Re-upgrade possible?

[jbrunton]

I recently upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10. I upgraded using the upgrade manager when prompted the other morning. Everything went great except the highest resolution I could get was 800X600.

After a couple days I searched the forums and found others had similar problems. Long story short, I got into trouble!

Now when I boot I get to a screen showing text but it flashes like a strobe.

I can hit escape during the boot process and get it to boot to a command line login which kinda sucks since I'm not fluent in linux.

However, I can access the machine from my office using NX client and use it just like always with the Gnome interface.

If this were my Windows XP machine, I would use the install disk to repair it by refreshing the installation.

Is that possible with Ubuntu 9.10?

I have a 9.10 CD and can boot from it but it appears the install is just that - a new install as opposed to a refresh.

Help me?

[hal10000]

log into the commandline and do:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-org
then reboot and see if it works

[jbrunton]

I believe i tried that last night but here is what is displayed:

jbrunton@jbrunton-desktop:/home/jbrunton$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-org
[sudo] password for jbrunton:
Package `xserver-org' is not installed and no info is available.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: xserver-org is not installed
jbrunton@jbrunton-desktop:/home/jbrunton$

[xzero1]

Typo, try xserver-xorg.

[wilee-nilee]

Besides the xorg command you might try logging in from the command line and running sudo apt-get update then sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to see if this fixes your problems. This is a method I would use but I have all important data off all of my computers so no matter what I do I can just do a fresh install.

[jbrunton]

Great news! I got the system booted to the command line login. Using my windows machine, used NXClient to connect to ubuntu machine. The nice thing is that with NXClient, the display is fine. Using gedit I edited the /etc/X11/xorg.conf and removed the entire display entry. Rebooted and I now have the Gnome GUI. In fact, I have more than 640X480 and 800X600 choices.

However, I will need to get a new graphics card because I've had video issues since I installed 9.04.

[hal10000]

However, I will need to get a new graphics card because I've had video issues since I installed 9.04

Which graphic card are you using?

[Carlos Lang]

Well, the following worked for me.

I first tried to generate a fresh xorg.conf file.

There is a command,

$ sudo Xorg -configure

which is meant to scan all your hardware and produce a sound xorg.conf file.

The problem is that it won't run if you already have the X server running. X usually runs on you "main display" which is typically indicated as :0 (colon-zero).

I tricked the system by running

$ sudo Xorg :1 -configure

The above created an xorg.conf.new file on my current directory. I checked it and it seemed to have reasonable values (matches my graphical board, etc)

I then moved that file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf (you will need "sudo" or "root" rights to do so) and did some final edits, as follows.

1. I wrote the actual monitor VendorName in the "Monitor" section
2. I wrote the actual monitor ModelName in the same section
-- I think this really helped, somehow, since i later got configuration options on the System > Preferences > Display dialogue that i never indicated in the file.
3. added "Modes" parameters (see the actual text below), taken from another forun (Ubuntu, Spanish) -- sorry i lost the link - this is someone else's contribution.
4. added the "DPMS" option (energy saver capability), which seemed to apply for my monitor.

The end result is the file below.
My recommendation is to
1. run the sudo Xorg :1 -configure command,
2. combine the outcome with the sample lines, below
3. try indicating the actual monitor vendor and model. it seems to help.

___

### -- all these first lines were automatically generated by the Xorg -configure command:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
FontPath "built-ins"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "extmod"
Load "dri2"
Load "dri"
Load "record"
Load "glx"
Load "dbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

##-- down to here, generated with Xorg -configure
##-- the lines below include editing from me.

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "AOC" # helps to edit
ModelName "Spectrum 4Vlr" # helps to edit
HorizSync 30-75 # doesn't seem to matter, once you indicate vendor and model
VertRefresh 56-75 # doesn't seem to matter, ...
#UseModes "Modes0" #monitor0usemodes
Option "PreferredMode" "1024x768" # this is a key entry, to get the desired resolution.
EndSection

Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes0"
#modes0modeline0
EndSection

##-- the section below was Xorg -configure generated, except for the DPMS option.
Section "Device"
Option "DPMS" # energy saver
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
VendorName "Intel Corporation"
BoardName "82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" # key parameter to get the desired resolution.
EndSubSection
EndSection

___

Best of Luck.

cl

[jbrunton]

I'm thinking of a nVidia Geforce MX440 Low Profile TV Out AGP Video Card (64 MB).

I'm running a Dell GX270 Optiplex desktop model (small case) and I can't get too large of a graphics card because I'm told by our company tech guy that the power supply won't handle a larger card.

It's a small computer I just use to "dink" around with Ununtu and learn Linux so it isn't such a big deal to have fantastic graphics. I just want a decent resolution on my 23 inch Acer monitor.

My computer currently has an integrated graphics card.

If you have any recommendations I would love to hear them.