display "stretched"

[brian]

brian wrote:
> Kevin J. Cummings wrote:
>> brian wrote:
>>> Since upgrading to 10 a few weeks ago, I've occasionally logged in to 
>>> find the display stretched out of shape. Everything appears too tall 
>>> & thin. Logging out and back in has always fixed the problem.
>>>
>>> I've gone through the logs but I really don't know what I should be 
>>> looking for, nor even what information I might post to this list to 
>>> help in diagnosing the issue other than my video card info. Can 
>>> anyone give me some pointers on what to look for, or what I can 
>>> provide to help solve this?
>>
>> I can't say ofhand whatis causing it, but if you have access to a 
>> "stretched" terminal window, what does xrandr say about the display, 
>> and can you use it to return it to the proper size?
> 
> Thanks. Yeah, when this happens, I can easily open a terminal. Thanks 
> for the tip. I've just saved the output (I'll print it here, fwiw) so i 
> can compare the next time this happens. And I'll go through the man page 
> to figure out how to (try to) reset the dims.
> 
> I'd really like to know, though, if there's something in a log that 
> might provide a clue as to why it's happening.
> 
> This is the current output (the screen is fine). I doubt there's 
> anything here to suggest what the problem might be.
> 
> $ xrandr
> Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1152 x 864, maximum 1152 x 864
> default connected 1152x864+0+0 0mm x 0mm
>    1152x864       60.0*
>    1024x768       70.0     60.0
>    1024x576       60.0
>    960x600        60.0
>    960x540        60.0
>    800x600        60.0     56.0
>    768x576        60.0
>    720x576        60.0
>    856x480        60.0
>    800x480        60.0
>    720x480        61.0
>    640x480        67.0     60.0
>    720x400        70.0
>    512x384        60.0
>    400x300        60.0
>    320x240        61.0
> 

OK, so this has just happened again so I took the opportunity to see 
what xrandr had to say about it.

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 240, current 1360 x 864, maximum 1360 x 864
default connected 1360x864+0+0 0mm x 0mm
    1360x768       60.0
    1152x864       60.0
    1024x768       70.0     60.0
    1024x576       60.0
    960x600        60.0
    960x540        60.0
    800x600        60.0     56.0
    768x576        60.0
    720x576        60.0
    856x480        60.0
    800x480        60.0
    720x480        61.0
    640x480        60.0
    512x384        60.0
    400x300        60.0
    320x240        61.0
    1360x864       60.0*

Two odd (to me) things: it's suggesting that it's the horizontal measure 
that's changed, though what I'm seeing is a display that's very much 
stretched vertically, and it's listed this new pair last, below the 
smallest one.

I tried resetting using xrandr:

$ xrandr --fb 1152x864
xrandr: specified screen 1152x864 not large enough for output default 
(1360x864+0+0)

In the end, logging out and back in has fixed things, as usual.