Connecting a new monitor to my notebook results to 1024x768 only. xrandr -q show only these possible modes xrandr -q Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2074 x 1400, maximum 8192 x 8192 LVDS1 connected 1024x768+768+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 246mm x 185mm 1024x768 50.00*+ 60.00 40.00 800x600 60.32 56.25 640x480 60.00 59.94 VGA1 connected 1024x768+0+0 left (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 So we need manualy add new mode (higher resolution) gtf 1400 1050 59.9 # 1400x1050 @ 59.90 Hz (GTF) hsync: 65.11 kHz; pclk: 122.41 MHz Modeline "1400x1050_59.90" 122.41 1400 1488 1640 1880 1050 1051 1054 1087 -HSync +Vsync cvt gtf 1400 1050 60 # 1400x1050 59.98 Hz (CVT 1.47M3) hsync: 65.32 kHz; pclk: 121.75 MHz Modeline "1400x1050_60.00" 121.75 1400 1488 1632 1864 1050 1053 1057 1089 -hsync +vsync We simply add the generated line with better description then "1400x1050_60.blabla" ex. "Lovely" mode xrandr --newmode "Lovely" 122.41 1400 1488 1640 1880 1050 1051 1054 1087 -HSync +Vsync xrandr --addmode VGA1 "Lovely" Now we can easily select Lovely mode.