Nvidia legacy driver supports only one resolution

[DR77]

I have installed Nvidia legacy driver 390.157 but it only supports one resolution - the native resolution for my laptop screen 1920x1080. On other hand the open source driver nouveau supports multiple resolutions. Why is this happening and can i add additional resolutions to Nvidia legacy driver, like 1280x720 resolution?

System info:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-25-amd64 [6.1.106-3] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-6.1.0-25-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
    init=/lib/systemd/systemd
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.26.0 Distro: MX-23.4_x64 Libretto January 21  2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP EliteBook 8560w v: A0001D02
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1631 v: KBC Version 01.39 serial: <superuser required>
    BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: 68SVD Ver. F.22 date: 01/05/2012
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 0% condition: 28.3/28.3 Wh (100.0%) volts: 4.9 min: 14.8
    model: Hewlett-Packard Primary type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: not charging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-2820QM bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge gen: core 2 level: v2
    built: 2010-12 process: Intel 32nm family: 6 model-id: 0x2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 0x2F
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 256 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 8 MiB desc: 1x8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 966 high: 1273 min/max: 800/3400 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: conservative cores: 1: 1273 2: 1081 3: 1072 4: 798 5: 952 6: 903 7: 852 8: 800
    bogomips: 36714
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP: conditional; RSB
    filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GF108GLM [Quadro 1000M] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: nvidia v: 390.157
    non-free: series: 390.xx+ status: legacy-active (EOL~late 2022) arch: Fermi code: GF1xx
    process: 40/28nm built: 2010-16 pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:0dfa class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: IMC Networks USB2.0-Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-1.4:4
    chip-ID: 13d3:5125 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.00x11.26") s-diag: 583mm (22.95")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142 size: 344x193mm (13.54x7.6")
    diag: 394mm (15.53") modes: N/A
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.157 renderer: Quadro 1000M/PCIe/SSE2 direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard 6
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1c20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0bea class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-25-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: 5020 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:1502 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl
    pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 25:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:0085 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: HP Broadcom 2070 Bluetooth Combo type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 2-1.6:5
    chip-ID: 03f0:231d class-ID: fe01
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 1.2 lmp-v: 2.1
    sub-v: 4203 hci-v: 2.1 rev: 132
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 64:1 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, audio, telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.02 TiB used: 503.35 GiB (48.2%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Kingston model: SA400S37120G size: 111.79 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: B1D1 scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS541010B7E610 size: 931.51 GiB
    block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter>
    rev: 1A01 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 111.29 GiB size: 108.98 GiB (97.93%) used: 52.73 GiB (48.4%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/dm-0 maj-min: 253:0 mapped: luks-<filter>
  ID-2: /boot raw-size: 500 MiB size: 458.3 MiB (91.67%) used: 277.7 MiB (60.6%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2.02 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 51 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 3112 libs: 1716 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cloudflare-client.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates non-free-firmware non-free contrib main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/element-io.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/element-io-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.element.io/debian/ default main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-edge.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/edge/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://debian.mur.at/mx-linux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-bookworm.sources
    1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian bookworm main
Info:
  Processes: 280 Uptime: 1h 31m wakeups: 1 Memory: 7.71 GiB used: 3.58 GiB (46.4%) Init: systemd
  v: 252 target: graphical (5) default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

[Stevo]

Does the Nvidia Settings application also show only one resolution?

[DR77]

No, nvidia settings panel show more resolutions, but if i change the resolution from it almost one third of the right side and bottom side goes out of screen.

[Stevo]

Hmmm... what's the contents of any files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ that have "nvidia" in the file name? There should only be text files in there, so a text editor should be able to open it.

[DR77]

I have only these two files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/: 20-synaptics.conf, 30-touchpad-libinput.conf, but i don't think they are related in any way to the resolution.

[Stevo]

At least with the MX 23 535 Nvidia driver installer, we get a file in there:

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$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf 

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Section "Device"
     Identifier "Nvidia Card"
     Driver "nvidia"
     VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
     Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
EndSection

And I think all kinds of parameters like resolutions can be added.

Did you use the MX Nvidia Installer to install the driver?

[DR77]

Yes, i used MX Nvidia Installer to install the driver. How to generate this file and add resolutions to it?