This is how I came to a solution.
I took help from this article.
- We need to generate a modeline
We do so by going into terminal and typing “gtf x y r” where x is the horizontal resolution, y is the vertical resolution and r is the refresh rate (which is largely irrelevant since LCDs are the norm). So for example, mine was:
gtf 1024 768 85
Once you’ve executed the command you’ll be presented with something like this
abhishek@abhishek:~$ gtf 1024 768 85
# 1024x768 @ 85.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 68.60 kHz; pclk: 94.39 MHz
Modeline "1024x768_85.00" 94.39 1024 1088 1200 1376 768 769 772 807 -HSync +Vsync
abhishek@abhishek:~$
We’re only interested in the second half, so make a note of everything from modeline onwards.
- We need to find the display interface name
In the terminal type: xrandr
This will give you something along the lines of:
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
VGA-1 connected primary 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 60.00*
800x600 60.32 56.25
848x480 60.00
640x480 59.94
DVI-D-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
abhishek@abhishek:~$
The display interface name is the bit before ‘connected’ so in this case ‘VGA-1’. Make a note of yours.
- Creating the 10-monitor.conf
In order to create our spangly new resolution we need to create /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf
So in the terminal run:
sudo vi /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf
This will open a blank text file, into which you want to paste the following:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
<INSERT MODELINE HERE>
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "<INSERT DEVICE HERE>"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "<INSERT MODENAME HERE>"
EndSubSection
EndSection
The modename is the bit in quotes (so "1024x768_85" in our earlier example). You can add additional resolutions that already exist in the list xandr shows just by putting them in quotes and adding them to the end of the modes line.
So for reference, mine looks like this:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
Modeline "1024x768_85.00" 94.39 1024 1088 1200 1376 768 769 772 807 -HSync +Vsync
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "VGA-1"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768_85.00"
EndSubSection
EndSection
And you’re done!
Once you’ve saved 10-monitor.conf in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/, restart your computer and you should have your brand new resolution available and set as default.
If you get a black screen on restarting, don’t panic, it probably means a typo or other syntax error of some description.
While the computer’s on, hit ctrl+alt+F1 to go into a terminal and run:
sudo rm /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf
Then restart and you’ll be back to defaults! Hope this saves someone some time and hair-pulling!
This indeed worked for me... And I put this setup of mine here, so that I can refer back to this later in the future... And if in case the link breaks, then there shall be a copy of the method in my answer full explanation as found in the source article...