Hello Community!

This problem has been killing me on setting up this fresh install.

Givens:

I have this Dell PowerEdge 850 server, which according to the specs on the service tag has an (SiS) XGI Volari Z7 integrated adapter and the Current Monitor (the one on my work bench) is a Dell E196FP whose optimal settings are 1280x1024 60Hz. I have installed 12.04 64bit.

Symptoms:

1) in "Display", it says my display is "Laptop" and my resolution is "800x600 (4:3)". I have no choices, anything to change to.

2a) in "System Settings">"Details" it "did*" say "Driver" "Unknown", "Experience" "Standard".

(*My first attempt to solve this was scouring the web for "Unknown graphics driver" which landed me on a form recommending I run the following command: "sudo apt-get install mesa-utils")

2b) Now "System Settings">"Details" reports that my "Driver" is "Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x300)" ...Still stuck on "Laptop" and "800x600" though.

What I Have Tried Thus Far:

1) a forum post had mentioned to make sure the appropriate driver "xserver-xorg-video-sis" is installed. I went to the software center and it was already installed.

2) another post said I had to edit my xorg.conf file to set my driver to "sis" and set my resolution. But I don't have an xorg.conf

3) I follow steps to create an xorg.conf, executing "sudo Xorg -configure" it fails because xserver is already running for display 0

4) I execute "sudo stop lightdm" and after stumbling around in the darkness like a newb, wondering why my commands just go down to the next line, and I have no prompt, realize I need to <Ctrl><Alt><F1>. I run the configure command again and it fails. The first time I tried this, the error was"cannot create file /tmp/.X0-lock"

5) Following some other forum advice I run command "X :1 -configure", and though it erred out with "number of created screens does not match number detected devices" it did create an "xorg.conf.new" file.

6a) What I glean from looking at the file are that there are the following two "Devices"

Identifier "Card0"
Driver "fbdev"
BusID "PCI:6:5:0"

Identifier "Card1"
Driver "vesa"
BusID "PCI:6:5:0"

6b) There is a Monitor0 and 1, and a Screen0 and 1. each screen section has subsections of "Dislay" with viewport of 0 0 and increasing Depths of 1,4,8,15,16,24.

6c) Fully suspecting that if I just rename this and drop it in the X11 folder, my future reboots will not be pleasant, I research some more.

7) I find some more forum posts stating that 12.04 doesn't have an xorg.conf file because it's deprecated and instead everything should be found or changed in "etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/" but I don't have an xorg.conf.d folder! I have one in "usr/share/X11/" but I am not sure if this is even a folder of live configs and all the references I find to editing a "monitor.conf" or or other ".conf"s aren't there.

8) I find references plastered all over the internet to making "<xx>-monitor.conf"s, and "<xx>-graphic.conf"s, and "<xx>-screen.conf"s where xx = 10 or 30, or 40, or 50, or 90...

9) and after 16 hours, 5 Monsters, and really dry contact lenses I throw my arms up and ask you all for some clarity...

Can you name your .conf anything?

Does it have to go in "etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/" or does it have to go in "usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/"?

What does the number in front of the .conf mean? Is it some sort of priority ordering? How does it work? Can it be any integer?

Can you help me with what to do next? Help me with the "How's", and "Why's", and "What's" beyond just the "Here type this"'s... This is probably not the last re-purposed computer I will be loading Ubuntu on.

Thanks for being here!