Allow wide resolution on intel graphics laptop

Written by Solène, on 22 November 2017.
Tags: #hardware

I just received a wide screen with a 2560x1080 resolution but xrandr wasn’t allowing me to use it. The intel graphics specifications say that I should be able to go up to 4096xsomething so it’s a software problem.

Generate the informations you need with the gtf command:

$ gtf 2560 1080 59.9

Keep the numbers after the resolution name between quotes, so in Modeline "2560x1080_59.90" 230.37 2560 2728 3000 3440 1080 1081 1084 1118 -HSync +Vsync keep only 230.37 2560 2728 3000 3440 1080 1081 1084 1118 -HSync +Vsync

Now add the new resolution and make it available to your output (mine is HDMI2):

$ xrandr --newmode "2560x1080" 230.37 2560 2728 3000 3440 1080 1081 1084 1118 -HSync +Vsync
$ xrandr --addmode HDMI2 2560x1080

You can now use this mode with arandr using the GUI or with xrandr by typing xrandr --output HDMI1 --mode 2560x1080

You will need to set the new mode each time the system start. I added the 2 lines in my ~/.xsession file which starts stumpwm.