Resolution stuck at 1024x768

Howdy all… inxi below. System formerly had a Radeon R7-350 with 1GB RAM, and all was well. GPU died and was replaced with a Radeon R7-350 with 4GB RAM. Note that it is exactly the same card (and both Dell OEM) except for the amount of RAM. The new GPU is confirmed 100% working.

The old card had been running at 1280x1024 at 75Hz (for five years).

Since the swap the max resolution is 1024x768 at 60Hz.
The higher options are absent, as if the driver isn’t loading. Also, Fedora takes a lot longer to reach the desktop, and sometimes spits up a screen of static (the sort one gets from wrong driver) at some random point before arriving at the desktop (once there, everything is fine, except resolution).

So I’m guessing the driver lost its moorings and no longer loads, but I have no idea how to fix it. Current on updates, did not help. (I definitely do not want to do a reinstall.)

Help! and thanks in advance for your time. Here’s all the system yadda-yadda:

rez@localhost:~$ inxi -Fzx
System:
  Kernel: 6.13.6-200.fc41.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.3 Distro: Fedora Linux 41 (KDE Plasma)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: LENOVO product: 4351FE5 v: ThinkStation S30
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: LENOVO v: SDK0E50510 PRO serial: <superuser required>
    BIOS: LENOVO v: A2KT68AUS date: 02/10/2020
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325
    charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Xeon E5-1620 v2 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Ivy Bridge rev: 4 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 10 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3406 min/max: 1200/3900 cores: 1: 3406 2: 3406 3: 3406
    4: 3406 5: 3406 6: 3406 7: 3406 8: 3406 bogomips: 59194
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx

Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Oland XT [Radeon HD 8670 / R5
    340X OEM R7 250/350/350X OEM] vendor: Dell driver: radeon v: kernel
    arch: GCN-1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 temp: 37.0 C
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: radeon
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: radeon
    resolution: 1024x768~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: kms_swrast,swrast platforms:
    active: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless inactive: N/A
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 25.0.1 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes
    renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7 256 bits)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.304 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland devices: 1
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr

Post

cat /proc/cmdline

FYI I fixed your post to use preformatted text for the inxi output.
Can you run inxi -Fzxx notice two x options that provide a little more info. We are missing which desktop you are running.

Thank you, I did not realize that about the formatting. Anyway! this is the full output, this time did not trim the apparently irrelevant. Also took it about 5 minutes to reach the desktop (normally would be about 2 minutes, it’s on spinning rust) and obviously taste-tested 640x480 along the way, flashed a giant mouse pointer.

rez@localhost:~$ inxi -Fzxx
System:
  Kernel: 6.13.6-200.fc41.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.3 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: SDDM
    Distro: Fedora Linux 41 (KDE Plasma)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: LENOVO product: 4351FE5 v: ThinkStation S30
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 7 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: LENOVO v: SDK0E50510 PRO serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: LENOVO_BI_A2 BIOS: LENOVO v: A2KT68AUS date: 02/10/2020
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325
    serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Xeon E5-1620 v2 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Ivy Bridge rev: 4 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 10 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1200 min/max: 1200/3900 cores: 1: 1200 2: 1200 3: 1200
    4: 1200 5: 1200 6: 1200 7: 1200 8: 1200 bogomips: 59196
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Oland XT [Radeon HD 8670 / R5
    340X OEM R7 250/350/350X OEM] vendor: Dell driver: radeon v: kernel
    arch: GCN-1 pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8 ports: active: DVI-I-1
    empty: DP-1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:6610 temp: 38.0 C
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: radeon
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: radeon display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 res: 1024x768 hz: 60 size: N/A
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: swrast
    wayland: drv: swrast x11: drv: swrast
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 25.0.1 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes
    renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7 256 bits) device-ID: ffffffff:ffffffff
    display-ID: :0.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.304 surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 0 type: cpu
    driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel C600/X79 series High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1d20
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Oland/Hainan/Cape
    Verde/Pitcairn HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7000 Series] vendor: Dell
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8
    bus-ID: 04:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aab0
  API: ALSA v: k6.13.6-200.fc41.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.2.7 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e
    v: kernel port: f020 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:1502
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 20.8 GiB (8.9%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD2500BEKT-75PVMT0
    size: 232.89 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 68.35 GiB used: 15.43 GiB (22.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0
    mapped: fedora_localhost--live-root
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 373 MiB (38.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-3: /home size: 135.36 GiB used: 5.01 GiB (3.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-2
    mapped: fedora_localhost--live-home
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 23.29 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    dev: /dev/dm-1 mapped: fedora_localhost--live-swap
  ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 26.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 39.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 64 GiB available: 62.7 GiB used: 3.42 GiB (5.5%)
  Processes: 315 Power: uptime: 11m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 256
    target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm Compilers: gcc: 14.2.1
    Shell: Bash v: 5.2.32 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.37

As to the other

rez@localhost:~$ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=(hd0,msdos1)/vmlinuz-6.13.6-200.fc41.x86_64 root=/dev/mapper/fedora_localhost--live-root ro resume=
/dev/mapper/fedora_localhost--live-swap rd.lvm.lv=fedora_localhost-live/root rd.lvm.lv=fedora_localhost-live/s
wap rhgb quiet

This means exactly nothing to me. Never before had any reason to even look in there.

Thanks, all!

Do you have your monitor cable plugged in to your graphics card or in to your motherboard?

Are you using a VGA cable? If so, you may need a HDMI or DP cable as VGA can technically do 1080p but does not pass EDID data.

Strange, as I have only a VGA connection and it does pass EDID data.

I looked it up and yes, EDID was first implemented in VGA. Since then there have been EDID 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.0, E-EDID and Display ID. Understanding EDID - Extended Display Identification Data | Extron

The linked articles goes into some problem solving and why displays may not be always recognised at the correct resolution.

So while I was technically incorrect, the VGA cable as related to the other components may still be relevant.

My question is do you use any hdmi output or you use direct graphic card output

Hello all, welcome to my video party! I see that I need to explain a bit more:

System started with Fedora 32 and a VisionTek Radeon 5450 1GB. This GPU died somewhere around F38, and was replaced by the R7-350 1GB, and all was well. Upgraded to F41 last fall, and all was well. Then the R7-350 1GB died and was replaced by the R7-350 4GB, which should have likewise been seamless, because it’s the identical card other than having more RAM.

It uses a DVI-I to VGA adapter and from there goes through a KVM to the monitor. It’s been working fine this way for five years. (If a DVI adapter doesn’t work, you get no signal at all.)

This PC runs many OSs (it has a hotswap bay and a stack of HDDs, I do not dual boot). Windows 10 still does 1280x1024 at 75Hz. However, several species of linux (MintDE, PCLOS, Debian) all fail the same way, and will only do 1024x768 at 60Hz. But on that box I use Fedora the most, so it’s the one I want to work.

I just did a fresh install on another HDD, Fedora 41 KDE, and it still fails the same way. Will only do 1024x768 at 60Hz. So it’s nothing that went wrong with my old install, it’s something the video driver does not like about this card, or doesn’t see correctly (maybe confused by more RAM and can’t address it properly, which would also explain the occasional static-screen during startup, or maybe doesn’t recognize the firmware version, which could lead to the RAM not being addressed properly).

Have I found a driver bug??

So I then moved that freshly-installed F41 to the other PC that uses the same KVM and monitor, and it will do 1280x1024 no problem. (Tho it initially came up at 640x480 and 200% scaling!) This one is HDMI with a VGA adapter and has onboard Intel video.

So as above I’m starting to think I’ve run into a bug in the AMD video driver specific to the amount of RAM on this Dell OEM R7-350, or specific to the firmware version, rather than anything wrong with Fedora itself. (Everything works fine in Windows.) Any ideas on how else I could test this, or anyone I should report it to?

I guess next I will look at firmware version on this card, vs. an identical card I have in another box, that does work correctly, and see if there’s an update to be had, preferably matching the one I know works.

[I have PCLinuxOS/KDE on a Dell with another R7-350 4GB, and that’s been running fine for 6 years.]

Thank you all for coming, and I hope you enjoyed the party!

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So I rooted around in my parts box and came out with an R7-250 2GB, and swapped it for the R7-350 4GB, and guess what, now Fedora has proper resolution again. I don’t understand this; they should use the same driver.

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Addendum: experiments with a few other distros (and some other random AMD GPUs) have made me think the real problem is that there’s a gap in the AMD driver, and that certain AMD cards are simply not supported (they should be, but they’re not). The driver appears to load and correctly IDs the card, but only offers default resolution. If a given card fails this way, it fails for every distro I checked. (PCLOS, Fedora, OpenMandriva, Mint DE, Debian)

One of these days I need to go through my entire parts bin and determine exactly which are affected, then send a report off to whoever is in charge of these things.

I dunno. Is “incomplete driver” a solution??