9.04 installed - but only smudges on screen upon reboot

[GeorgeE]

Hi

Fresh clean install of 9.04 (done 3x now) - completely wiping out everything on drive.

Dell E1705, native resolution at 1900x1200, 2gig DDR2 Ram, Core 2Duo 1.6mhz, 160gig HDD


Installed the software and its fine when I restart. If, however, I install something like the Compiz advanced screen features, the computer boots up normally until the Ubuntu logo is gone, and then all I get is 3 coded "smudges" on the screen, and it just sits there - never changing.

I tried to "automatically fix graphics problems", as well as all the other fix options but I got nowhere.

Currently, I am running a 2nd copy of 9.04 on the same HDD in order to type this message.

What should I do? I am a code noob noob.

Thanks very much, George

[Kaymeerah]

what is ur graphics card?

[GeorgeE]

Radeon x1400 I believe - its a built in piece.

I am so new to Ubuntu, that I dont yet know how to confirm the model name of the Graphics Card. - thanks for writing!


Having said that - my graphics card is strong enough to run any and all of Windows Aero Vista Premium effects...

[GeorgeE]

Further note: I was going through the screensavers as I started to get into some graphical intense options (past halfway of all screensaver options), my screen suddenly filled with lines and the pc froze.

A simple switch off, and I am back typing this.

I take it the problem is a graphics card driver issue?

How do I fix this? Thank you for any answers.

[Mark Phelps]

Radeon x1400 I believe - its a built in piece.
AMD/ATI dropped support for this card in Catalyst releases newer than 9.3, and the older releases (9.3) and prior which DO support your card will not work with Ubuntu 9.04.

So, you're stuck using open source drivers -- which may be why you're getting problems when you enable compiz.


Having said that - my graphics card is strong enough to run any and all of Windows Aero Vista Premium effects...
Great -- but that has nothing to do with the Linux graphics drivers.

And, BTW, you will have difficulty getting Aero support should you decide to upgrade to Windows 7 because of the same "dropped support" issue with AMD/ATI -- they dropped MS Windows drivers support as well.