Scrambled screen at login

[monitorhelp]

I have installed the latest server edition.
I have also loaded the desktop.
The Ubuntu splash screen comes up OK but at login the screen corrupts and goes scrambled.
I have an MSI Logic Board P4M900M3 which has an Intel Graphics chip and also I put in an ATI 700 Graphics card in one of the PCI slots but the CD does not see that at all so I guess I need to update the graphics drivers for the INtel on board graphics chip but how do I do that ???

[coffeecat]

The splash process uses some sort of crude framebuffer graphics which normally works with almost anything, but when you get to the login screen the xserver takes over. This is much more sophisticated, but intolerant of video driver problems.

Did you install the desktop while plugged into the onboard graphics and are now using the ATI card, or vice versa? The Intel video driver won't drive the ATI card and vice versa, which might explain your problem. Unfortunately, the xserver doesn't drop back to some sort of failsafe in situations like this - a great weakness. In fact, it usually comes up with an error message in text mode, so I'm not sure what's going on in your case.

One way of getting a halfway fix is to edit the xserver configuration file so that the xserver uses the generic vesa driver. This can be done from a virtual terminal.

If you post back I'll give you the details.

[monitorhelp]

Thanks,
I kind of got it half sorted and here are the details for anyone who has the same issue.
did a locate xorg.conf

and then brought up the xorg.conf file in nano

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and edited the file... adding the last two lines here under the first line below...

Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "i810"
DefaultDepth "24"
the error no image found or whatever still pops up so I guess this is not a solution but a hack... Iget the error Ubuntu is running in low graphics mode... But cannot configure it.
also the screen resolution is 840 *600 or something awful, but I have a GUI...
I can drop out to the command line by pressing Cntrl + ALT + F1, which is what I did to configure the xorg.conf file.
I just want to run a web server and SQL on the box, seems like there are no GUI apps for that, so may just go and buy an OS X server.
Not greatly impressed I mean it's great for free but this is a kind of show stopper...
I hope these kind of problems don't come up all the time.

[ByteJuggler]

I hope these kind of problems don't come up all the time.

They don't fortunately, but graphics can be troublesome on some hardware. Linux is not yet as well supported in terms of graphics drivers as it can be by some manufacturers, which is a shame. Also, in the latest editions of Ubuntu they've been moving more to having X autodetect what drivers need to be used, decreasing the reliance on xorg.conf, which is great when it works, but little problematic when it doesn't. These are growing pains that will pass with time.

Just as an aside, please note that Servers (and server software) generally do not run with GUI's on Unix/Linux, you can in fact install and run an SQL server (e.g. MySQL) and web server (Apache) trivially, without even installing any GUI stuff. Admin can then be done from command line or via web browser. (eg webmin/phpmyadmin)

That said, you should nevertheless be able to install and run a GUI should you wish to do so. Hopefully the people on here will be able to help you sort out your graphics trouble.

Some general remarks re video cards/problems: Make sure if you install a secondary video card that you disable the primary onboard one in the BIOS and/or that the new one is selected as the "bootup" card if possible, otherwise I suspect configuring X will require a little more jiggery pokery than normal (e.g. you'll probably need to create another section for the card in the xorg.conf file with the right PCI id or something like that.)

Also, you might also firstly try switching to the "vesa" driver first in you xorg.conf (still using your onboard graphics) as that should work as a fallback. Can you post the current contents of your xorg.conf and output of
lspci | grep VGA

[monitorhelp]

xorg.conf
# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by failsafeDexconf, using
# values from the debconf database and some overrides to use vesa mode.
#
# You should use dexconf or another such tool for creating a "real" xorg.conf
# For example:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Boardname "Intel 740 (generic)"
Busid "PCI:1:0:0"
Driver "i740"
Screen 0
Vendorname "Intel"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
Vendorname "Plug 'n' Play"
Modelname "Plug 'n' Play"
modeline "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -vsync -hsync
Gamma 1.0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Virtual 640 480
Modes "640x480@60"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
screen 0 "screen1" 0 0
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "glx"
Load "GLcore"
Load "v4l"
EndSection
Section "device" #
Identifier "device1"
Boardname "ATI Radeon"
Busid "PCI:0:9:0"
Driver "ati"
Screen 0
Vendorname "ATI"
Option "MergedFB" "off"
EndSection
Section "screen" #
Identifier "screen1"
Device "device1"
Defaultdepth 24
Monitor "monitor1"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768@60" "1152x864@75" "1024x768@70" "1280x1024@75" "1024x768@75" "1280x960@60" "832x624@7$
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "monitor" #
Identifier "monitor1"
Vendorname "IBM"
Modelname "IBM 6637"
Horizsync 30.0-81.0
Vertrefresh 56.0-75.0
modeline "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -vsync -hsync
modeline "640x480@72" 31.5 640 664 704 832 480 489 491 520 -vsync -hsync
modeline "640x480@75" 31.5 640 656 720 840 480 481 484 500 -vsync -hsync
modeline "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync
modeline "800x600@72" 50.0 800 856 976 1040 600 637 643 666 +hsync +vsync
modeline "800x600@75" 49.5 800 816 896 1056 600 601 604 625 +hsync +vsync
modeline "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
modeline "832x624@75" 57.284 832 864 928 1152 624 625 628 667 -vsync -hsync
modeline "1024x768@75" 78.8 1024 1040 1136 1312 768 769 772 800 +hsync +vsync
modeline "1024x768@70" 75.0 1024 1048 1184 1328 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
modeline "1024x768@60" 65.0 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
modeline "1152x864@75" 108.0 1152 1216 1344 1600 864 865 868 900 +hsync +vsync
modeline "1280x1024@75" 135.0 1280 1296 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
modeline "1280x960@60" 102.1 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 994 -hsync +vsync
modeline "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
modeline "1280x960@75" 129.86 1280 1368 1504 1728 960 961 964 1002 -hsync +vsync
modeline "1400x1050@60" 122.61 1400 1488 1640 1880 1050 1051 1054 1087 -hsync +vsync
modeline "1600x1200@65" 175.5 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
modeline "1600x1200@60" 162.0 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
Gamma 1.0
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection



and output of lspci | grep VGA


00:09.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. Chrome9 HC IGP (rev 01)

Maybe I should switch to the ATI Card, not sure how to though...

[ByteJuggler]

OK, well you seem to have sections for both cards already in the xorg.conf and in fact your ServerLayout as currently set says to use "screen1" which is your ATI as far as I can tell... (The "main" section in the xorg.conf is the "ServerLayout" section. It basically defines what screen (or screens), input device and keyboard to use. Your current ServerLayout specifies to use "screen1", which in turn uses "device1", which is the ATI. (Your "ServerLayout" also do not specify mouse/keyboard references, which is a bit odd. I'm unsure whether this may be normal on the latest xorg.conf's or whether this is indicative of a problem.) What exact error message do you get when starting up? I take it your monitor is connected to the Via rather than ATI at the minute? (Which kind of implies the config is being ignored possibly due to being borked.) I'm tempted to suggest you reconfigure your xorg:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

and then try starting from that a base.