Xorg color problem: 9.10 on old iMac

**julianb** · November 29th, 2009

I have an old iMac with an install of Ubuntu 9.10 (minimal) and IceWM. It has only 64MB RAM.

The screen resolution is pretty high, 11xx by 7xx (eleven hundred something by seven hundred something), if I remember right.

Colors are messed up. I'm no expert but it looks like it is running in 256 color mode because if you look at something like the brown gradients used for the background of this forum, there are only a few colors of brown displayed and they don't "fade" smoothly into each other. Photographs look terrible in this number of colors.

I tried to figure out how to use xrandr, and xorg.conf, but I didn't actually have an xorg.conf file. Tried sudo dpkg-reconfigure Xorg
It doesn't seem to do anything.

I've been searching the internet a lot to see about how to work on Xorg, and I'm not sure how much has changed with the coming of the newest Ubuntu.

I'd really like to get the colors on this thing fixed because the person who will be using the machine is planning to use it to do visual layout on wordpress sites.

**linuxopjemac** · November 29th, 2009

what's the exact model ?

**julianb** · November 29th, 2009

On the bottom it says it's an iMac GX; the model is : M5521

it's a gray color, if that helps

it also says that i was wrong about 64mb RAM - the label says 128MB and i'm pretty sure nobody downgraded it.

**linuxopjemac** · November 29th, 2009

Ok, I found that's the iMac G3 from summer 2000....I will look for a Xorg.conf file

Monitor: 15"

GPU: ATI RAGE 128 Pro

VRAM: 8 MB SGRAM

Max Resolution: 24 bit 1024x768

**linuxopjemac** · November 29th, 2009

Code:

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi" # paths to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib//defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TruType"
FontPath "/var/lib//defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Rage 128 PR/PRO (AGP TMDS)"
Driver "ati"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "iMac"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 60-60
VertRefresh 75-117
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies, Inc. Rage 128 PR/PRO (AGP TMDS)"
Monitor "iMac"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

**julianb** · November 30th, 2009

Thanks for trying to help. I haven't had success yet. I do not already have the driver ("ati") mentioned in that xorg.conf file.

In response to a google search about installing ati drivers, i saw instructions that said to do

sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules $(uname -r)

and

sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx

and

depmod -a

====
i broke my xorg.conf file by trying stuff out and will try more later. off to bed, for now.

PS - If you know how to reinstall your OS, then don't be afraid of breaking it. Every time you mess things up, it's an opportunity to learn.

**linuxopjemac** · November 30th, 2009

I don't think you need to install that driver, it should work out of the box to my opinion

**julianb** · December 1st, 2009

I suppose I should have mentioned earlier, it gave me an error message saying I did not have the driver "ati".

I tried removing the line where it says

driver "ati"

and that made the xorg.conf file broken.

now I have to go in using the install CD to remove the xorg.conf file because the machine otherwise boots up, then launches xdm and xorg automatically which results in a black screen.

**linuxopjemac** · December 1st, 2009

you can also start with framebuffer, so without any fancy acceleration...

Code:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
BusID "PCI:0:18:0"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
HorizSync 58-62
VertRefresh 75-117
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Disable "glx"
Disable "dri"
EndSection