I did a clean install of 8.04 and installed all updates and all ran smooth.
I then upgraded to 8.10 and xorg.conf got wiped out in the process.
Looks like I will be writing a new file manually.
I tried "sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-org" with no joy, I then tried it without the -phigh.
I am left with a very basic xorg.conf file. There is no mouse or keyboard section, no video driver and no horz vert sync.
which means no x. I added "vesa" to video and can startx now, without keyboard and mouse.
I'm thinking ubuntu would have a tool to re-write the xorg file, I am unable to find it.
I have searched the forums and have not found a better solution. Time to start editing. Any ideas?