Anybody Get Zorin To Work On 4K Screens?

I recently got a new 4K TV and its awesome. But I found it odd that Zorin won't provide me any resolution options above 1080P. In other words, 1080P is the highest I can set the OS to. Now this of course could be my fault without realizing it. I have the HDMI signal going through a HDMI switch box before it reaches the TV, and since the switch box is 4 years old, its entirely possible its only a 1080P unit.

I did a quick SPEC check on my Nvidia 640M video card in this notebook, it supposedly supports 4K. I won't be able to purchase a 4K HDMI switch box until next month, but I do plan to do so. What I'd like to know right now, is if anybody has had any success in running Zorin on a 4K screen? Doing searches online seems to only uncover people talking about display scaling. And I also pulled up something about how Ubuntu 18.04 comes with a utility that automatically detects screen and adjusts accordingly.

As you know, Zorin OS 12.4 is Ubuntu 16.04, so obviously I don't get that utility. I am going to search the software center, see whats out there for now. But if my current HDMI switch does indeed only support 10800P, then that could explain why the OS is not able to see my 4K screen. And also as typically typical with screens attached to linux OS's, the hardware info is wrong, Linux thinks I am using a 36" screen when infact its a big 55" screen.

Try Zorin 15 Beta as it is based on Ubuntu 18.04.

Since I was last here, I downloaded an app from the software center, that I believe to be the same app that automatically comes with Ubuntu 18.04. I say this because it looks like the same app I've seen in screenshots. But it too does not display any resolution options above 1920 * 1080. So I am thinking its probably just the outdated switch box. I was just curious if anybody on this forum managed to get 4K working for them. Most people on the web talk about display scaling issues which really is a totally different issue IMO.

And I also did my research into Zorin 15. Its basically a whole new OS, meaning you can't upgrade to it. You would have to wipe the entire hard drive and install clean. Which means I would lose everything I got, plus all my settings, modifications, improvements that I enjoy. I am going to stay on Zorin OS 12.4. Thanks though! And good to see you again Swarf. Hope life is treating you well.

Well your settings could be backed up as could your '/home' folder - Recently I have had to reinstall Zorin 15 Beta and I left my '/home' as is and everything back as it was on previous install. I did it by formatting '/' afresh to install the system to, but I did not install the nvidia drivers (additional drivers) as I prefer nouveau drivers. I just had to re-label the '/home' partition as '/home' for the new partition table - and everything there, including my installed midnight blue theme for the Gnome Shell:



I'm still having sound issues in Zorin with my SoundBlaster Audigy Card which I purchased because the Intel Chipset onboard does not work in Ubuntu 18.04 (17h family or something) other than optical output - which I don't use!) but is working perfectly in FerenOS (kernel 4.18 same as Zorin 15 Beta and Orca does not 'scratch' if you select at login screen unlike Zorin 15 when I can get it to work, Makulu Lindoz 15, Elive 3.0.6 (which uses an older kernel than the others stated here) and Sparky Linux 5.7. Debian at the moment is beating Ubuntu hands down. Part of the sound issue is bloated Pulse Audio - designed by the same guy who invented system.d - bring back sysv.init!
If I don't get much joy out of Audio soon I may have to consider my future with Zorin - I just love it's looks though when tweaked with Gnome Shell Extensions and GTK theming but I need my audio!

OOOOOOO, I like that midnight blue theme, it sexy! I love to know a man who understands why themes are important. But I also agree, sound is equally important. If someone only used their computer to surf the web and check email, and use a computer say for work to run work based software, you may not need sound. But if your computer is going to be your multi-media center, well, you won't get anywhere without sound.

I just got done playing the first episode or the original Doom in Brutal Doom style. I screen recorded it with Kazam. But I hate that software, because using it was a complete waste of time. Played an entire first episode of Doom, and all it recorded was bad frame rate that is unwatchable. Thats the problem with Linux, you just never know what software is going to work, and what software is going to be a real nightmare. Apparently some people recommend RecordMyDesktop for screen capture software, I might look into that, cause Kazam records 1 frame per second for me, total BS!

Take a look at Simple Screen Recorder - my personal favourite is vokoscreen - it's in Software channel on 15 not sure about 12. Or use synaptic to find vokoscreen - I'm pretty sure that I used vokoscreen when capturing my last tutorial vid for my Vimeo account - I use KDEnlive for post-editing.

I shall look up your recommendation with great anticipation

UPDATE: The HDMI switch box did not say on it what type it was, thats why it wasn't obvious. And since I bought it 4-years ago, there was no way I could remember that. So I managed to look up my switch box online, and I have it confirmed, its a 1080P box see...
https://www.amazon.ca/ASSEM-Switch-Remo ... B00F7CYH8W

So, this is the box I will be upgrading too. And FYI, yes my TV supports all these features that the box does.
https://www.amazon.com/ROOFULL-Switch-V ... way&sr=8-4

Hi StarTreker, Glad you are on the way to getting sorted. Forgot, the last screen capture I used was the one from Gnome Extensions website - you need to have 'Gnome Tweaks' installed (formerly 'gnome-tweak-tool') to get it:

I really love how you appreciate nature's beauty, I am an outdoors lover as well, I am just not the biggest ourdoors type though, I am a nerd who likes to be in front of a computer too long, go figure lol. Well, I settled on a different 4K switch box, because this one had better reviews. And judging by the size of that remote, it probably uses tripple A batteries, instead of those expensive lithium CR2032 flat cells lol.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GG ... UTF8&psc=1

SWARF

If you can get a chance, please ask one of the developers of Zorin if Zorin is capable of outputting 4K. Nobody has replied to this thread to let me know if they had an success and I am beginning to have my doubts. I got my 4K box today and hooked it up. Zorin still not providing me resolution options above 1080P. So thinking that maybe it was the cable between the computer and the switch box, I installed a brand new HDMI cable rated for 4K, and Zorin still does not provide resolution options above 1080P.

There is only one other thing that I can do, and I have to wait a day to get the answer. I am questioning weather the cable that goes between the switch box and the TV is too old, so I ordered a new 15 foot cable, it will arrive tomarrow Friday, and then I can switch cables. And if Zorin still does not provide resolution options above 1080P, I think I will be grade a screwed. So I got my finger crossed its just a cable now.

star treker wrote:SWARF

If you can get a chance, please ask one of the developers of Zorin if Zorin is capable of outputting 4K. Nobody has replied to this thread to let me know if they had an success and I am beginning to have my doubts. I got my 4K box today and hooked it up. Zorin still not providing me resolution options above 1080P. So thinking that maybe it was the cable between the computer and the switch box, I installed a brand new HDMI cable rated for 4K, and Zorin still does not provide resolution options above 1080P.

There is only one other thing that I can do, and I have to wait a day to get the answer. I am questioning weather the cable that goes between the switch box and the TV is too old, so I ordered a new 15 foot cable, it will arrive tomarrow Friday, and then I can switch cables. And if Zorin still does not provide resolution options above 1080P, I think I will be grade a screwed. So I got my finger crossed its just a cable now.

Your wish is my command ... Rozan Kobar (Arabian Knights, from Banana Splits!)

https://enchantedworldofrankinbass.blog ... kobar.html

OK, I have another update. I changed out the cable that goes between the switch box and the TV. Holy cow is that a large gauge cable! All the new cables I buy come from the AmazonBasics brand, because I trust them. The 6 foot cable was normal size you would expect. But the 15 foot cable is larger in diameter then a CAT-7 ethernet cable! Which I guess is how the cable can handle high speed 4K, they gotta be thick.

So the bad news is, I still cannot get 4K to the screen from my computer. The only bottleneck I can think of now, is the HDMI port on my notebook. Yes, while its true that my GPU is rated to handle 4K, that doesn't mean that the HDMI port is a 2.0 port, and it needs to be! Because my notebook dates back to 2012, its probably a 1.0 port. But all efforts to find out which version it is, have been to no avail. The only option that I have now that I can see, is to buy a expensive 76 dollar USB 3.0 to HDMI adapter that is completely 4K ready. But I don't have the funds right now. This sucks guys.

Hello!
We can confirm that Zorin OS supports 4k resolutions out of the box. If the new adapter doesn't fix the issue, could you please let me know the make and model number of your laptop?
It could indeed be possible that the laptop's HDMI port or motherboard might not support 4k resolutions, but we might be able to do some research to find out if there's a fix.

AZorin wrote:Hello!
We can confirm that Zorin OS supports 4k resolutions out of the box. If the new adapter doesn't fix the issue, could you please let me know the make and model number of your laptop?
It could indeed be possible that the laptop's HDMI port or motherboard might not support 4k resolutions, but we might be able to do some research to find out if there's a fix.

Hello Azorin!

My notebook is an Acer Aspire V3-771G. Its the one that has the I-7 2670QM CPU, and the Nvidia GT 640M GPU. Mine also has the integrated Intel GPU as well. I upgraded mine to a Samsung 850 Pro SSD drive, and upgraded the memory to 16GB.

Unfortunately the adapter is not working, but I learned a lot so far...

(1) Zorin is able to see the adapter, this is confirmed by using terminal to look for USB devices.

(2) The Plugable HDMI adapter that uses the DisplayLink chipset, is not compatible with the Nvidia GPU driver, nothing I do using DisplayLinks troubleshooting steps on their page will make it work.

(3) If I switch to the crappy Xorg driver, (which I assume uses the Intel GPU cause its so slow?) is the only GPU that the adapter seems to want to attempt to work with.

(4) If I have the adapter plugged into notebook prior to boot, the computer freezes before login to OS can be attempted. This is a common problem for which DisplayLink provides troubleshooting tips regarding the creation of a file. But even in doing so, the file does not allow the computer to reach login regardless.

(5) If I leave the adapter disconnected, I can boot into the OS and login. I can then open the Display configuration dialog, and then plug the adapter in, and within a second or two, the TV will show up in the list. If I click on it, it shows the 4K resolution available because the adapter supports 4K. However, if I enable the TV in the display options, the computer instantly freezes, and only a hard shutdown via the on/off button, will get the computer going again.

(6) Yes I updated the OS, and yes I installed the DisplayLink driver from the chipset manufacturers website. I thought maybe a kernal update might solve issues going with a newer kernal, but the OS does not provide one. And manually trying to upgrade the kernal and force a later version is risky, and I don't want to risk it.

UPDATE: So I was looking at requirements for this adapter on the Amazon page and one of them was power. So I installed an app called USB viewer, then I plugged the adapter into the USB 3.0 port without attaching any screens to it. As you can see, it requires 504MA. Now I also checked my keyboard and mouse, both of them require 500MA, and I have a bunch of other devices plugged into hubs as well as a powered 2.0 hub, and a passive 3.0 hub.

I am wondering if I am running into a USB power bottleneck here. I could not find out what my notebook's max USB power output was in my research, Acer does not provide that information. Is it possible that drawing too much power can cause the computer to freeze? The only way I am going to be able to test this is to spend more money still and buy a powered USB3.0 hub.

OK, after further testing, I am giving up. This computer is just too dam ancient to utilize 4K. But the adapter was designed for this very purpose, to support 4K transfer when the computer is too old to do it on its own. Well, its completely fallen on its face big time. Of course the company who made the adapter is gonna make me feel like a fool cause they say all over made for Windows and Mac, and Chrome OS only. Well how convenient!

I actually tried to use lower resolutions! While doing more research today, I learned that the Intel integrated HD 3000 graphics chipset has a max supporting resolution of 2500x1600. So using help guides to use Xrandr in terminal, I went to add the missing resolution, as it can't be found in the displays list. I tried to add the 2500x1600 resolution. I tried 60 herts first, it froze the computer. So then I tried 30 hertz after the restart, froze the computer.

So then I was like, lets just see if this adapter is worth anything at all. So I went back into the Displays configuration, where it shows 4K resolution, and then a bunch of resolutions bellow 4K, which the lower resolutions start at 1080P. So I chose to pipe 1080P resolution through the adapter that supposedly supports 2K and 4K resolutions. I kid you not, the fricking thing froze my computer again at 1080P!

I don't know if its a power related issue or not. But in my experience 1080P is very easy to drive, it doesn't require the full capbilities of the chipset, nor the full speeds capable of the HDMI cables I am using. It should just freaking do it. But the adapter is just a POS, and I am going to see if I can return it with no cost to me. If its going to cost me money in the return, then I will just keep the dam thing.

So what is my final plan if I keep it? Well, its supposed to support Windows right? Cause every software and hardware manufacture is always so far up Windows a** right? Well, its called buy a second hard drive, preferable an SSD, stick it in the 2nd drive bay slot in my notebook, install Windows 7 on it, and pray the stupid adapter works.

What a freaking nightmare...

Last Update:

I issued a return and they did provide a shipping label. The adapter is packaged back up, and I will be able to send it in the mail on Monday. Truth is, I could use some extra ports for USB 3.0, so I am going to go ahead and get that powered USB hub soon. If anybody reading this is planning to use 4K, make sure you have a brand new computer. Because it doesn't matter what you do, you will NEVER get 4K to function on an old computer.