Since a recent update, my screen resolution has changed and everything is super-small. I can't find any way to get it back to the way it was.
I am using HP ZBook Power 16 inch G11 laptop.
This sounds like Noveau fallback driver for Nvidia - meaning the GPU drivers are not loading.
Are you using Nvidia?
Does
sudo lshw -C video
show you as on the Noveau fallback: llvmpipe?
If so, it means the kernel did not bind to the Nvidia driver module.
You can rollback the Kernel using the Grub Menu to the previous working kernel to resolve - which is what I would recommend.
2 Likes
Thank you for your prompt reply, Aravisian. After entering what you suggest in the Terminal, this is what came up:
*-display
description: 3D controller
product: AD106GLM [RTX 3000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU]
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: a1
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
resources: iomemory:400-3ff iomemory:420-41f irq:199 memory:8e000000-8effffff memory:4000000000-41ffffffff memory:4200000000-4201ffffff ioport:3000(size=128) memory:8f000000-8f07ffff
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Meteor Lake-P [Intel Arc Graphics]
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
logical name: /dev/fb0
version: 08
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom fb
configuration: depth=32 driver=i915 latency=0 mode=2560x1600 resolution=2560,1600 visual=truecolor xres=2560 yres=1600
resources: iomemory:520-51f iomemory:420-41f irq:218 memory:5228000000-5228ffffff memory:4210000000-421fffffff memory:c0000-dffff memory:4202000000-4208ffffff
As usual, this means less than nothing (if that's scientifically possible!) to me as a kindergarten graduate of geek stuff.
Can you boot to the Grub Menu by tapping esc or tab at boot to force the Grub Menu to appear, then arrow key down to Advanced Options for Zorin and select the earlier kernel to boot from?
That should probably two ticks down with the Down Arrow Key.
I think that you are one of many victims of the latest 7.0 kernel, which is not binding to Nvidia, balking at Virtualbox and a variety of other issues.
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I have already gone back to the previous kernel, because after the update, my mouse cursor disappeared again, and this was the remedy the last time it happened. Since I made this post earlier today, the screen resolution seems to have righted itself. I think it is somehow related to connecting the laptop to the TV via HDMI cable - I suddenly remembered that I used to get problems with it messing with the screen resolution in the past. It's all very mysterious. Anyway, I shall continue as-is for now and see how things go. At least I know what to do now, if these problems recur.
After the first time the mouse cursor disappeared, you showed me how to make the GRUB menu visible at boot-up, and it shows every time now, and I know how to access the Advanced settings. That was very helpful, and I have a written reminder of how to set this up if it ever disappears, and how to go back to a previous kernel.
These problems arising after updates makes one reluctant to install them at times!!
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Thank you so much for this, Nourpon - really useful to know! Things seem to have righted themselves for now, and the resolution is set at 1920 x 1080 (16:9) which appears to be the default. Back in my Windows days, the resolution could suddenly go really small when I connected the laptop to the TV via HDMI cable but I'd forgotten about that until it happened again today, after the latest Zorin update. (I thought updates were supposed to improve things, not the reverse!!)
As has been posted elsewhere, if the usual advice of changing to Main Server for updates has been chosen, then the updates are coming from Canonical which Zorin has no control over. Their updates for Zorin come from a different source.
This would be the case I suspect, from other distributions using their main repos.
In your case this is ddown to what Canonical are doing.
You could change to a different kernel which might improve things, such as the Liquorix kernel. Unlike mainstream kernel it did not suffer from those recently discovered 3 kernel security flaws.
Zorin OS as a source and Canonical are in tandem, actually.
This is a separate thing from the Main Server or a regional server.
Whether on Main or Regional, the packages are exactly the same.
However... where things go sideways is if a regional server is not properly synced with the Main Server, and supplies conflicting package versions. When this happens, we often advise to switch to Main.
On Main Server, Zorin OS remains the source for all Zorin OS packages, with Canonical supplying only what Zorin OS inherits from Ubuntu.
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Just be diligent and note when an update includes new linux kernel version.
After the usual Restart and things go wrong, you have a good clue to the cause.
Then it is a case of >grub menu>"Additional Options for Zorin">select older kernel generic to boot.
Since kernel 7 hit the fan here on the forum, that kernel fall-back advice has been cited more often than the usual "switch it off and on again".
3 Likes
This is sage advice.
It's also true.
The powers that be tell us to "Update! It's important!"
So we do, and we get the short end of the stick.
It's a catch-22.
I do blame the kernel team. I absolutely do. In this past year, they have slipped out so many system breaking regressions, there are no excuses for them.
It is not on the end user to review the entire Kernel code composed of millions of lines before we install the thing.
3 Likes
Totally agree, they have hundred of testing machines, it can't happen all the time and never blame them !
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Tens of thousands, actually. 0-Day Robot; Intel.
Not to mention Syzkaller, KernelCI and The Linux Test Project.
But testing - is not the same as oversight.
When a kernel change is made that is likely to cause a regression, there is protocol to examine that carefully, that seems to be getting missed, IMO.
Further, HWE is managed by the Canonical Kernel team, separate from the Linux Kernel team.
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Are the HWE kernels worse than the regular ones?
I would not normally say so. In fact, I often would recommend them.
We do seem to have a bad batch lately... and the last major HWE update was, too.
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I thought I would do a search on whether MS submits code to HWE.
" No , there is no evidence that Canonical Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernels specifically receive code directly from Microsoft.
-
Historical Context : A 2012 report indicated that Microsoft had committed more code to the mainline Linux kernel than Canonical since version 2.6.32, highlighting Microsoft's role as a major upstream contributor.
-
Development Model : Canonical’s HWE kernels are derived from upstream Linux mainline releases and are maintained by the Canonical Kernel Team . They do not maintain a separate fork that receives direct, exclusive patches from Microsoft.
-
Indirect Contribution : While Microsoft employees contribute to the mainline kernel (which Canonical eventually integrates via HWE updates), this is a general open-source contribution process, not a direct code exchange between the two companies for HWE-specific builds.
AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts."
I am also beginning to wonder, following the sustained DDoS attack on Canonical servers may have injected malware?
Well, guess what? My initial Mojeek search found this:
Clearly Canonical has not done enough testing. At the end of the article, end users should not install kernel 7.0 themselves as it could lead to an unbootable system.
But having seen the core element (to me) of the introduction of A.I. code in the Linux kernel makes me want to become a complete off-the-grid Luddite. How many data centres and reduction in fresh water resources does this create?
A friend in the US told me that Jeff Besos has said that "...a data centre is more important than [saving] a human life."
Not sure what any of this means, but I'm definitely going to watch out and see if there are any kernel changes in the updates from now on. Thanks to you awesome guys, I now know how to go back to a previous version! You rock.
Let's not jump to conclusions.
A.I. has not been used to write the 7.0 kernel. The most we can glean is that Torvalds has made public statements that show he is not opposed to the use of tools to improve certain aspects of compiling. He is more concerned about code quality, than he is about code source.
That article title is misleading fear mongering. He has not embraced A.I. driven kernel development.
I read the link and aside from the sensational title, the content was mostly empty.
Going directly to the horses mouth, all we get is:
From Linus Torvalds <>
Date Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:03:03 -0700
Subject Linux 7.0
The last week of the release continued the same "lots of small fixes"
trend, but it all really does seem pretty benign, so I've tagged the
final 7.0 and pushed it out.
I suspect it's a lot of AI tool use that will keep finding corner
cases for us for a while, so this may be the "new normal" at least for
a while. Only time will tell.
Anyway, this last week was a little bit of everything: networking
(core and drivers), arch fixes, tooling and selftests, and various
random fixes all over the place.
Let's keep testing, and obviously tomorrow the merge window for 7.1
opens. I already have four dozen pull requests pending - thank you to
all the early people.
Linus
There have been a lot of fabricated quotes about Jeff Bezos on the topic of A.I., lately and this sounds a lot like that.
I am in the US and I do not know Jeff Bazos. But reading that line, the NonSense meter sounded an alarm.
Simply put, whatever thoughts someone like Bezos might have, they simply will not deliver a speech where they say something like that.
I did do some net searches for that quote. Completely empty.
I found fabricated quotes about Water Priority for data centers - but it appears those are invented fiction, too.