'Frequency Out of Range' fix for Ubuntu Dapper

Saturday, September 30, 2006

If you have ever been messing around with your settings, or installed an update to a kernel or program, and after a reboot your monitor displays an Out of Range error, the fix is really quite simple.

When you boot your computer, select the recovery mode for the kernel you are using (ie: 2.6.15-27-686) If Ubuntu is the only operating system on your machine, you will have to press ESC as soon as the GRUB Bootloader 1.5 line displays in order to get into Grub options.

Now your Ubuntu will load only the bare minimum drivers needed to give you a command line prompt (similar to terminal) and you will be in your home directory (ie: user@user-desktop: $ )

now we are going to reconfigure xserver to force it to stay in range of your monitor(s)' frequency using this command:

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Most of the settings are pretty self explainitory, but if in doubt, usually the default settings are a safe bet.

After configuring your hardware, you will be asked to configure your monitor ... there will be a screen that will tell you the merits of each of the three config options -- Simple, Medium, and Advanced -- you want to select 'Advanced'

For your Horizontal refresh rate, set as '60-70' (without the quotes)

Set your Vertical refresh rate as '70-160' (without the quotes)

** these values should be suitable for 90% of all modern monitors, but if in doubt, check your monitors specs either in your manual or at the manufacturer's website.

Finish the xserver configuration wizard, and reboot your computer. Your monitor should now be forced to stay within range.

NOTE: Interestingly enough, this fix also works for correcting the issue when exiting fullscreen mode in VMWare Server. (Ubuntu host / Windows guest)

If your Horizontal refresh is set lower than 60Hz, your screen will go nuts after exiting fullscreen, but by running the xserver-xorg configuration wizard and jacking the horizontal refresh rate to 60-70hz, you will be able to seemlessly toggle between Linux and Windows running in your VMWare server.