Screen Blurry/Fuzzy

[caeras]

Hi folks,

Hoping someone can help me with a rather annoying problem that has occurred with ubuntu and now xubuntu.

I have a Fujitsu Amilo Li705 that is about 5 (maybe older) years old,which shipped with vista basic, 1gb ram, 1.7 processor. It has been sitting in a cupboard for the best part of 12 months but I need another computer so decided to resurrect it.

I took off all the photos, files etc that I needed as I did not want to run a dual boot as I have no need for vista (who does?!), all the software I need is available for linux. Therefore, I was going to so a complete installation over writing any previous data.

I have used xubuntu in the past on an old netbook and was really pleased with it but I thought I would like to try ubuntu for a change as the machine met the minimum requirements. I struggled to get the live cd to run, after some research I used the "xforcevesa" switch which got me in, but when I used the live CD the screen looked, what can only be described as blurry/fuzzy in places, predominately on text but also in general.

Anyway, I decided to go ahead and install anyway, hoping the full installation would not have this issue. However, it did still have the issue, it was also extremely slow, unresponsive and the fan was constantly running. I did some research on this and I altered resolution to no avail, I then came up with the solution of installing compbiz so I could disable the effects, then I thought what is the point? If I am not going to have the effects I may as well stick with trusty xubuntu.

I downloaded xubuntu and tested the disk on a different machine, and all was fine. When I tried on my laptop I needed to use the xforcevesa again to get into the live disk, the screen was blurry again, but I decided to go ahead and install anyway as I had nothing to lose.

Once I installed it, I ran all the updates and added restricted extras but the screen still remained fuzzy. Here are a few pictures to illustrate, in fairness the pictures doesn't do it justice as it is a lot worse than it looks but thought they may help diagnose the problem.
http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/s...3-12070111.jpg
http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/s...3-12070048.jpg
http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/s...3-12070015.jpg

I suspected a resolution issue but have tried every available option to no avail, I also thought it may be a graphics driver issue but I think it uses viachrome9 which I believe is already in xubuntu?

Also, I have no idea if related or not but the fan is running all the time, not as loud as when I had ubuntu on it but still noticeable.

I would really appreciate any help that you can give me, I do have limited experience with linux, so understand the very basics but apologies in advance if I haven't made any sense. If you need further information please let me know!

Thanks again

Craig

[caeras]

I meant to add, I tried fiddling with the font (alias) settings to no avail!

[mastablasta]

first you will need to post exact GPU.

lshw

and

lspci

should do the job. then continue from there on.

[caeras]

Thank you for replying. I am in work now, but will post this evening.

I am assuming I need to enter those commands into the terminal? And then paste the results for each here?

Sorry for the newb q's!

[caeras]

LSHW. Advised to do as super user so did with sudo:

craig@craig-XubuntuLaptop:~/Desktop$ sudo lshw
[sudo] password for craig:
craig-xubuntulaptop
description: Notebook
product: AMILO Li1705 ()
vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
version: 20
serial: YSMI032165
width: 32 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.4 dmi-2.4 smp-1.4 smp
configuration: boot=oem-specific chassis=notebook cpus=1
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: AMILO Li1705
vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
physical id: 0
version: 0.1
serial: 9N7865437
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
physical id: 0
version: 1.0A-2308-8A20
date: 01/02/2007
size: 92KiB
capacity: 448KiB
capabilities: pci pcmcia pnp upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect edd int5printscreen int9keyboard int10video acpi usb agp smartbattery biosbootspecification netboot
*-cpu
description: CPU
product: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M CPU 430 @ 1.73GHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 4
bus info: cpu@0
version: 6.14.8
serial: 0000-06E8-0000-0000-0000-0000
slot: mPGA 479M
size: 1730MHz
capacity: 1730MHz
width: 32 bits
clock: 533MHz
capabilities: boot fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe nx constant_tsc up arch_perfmon bts aperfmperf pni monitor tm2 xtpr pdcm dtherm
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 5
slot: L1 Cache
size: 128KiB
capacity: 128KiB
capabilities: asynchronous internal write-back
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: 6
slot: L2 Cache
size: 1MiB
capabilities: burst external write-through
*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: 15
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 1GiB
*-bank:0
description: SODIMM DDR2 Synchronous 533 MHz (1.9 ns)
physical id: 0
slot: S1
size: 512MiB
width: 128 bits
clock: 533MHz (1.9ns)
*-bank:1
description: SODIMM DDR2 Synchronous 533 MHz (1.9 ns)
physical id: 1
slot: S2
size: 512MiB
width: 128 bits
clock: 533MHz (1.9ns)
*-pci:0
description: Host bridge
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=agpgart-via latency=8
resources: irq:0 memory:c0000000-c7ffffff
*-generic UNCLAIMED
description: PIC
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 I/O APIC Interrupt Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 0.5
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.5
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: io_x_-apic bus_master
configuration: latency=0
*-pci:0
description: PCI bridge
product: VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
resources: memory:c8000000-c8ffffff memory:a0000000-bfffffff
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 [Chrome 9 HC]
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm agp agp-2.0 vga_controller bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=16 mingnt=2
resources: memory:a0000000-bfffffff memory:c8000000-c8ffffff
*-pci:1
description: PCI bridge
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 80
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci pciexpress pm msi ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:27 ioport:1000(size=4096) memory:40000000-401fffff ioport:40200000(size=2097152)
*-pci:2
description: PCI bridge
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 3
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.0
version: 80
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci pciexpress pm msi ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:31 ioport:7000(size=4096) memory:c9000000-c90fffff ioport:40400000(size=2097152)
*-ide:0
description: IDE interface
product: VT8237A SATA 2-Port Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: f
bus info: pci@0000:00:0f.0
version: 80
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ide pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=sata_via latency=64
resources: irq:21 ioport:4c70(size=8) ioport:4c64(size=4) ioport:4c68(size=8) ioport:4c60(size=4) ioport:4c40(size=16) ioport:4400(size=256)
*-ide:1
description: IDE interface
product: VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: f.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:0f.1
version: 07
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ide pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pata_via latency=64
resources: irq:0 ioport:1f0(size=8) ioport:3f6 ioport:170(size=8) ioport:376 ioport:4c50(size=16)
*-usb:0
description: USB controller
product: VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 10
bus info: pci@0000:00:10.0
version: a0
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm uhci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=64
resources: irq:20 ioport:4c00(size=32)
*-usb:1
description: USB controller
product: VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 10.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:10.1
version: a0
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm uhci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=64
resources: irq:22 ioport:4c20(size=32)
*-usb:2
description: USB controller
product: USB 2.0
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 10.4
bus info: pci@0000:00:10.4
version: 86
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=64
resources: irq:21 memory:c9400000-c94000ff
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: VT8237A PCI to ISA Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 11
bus info: pci@0000:00:11.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: isa pm cap_list
configuration: latency=0
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: VT6102 [Rhine-II]
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 12
bus info: pci@0000:00:12.0
logical name: eth0
version: 7c
serial: 00:14:0b:0a:6f:d1
size: 10Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=via-rhine driverversion=1.5.0 duplex=half latency=24 link=no maxlatency=8 mingnt=3 multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
resources: irq:23 ioport:4800(size=256) memory:c9400400-c94004ff
*-pci:3
description: PCI bridge
product: VT8237A Host Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 13
bus info: pci@0000:00:13.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci ht normal_decode bus_master cap_list
resources: memory:c9100000-c91fffff
*-multimedia
description: Audio device
product: VT8237A/VT8251 HDA Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:04:01.0
version: 10
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0
resources: irq:17 memory:c9100000-c9103fff
*-pci:4
description: PCI bridge
product: VT8237A PCI to PCI Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 13.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:13.1
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci ht subtractive_decode bus_master cap_list
resources: memory:40600000-406fffff
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: AR2413/AR2414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5005G(S) 802.11bg]
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:05:01.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 00:c0:a8:d3:9a:5c
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath5k driverversion=3.5.0-25-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.67 latency=168 link=yes maxlatency=28 mingnt=10 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
resources: irq:18 memory:40600000-4060ffff
*-pci:1
description: Host bridge
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 101
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.1
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:2
description: Host bridge
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 102
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.2
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:3
description: Host bridge
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 103
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.3
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:4
description: Host bridge
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 104
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.4
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:5
description: Host bridge
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 Security Device
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 105
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.6
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:6
description: Host bridge
product: CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 106
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.7
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-pci:7
description: Host bridge
product: VT8237/8251 Ultra VLINK Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 107
bus info: pci@0000:00:11.7
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
*-scsi:0
physical id: 1
logical name: scsi0
capabilities: emulated
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: ST980811AS
vendor: Seagate
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 3.AL
serial: 5LY1W24C
size: 74GiB (80GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 sectorsize=512 signature=000e1588
*-volume:0
description: EXT4 volume
vendor: Linux
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sda1
logical name: /
version: 1.0
serial: 9ead0ad6-0e02-4484-9f53-20c0834ce14d
size: 73GiB
capacity: 73GiB
capabilities: primary bootable journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover extents ext4 ext2 initialized
configuration: created=2013-03-11 19:32:43 filesystem=ext4 lastmountpoint=/ modified=2013-03-12 17:29:16 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered mounted=2013-03-12 17:29:16 state=mounted
*-volume:1
description: Extended partition
physical id: 2
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
logical name: /dev/sda2
size: 765MiB
capacity: 765MiB
capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
*-logicalvolume
description: Linux swap / Solaris partition
physical id: 5
logical name: /dev/sda5
capacity: 765MiB
capabilities: nofs
*-scsi:1
physical id: 2
logical name: scsi3
capabilities: emulated
*-cdrom
description: DVD-RAM writer
product: DVDRAM GSA-T10N
vendor: HL-DT-ST
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/cdrw
logical name: /dev/dvd
logical name: /dev/dvdrw
logical name: /dev/sr0
version: PW03
capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
*-battery
description: Lithium-Ion Battery
product: SMP-LMXXSS3
vendor: SMP
physical id: 1
serial: e00431401B03A52202757
slot: In the Back,on the middle
capacity: 24420mWh
configuration: voltage=11.1V
craig@craig-XubuntuLaptop:~/Desktop$

[caeras]

LSPCI

craig@craig-XubuntuLaptop:~/Desktop$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
00:00.5 PIC: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 I/O APIC Interrupt Controller
00:00.6 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 Security Device
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
00:02.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller (rev 80)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A SATA 2-Port Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 07)
00:10.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.1 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.4 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to ISA Bridge
00:11.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/8251 Ultra VLINK Controller
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 7c)
00:13.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A Host Bridge
00:13.1 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to PCI Bridge
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 [Chrome 9 HC] (rev 01)
04:01.0 Audio device: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A/VT8251 HDA Controller (rev 10)
05:01.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413/AR2414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5005G(S) 802.11bg] (rev 01)
craig@craig-XubuntuLaptop:~/Desktop$

[ManamiVixen]

Ooooohhhhhh..... VIA.... You are on your own. VIA has given absolutely no support for linux. Not even specs to create open source drivers for their hardware. Meaning your Laptop isn't supported by Linux. What you currently have is the best you can get.

EDIT: I'm a doofus! I confused SIS for VIA... D'oh! But VIA support is still pretty bad. There is 2d support for some VIA graphics chips. Need to look up what graphics chip you have

[TK999]

Hi there, I think the situation can be salvaged . Try these:
From a terminal (ctrl+alt+t) run:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-openchrome

Then:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-openchrome.conf

Into this file, paste the following:

Section "Device"
   Identifier "Monitor0"
   Driver "openchrome"
   Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"
EndSection

And reboot the system.

[caeras]

I already had the driver and opened the file but I can't save the file once I paste it in?
Thanks for the help

[TK999]

Ah yes, probably you don't have a default Xorg config file. My bad, sorry.

sudo Xorg -configure
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

Once you opened the file, post the results here & quit nano with Ctrl+X.
As for identifying your current screen resolution, type the following into the terminal:

xrandr -q

, which has a line like "Foobar connected your_screen_width×your_screen_height", e.g "VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 359mm x 287mm"