[ensiform]

It isn't a cable, it is the laptop screen itself.

[valtam]

Can you get 1440x900 without the proprietary driver? Do you need the driver for a reason? Or is the nouveau driver adequate for your needs?

[ensiform]

This was answered before:

I had tried it prior to using the NVIDIA driver but 1440x900 wasn't even listed at that time and had a pain of a time getting it manually added.  Back then there were other options now it only seems to list 1920x1200 for some reason.

And considering using the real nvidia driver is preferred, why wouldn't I want to use it?  Plus this resolution was available on Windows with NVIDIA so I'm a little puzzled why I can't get this to work still.

[valtam]

And considering using the real nvidia driver is preferred, why wouldn't I want to use it?

Preferred doesn't always translate to best in linux. Sometimes, the open source drivers outperform the proprietary ones, which is why I would still like to know why you need the proprietary driver. This is a graphics chip from 2005, what modern games, rendering etc do you intend to run on a 11 year old gpu?

Plus this resolution was available on Windows with NVIDIA so I'm a little puzzled why I can't get this to work still.

Because you cannot compare the way Windows and Linux drivers are written and maintained.

[ensiform]

It's a family PC for firefox and thunderbird so no games really.  But considering the resolution I want doesn't show up at all with Nouveau in the Display menu when not using NVIDIA drivers it doesn't help me to use that either.  Would also be nice to allow html5 and flash player video to work as best as they can and a native driver would probably be the best for those, no?

IMO you can compare them because the outcome being the same is what is expected and warranted.

[valtam]

HTML5 and Flash won't work any differently with or without a video driver on linux. In linux, a good cpu & gpu, 2Gb+ ram, usually dictates video performance results. Your overall system spec is low, so I wouldn't expect outstanding results. There are ofc ways around this, Minitube for example may be better for Youtube content watching.

Getting custom resolutions on legacy gpu's is not simple in some cases.
I think your best bet would be to work through this article - https://samuelmartin.wordpress.com/2012/...ntu-12-04/

[torreydale]

Jerry is correct.  Looking at the age and specs of that computer, advancing to LL 3.0 might have been an ambitious move.  If LL 2.x doesn't perform better for you, it might behoove you to go to an LXDE based distro like LXLE or PeppermintOS.  Even with those, I would encourage you to choose one that is based on Ubuntu 14.04, not 16.04.  You'll still be supported until April 2019. 

If it were me, that's what I would do.  I'd try LL 2.6, and if that didn't suffice, I'd choose LXLE 14.04.3.  I'd also upgrade to 2GB of RAM, which I believe is the maximum for that computer.  You should be able to get that on eBay for $15 or less including shipping.