature back then. But this hasn't ever proved a problem before since I simply use DVI-D to HDMI adapters plugged into each of them (currently trying out these ones: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CXY79KR? ... asin_title).
And naturally, I have done the "obvious things" like swapping out different cables and adapters, etc, with no success.
When booted into Kali XFCE (logged in as the default kali user account) in that horrible low resolution and attempting to change it in the Display page of Settings, I am greeted by a window with the following info:
default (which refers to the profile being used - and can't be changed despite my efforts to use the GUI to add some new profiles)
Resolution: 640x480* 4:3
Scale: 1x
Refresh rate: 0.00 Hz (yes zero! Even though the monitor is clearly working at what I would imagine would be about 60 Hz)
Rotation: None
Reflection: None
There's an Advanced tab but it offers no promising options.
So I tried the following after opening a user terminal because I reckon in my gut that this must be a Kali / XFCE problem rather than a Pi 5 problem; and I attempted to add a custom resolution via the cvt and xrandr commands (and besides, I saw the method posted on some website and it seemed promising). Here's the consequent to-ing and fro-ing:
Code:
┌──(kali㉿rpi5-2)-[~] └─$ cvt 1680 1050 60# 1680x1050 59.95 Hz (CVT 1.76MA) hsync: 65.29 kHz; pclk: 146.25 MHzModeline "1680x1050_60.00" 146.25 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync ┌──(kali㉿rpi5-2)-[~]└─$ xrandr --newmode "1680x1050_60.00" 146.25 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsyncxrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default ┌──(kali㉿rpi5-2)-[~]└─$ xrandr --addmode screenname 1680x1050_60.00xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output defaultxrandr: cannot find output "screenname"──(kali㉿rpi5-2)-[~]└─$ xrandr --newmode "1680x1050_60.00" 146.25 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsyncxrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output defaultX Error of failed request: BadName (named color or font does not exist) Major opcode of failed request: 140 (RANDR) Minor opcode of failed request: 16 (RRCreateMode) Serial number of failed request: 19 Current serial number in output stream: 19Code:
xrandr --newmodeDisplay Mode: VESA, 1680 X 1050
Horizonta Frequency (kHz): 65,290
Vertical Frequency (Hz): 59,954
Pixel Clock (MHz): 146,250
Sync Polarity: (H/V): -/+
So that's the state of play. I promise undying love to anyone who can help me further / solve this problem.
Statistics: Posted by tfrond — Wed Oct 16, 2024 10:51 am