Linux Mint (Lisa) 1680 x 1050 resolution

By default (as I'm accustomed to with Linux distros) the very useful (to me) resolution of 1680 x 1050 (@60Hz) is not supported. This could be because the Samsung SyncMaster 22" is not a very popular monitor... Here's how to get it to work with Linux Mint 12 (codename Lisa)

Type the following on a terminal:

inxi -Gx

This should show your graphics card info, for example:

Graphics: Card: ATI RV670PRO [Radeon HD 3850] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org 1.10.4 drivers ati, radeon unloaded: fbdev,vesa Resolution: 1024x768@60.0hz
GLX Renderer Gallium 0.4 on AMD RV670 GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 7.11 Direct Rendering Yes

Then type this:

xrandr

Running xrandr gives us a bunch of info about the currently supported resolutions. Note that 1680x1050 is not there:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, mximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-0 unknown connection (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1360x768 59.8
..................
320x240 120.1
DIN disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-1 connected 1025x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 60.0*
..................
640x480 59.9

Then type this:

cvt 1680 1050 60.0Hz

This establishes an X11 "modeline":

# 1680x1050 59.95 Hz (CVT 1.76MA) hsync: 65.29 kHz; pclk: 146.25 Mhz
Modeline "1680x1050_60.00" 146.25 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync

Now let's add this new mode:

xrandr --newmode @1680x1050_60.00@ 146.25 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode DVI-1 @1680x1050_60.00@

Note: if you use CRT, you have to replace DVI-1 above.

That's it! Now you should have this new display resolution available under Menu -> System Tools -> System Settings -> Displays -> Resolution.

Enjoy the wonderful Linux Mint 12 experience :)