Screen resolution change in Ubuntu

[bmwrob]

Just installed Ubuntu this evening and am using Linux for the first time in my life. Not really sure yet about just what the hell I'm doing (LOL).

The native resolution for my monitor is 1920 x 1600 but I'm only able to get 1600 x 1200. I've Googled the problem and realize that I've got a couple of changes to make, but how do I get to wherever I need to go to make the changes??? And, yes, I do know that I'm dumb as a rock. Thanks. :lol:

Edit: Found the terminal, and at another forum, a command which was supposed to allow me to change to the proper resolution. However, it's now at something like 600 x 400. Everything else seems to be working well, but I've only made the resolution problem worse. Brilliant, I am! LOL

[seablade]

I was about to ask when the heck you started using linux;)

OK a few keystrokes for you to get familiar with in case you ever need them.

CTRL+ALT+F?

Where the question mark can be 1-12 or however many Function keys you have, so CTRL+ALT+F7 is one example. Doing this will page through a variety of virtual consoles. Your Graphical subsystem will be on one(Aka the Gui or Desktop) usually F7 sometimes F10, sometimes just an odd number;)

If you are looking at your graphical subsystem, you can page through availiable resolutions with the keystrokes..

CTRL+ALT+'+'
CTRL+ALT+'-'

Note that these are obviously without the quotes, and also this is the + and - on the numberpad.

Ok that being said, here is what we would need. In the console, type 'lspci -v' without the quotes obviously, and paste the output in a CODE block here. Also paste up the file located at /etc/X11/xorg.conf

'lspci -v' will give information about the PCI hardware subsystem and what is attached to it. In other words it will give us the video card being used;)

The /etc/X11/xorg.conf is the configuration file for your graphical subsystem. This will be where you do all sorts of things, like enable a proprietary driver, enable using multiple monitors, change resolutions availiable, etc. The low level stuff only though, things like appearance and similar are handled by whatever window manager you are using(In your case Gnome) and its config files.

It is confusing to get used to, but once you do, it is amazingly easy to do much more advanced things and customize to your hearts desire.

Seablade

PS Is this running on a x86 or PPC based machine out of curiosity?

[bmwrob]

Thanks for the reply, seablade. Following is what I hope you've asked for - I'm really not quite sure. :lol:

I tried using the keystrokes Ctrl+Alt+F. . . but nothing happened - no response at all. Something probably was installed incorrectly, I suppose. Odd, because I used F2 in order to access the screen which shows both Windows and Ubuntu. Is that normal, btw? When I reboot, both systems now show up, fortunately. :banana:


/etc/X11/xorg.conf
bash: /etc/X11/xorg.conf: Permission denied
kelly@kelly-desktop:~$


:~$ lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Memory Controller Hub
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82875P Processor to AGP Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 32
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 00009000-00009fff
Memory behind bridge: ff700000-ff7fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: d6b00000-f6afffff

00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Processor to PCI to CSA Bridge (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 32
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000a000-0000afff
Memory behind bridge: ff800000-ff8fffff

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 425a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 177
I/O ports at cc00 [size=32]

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 425a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 185
I/O ports at d000 [size=32]

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 425a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
I/O ports at d400 [size=32]

00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 425a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 177
I/O ports at d800 [size=32]

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 425a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 193
Memory at ffaffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000b000-0000bfff
Memory behind bridge: ff900000-ff9fffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 425a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at <unassigned>
I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]
Memory at 50000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8f [Master SecP SecO PriP PriO])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 425a
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
I/O ports at ec00 [size=8]
I/O ports at e800 [size=4]
I/O ports at e400 [size=8]
I/O ports at e000 [size=4]
I/O ports at dc00 [size=16]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 425a
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 3
I/O ports at c800 [size=32]

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc R480 [Radeon X850Pro] (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 0312
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
I/O ports at 9800 [size=256]
Memory at ff7f0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Expansion ROM at ff7c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc R480 [Radeon X850Pro] (Secondary)
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 0313
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at ff7e0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82547EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (LOM)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 3025
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
Memory at ff8e0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
I/O ports at ac00 [size=32]
Capabilities: <access denied>

03:02.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 04)
Subsystem: Creative Labs SB Audigy 2 ZS (SB0350)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 201
I/O ports at b800 [size=64]
Capabilities: <access denied>

03:02.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy MIDI/Game port (rev 04)
Subsystem: Creative Labs SB Audigy MIDI/Game Port
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
I/O ports at bc00 [size=8]
Capabilities: <access denied>

03:02.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Creative Labs SB Audigy FireWire Port (rev 04) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Creative Labs SB Audigy FireWire Port
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 169
Memory at ff9ff800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Memory at ff9f8000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

kelly@kelly-desktop:~$

[BIGEE1212]

In Linux, there are similar things to Administrator in Windows. In Linux, we have root. This is where you can make any change to your system. However, Ubuntu automatically makes you a user without root priveledges. But, most people need to be in root to install programs or access files such as the xorg.conf. To do this you run this command:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

As you can see, the /etc/X11/xorg.conf is the file you are trying to open, however there are 2 other commands present. The sudo command is what allows you to run in root, you use it to access restricted files or use apt-get (install programs). Gedit is the command for the editor similar to notepad in Windows except more features. this should open the file. Highlight the entire file and post it here.

[bmwrob]

Here it is, BIGEE. Thanks for the help.

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "vesa"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-51
VertRefresh 43-60
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

[seablade]

Ok so what is happening, you have a dual-head ATi card, but are using a generic VESA driver to run it. So that you are aware, in both pieces you posted these are the sections that tell me this, and an example of a CODE block as well, itll come in handy...


01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc R480 [Radeon X850Pro] (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 0312
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
I/O ports at 9800 [size=256]
Memory at ff7f0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Expansion ROM at ff7c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc R480 [Radeon X850Pro] (Secondary)
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 0313
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at ff7e0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>


Ok this tells me what you are probably aware of, you have an ATi Radeon X850 Pro. The fact there are two addresses for it means it is almost certainly a dual-head card. However the capabilities being <access denied> and the subsystem showing Unknown Device both indicate to me that something may not be right here, later to be confirmed by your xorg.conf....



Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "vesa"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection


This is the part of your xorg.conf that describes your video card. As you can see, it is a generic video card accordig to your xorg and it is using the VESA drivers.

Now I am going to take a quick moment to answer other questions you brought up...

In as far as the CTRL+ALT+Fkey thing I mentioned, try adding SHIFT to that combination. Note that all keys have to be pressed at one time, though I have a feeling you did this anyways. I doubt it is not installed, in fact I am certain it is, it is just some distros will customize the exact keypress in a way I can't remember how to do right now;)

In as far as your boot menu, where you say both Windows and Linux show up, that is in fact a good thing;) That is GRUB, which is a bootloader, that is very common on linux in fact. The fact it shows both Windows and Linux means that your Windows partition was correctly detected and the installer for Ubuntu took care of setting up the bootloader for you.

IN as far as why things failed the first time BigE was dead on, but so that you are aware, that 'sudo' he added on to the beginning of the command allows you to run the command as the super-user (Aka Administrator in Windows speak, or root is how you will commonly find it on Unix systems like Linux). As he mentioned by default the root account is disabled by default in Ubuntu, something I particularly like. If you ever need to access it just type...

'sudo su'

Without the quotes of course. This will give you a root prompt. Be careful on what you do as root as you can mess things up in a big way if you are not careful, it is just like the Admin of any other OS, it can do a lot of damage if you aren't careful.

Ok back to the video card. If I remember right, automatix can automatically take care of installing the ATi Drivers for you, though since I don't use ATi, maybe someone else can confirm that? At any rate Automatix is a great thing to look into on Ubuntu due to it taking care of installing a LOT of commonly used componets.

Also here are the instructions on how to set up the drivers by hand in Ubuntu(Check Automatix first and see if it will do this for you, with automatix it may just install the drivers, we may still be swapping XOrg over to using them by hand, it isn't hard though)...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI

Now in case you were wondering, there is some question about the legality of ATi and NVidia binary Blobs in the Kernel, which is part of the reason many distributions do not install it by default.

Also as a side note, if you get bored, or decide you would rather start with a distro that uses the ATi drivers by default, there are a few others out there. One I might reccomend trying out that comes well packaged as an end user system is ELive, though if I remember right things like PCLinuxOS also have ATi version and I think ABF reccomends that one as well, haven't used that one myself though.

But if you decide you want to keep plugging away on Ubuntu, keep posting and we can help you through it if you get stuck in the directions I posted.

Seablade

PS Make a BACKUP of your xorg.conf before you edit it, that way you can always restore it on the console if you need to. And figure out that key combination I mentioned earlier, you will probably need it to do this.

[seablade]

By the way, you have a Wacom hooked up? Interested to hear how well that is working for you.

Seablade

[BIGEE1212]

I don't think he has wacom hooked up. Ubuntu seems to have drivers for it activated even if you don't have it. It's activated in my system as well even though i don't have it.
Or maybe he does have it hooked up XD

[bmwrob]

Ok, guys, first, thanks for the quick answers and information. I appreciate the help.

Next, I'm going to look into Automatix and the keystroke situation, but probably not until tomorrow. My mind is fried tonight. lol

BTW, the video drivers were updated just a few days ago. It didn't occur to me that I might need different drivers for a different OS, despite knowing that a system must be chosen when updating. What a n00b! :lol:

[BIGEE1212]

Hehe, yeah bmw, I hope you take seablade's suggestion and use Automatix.
http://www.getautomatix.com/
just click installation for ubuntu (follow instructions for whichever versino of ubuntu you have, im assuming edgy eft).
The great thing about automatix is that it will get you your codecs (to play mp3's and restricted formats) and it will also install an ati driver (dont quote me on that, it installs my nvidia driver, ive never tried it with an ati card)

good luck and let us know what happens.

[bigtrouble77]

By the way, you have a Wacom hooked up? Interested to hear how well that is working for you.

Seablade
I have a wacom tablet. It works, but it has issues with my laptop's wide screen. It's very frustrating to work with. I find that I have to constantly lift the pen so that it re-orientates itself.

Like bigee1212 said, ubuntu loads the driver by default for some reason.

[seablade]

How annoying it installs the driver by default... Things I don't miss on Gentoo;)

Speaking of which, seriously considering making my PPC laptop into another linux machine, realised today I use a total of one software program not availiable on Linux on a regular basis. So dualbooting is definitly an option, but I gotta look into what is availiable in as far as disk space, might have to upgrade the HD.

Seablade

[abf]

what i see is you need to install fglrx, and under the resolutions type in the right options for your screen (and remove junk like 800x600 since you're never gonna use it). also you can remove the walcom if it bothers you....it doesn't do anything though so there is no use, just risk screweing something up.

btw...welcome to the dark side.

[TwilightVampire]

what i see is you need to install fglrx, and under the resolutions type in the right options for your screen (and remove junk like 800x600 since you're never gonna use it). also you can remove the walcom if it bothers you....it doesn't do anything though so there is no use, just risk screweing something up.

btw...welcome to the dark side.

Thats what I saw too.

Since when is linux the dark side? I though M$ was the dark side :rolleyes:

[bmwrob]

I'm not having any luck with making changes to this OS. Nothing seems to work as it should, at least with respect to screen resolution; everything else is fine.

The site getautomatix.com seems to have gone down (of course! :lol: ) on the 14th. Changing the resolution seems to be beyond my mental capabilities, so I'll probably wait 'til the site is back up before trying again. Can't remember ever before spending so much time trying to make such a minor change to a system.

Ubuntu seems to fly on this machine. Is my imagination in overdrive, or is the OS really fast?

[abf]

ubuntu is actually not that highly optimized (well..at least the i386 version) so maybe its just you....or maybe the ppc version really better, wouldn't know since i never ran linux on ppc.

that said, automatix won't help you setup video since it only has an option for nvidia, not ati. to get ati you need to go to synaptic and install fglrx-ati or ati-drivers-fglrx or something along those lines....can't remember the exact file name. i believe the newer versions of the ubuntu package automatically mod xorg.conf (do alt+ctrl+backspace to restart X) or better yet reboot the computer so it loads all the modules as it should.

then if resolution is still wrong go to xorg.conf and change the res there:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
EndSection

[bmwrob]

i never ran linux on ppc.

This is a Windows machine, not a Mac. And maybe it is just me - thanks very much.

[BIGEE1212]

Nah, you'd be surprised that Ubuntu actually is one of the slower distributions (average speed) compared to some others such as Vector or Gentoo. It probably "flies" for you becuase it is so fast compared to Windows.
About Automatix, they have been having website problems for a few weeks. I was just on there yesterday and it was working, but it has been hit or miss. Make sure you get it installed properly before the site goes down. Once you have the program you can install all your apps (ATI driver, CD/DVD burning programs, media codecs, Azureus, Frostwire, google earth, and a bunch of other programs that you most users use).
A really great place to learn where to install things manually (it has been said that automatix breaks your system, but i still use it) is www.ubuntuguide.org
I would check it out, it will install pretty much anything you need. It also has a guide to install the ATI driver if you want to do that manually (which i suggest).
I would install ATI driver manually, and use automatix for everything else.

Good Luck

[bmwrob]

I've been trying to get Automatix to work since the earlier post where it was first suggested to me - I'll keep trying. And I've tried several times to install the ATI drivers manually, but it seems that I'm just to dumb to get it right. LOL

I've never had so much trouble doing something which I'd have thought would be easy. Guess I need to do some more reading. Except for everything I've tried relating to the resolution, the OS seems to be working well. I don't think I've damaged anything yet. :lol:

[seablade]

Heh in your spare time grab a CD of ELive(Development Version) and burn it. If the live CD works(JUst pop it into your cd drive and reboot, it'll boot directly off thee CD) go ahead and install it in place of Ubuntu. It'll definitely move a bit faster, and has the option of setting up the proprietary drivers by default I believe.

It is not so much a matter of being 'dumb' for linux. It is a matter of getting used to how Linux operates. Once you are used to that, trust me most things will be much easier. In the meantime, exactly what is happening that you are having problems with? Trust me when I say most of us can help you get it installed, but posting up with detailed information is always a must.

To summarize the steps...

0. BACKUP your xorg.conf. Just make a copy of it you can restore to the original location to get back your original and somewhat working settings in case of FUBAR.

1. You will need to install either fglrx-ati or ati-drivers-fglrx through synaptic. As I don't have ATi I am not sure which is the correct name, check to see which shows up, if both do check versioning numbers and go with the higher version.

2. You will need to modify your xorg.conf file you posted earlier. The the [device] section you will need to chance the driver option to read fglrx instead of vesa

3. You need to add the resolution modes ABF posted above to the appropriate section of the xorg.conf(The bold parts of his post are what yours should look like)

4. Restart. You can actually do it without restarting, but this will be easiest for now. If it works, great. If not we can see why not, generally there will be some output from the command startx that can give us some help in determining exactly what went wrong and what we need to fix. Post this up along with your xorg.conf file in CODE blocks and we can move on from there.

Exactly what is happening now that is giving you so many problems?

Seablade

[bmwrob]

Hey seablade. Where to start . . . :eek: :lol:

I can download, but cannot install fglrx. Why? Beats the hell out of me!

Tried to install the ATI downloader because nothing else seemed to work. Again, it would download but would not install.

The keystrokes you mentioned yesterday still, with the exception of Alt F1, don't work. I think something useful may be on the screen when using this combination, but the screen is blurred badly by the colors and terrible text. Nothing is legible. Should post a screen shot, but at the moment, am on a different machine.

At one point I thought I was modifying xorg. Went to the Ubuntu forums and thought I was following instructions. But . . . apparently not only did I not modify xorg, I'm not really even sure what xorg is, it seems. Will have to do even more reading. So many unfamiliar terms and techniques - my brain is turning to mush - well, ok, it's becoming even mushier!

Nothing I've tried so far has brought as an option, resolutions any higher than 1600x1200. Something I've done, though, blew that particular option away. What's left is 600x400, or thereabouts.

Not sure what to try next and though I'm becoming very flustered, I'm too damn stubborn to try another distro until I get this one right. I may, however, simply toss the whole damn OS (with the stinkin' computer into which it's installed) RIGHT OUT THE DAMN WINDOW!! :laughing: :laughing:

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

[abf]

i'll try to walk you through step by step here...see if this gets you moving in the right direction.

NOTE: linux is case-sensitive. so if i type something in CAPS, it better be in CAPS

first get the latest drivers here: http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux/linux-radeon.html (which i assume you already have)

next, crack open terminal and login as root

sudo su
password:


then run the installer (assume you d/led to desktop)

cd /home/yourusername/Desktop
sh ati-driver-installer-8.34.8-x86.x86_64.run


follow onscreen instructions. fair enough.

still in terminal: (ati config is a config tool that comes with the drivers, automatically edits and backs up your xorg.conf)

ati-config


reboot. hope you don't get the blue screen of death.

if stuff still looks bad... then you gotta get down and dirty.

first things first, make sure the module is properly loaded:

lsmod

this shows you all the loaded modules, look for fglrx, if its there, keep going.

then edit xorg.conf
[/code] gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf[/code]

and make it look like:

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
#Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "fglrx"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-51
VertRefresh 43-60
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1600"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection


and like seablade said..if all else fails get elive... or pclinuxos2007 (which is what i am currently using)

[abf]

for the record, you dont need fglrx (and thus xgl) to run beryl on an ati machine. i've successfully gotten aiglx (through ati drivers) to run in pclinuxos and ubuntu....imo works better than xgl too.

[seablade]

Hey seablade. Where to start . . . :eek: :lol:

I can download, but cannot install fglrx. Why? Beats the hell out of me!

Tried to install the ATI downloader because nothing else seemed to work. Again, it would download but would not install.

The keystrokes you mentioned yesterday still, with the exception of Alt F1, don't work. I think something useful may be on the screen when using this combination, but the screen is blurred badly by the colors and terrible text. Nothing is legible. Should post a screen shot, but at the moment, am on a different machine.

At one point I thought I was modifying xorg. Went to the Ubuntu forums and thought I was following instructions. But . . . apparently not only did I not modify xorg, I'm not really even sure what xorg is, it seems. Will have to do even more reading. So many unfamiliar terms and techniques - my brain is turning to mush - well, ok, it's becoming even mushier!

Nothing I've tried so far has brought as an option, resolutions any higher than 1600x1200. Something I've done, though, blew that particular option away. What's left is 600x400, or thereabouts.

Not sure what to try next and though I'm becoming very flustered, I'm too damn stubborn to try another distro until I get this one right. I may, however, simply toss the whole damn OS (with the stinkin' computer into which it's installed) RIGHT OUT THE DAMN WINDOW!! :laughing: :laughing:

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Well ABF hit it right on the head with the first command he told you to use I think, it sounds suspiciously like you were doing those things as a regular user, which does not have the permissions to do them. the 'sudo su' command he told you to execute first will allow you to run all commands following on THAT PROMPT(Meaning if you open or use another prompt it will not be the same) as root.

The way you can tell you are root is that the prompt will end in a # instead of >

What concerns me though is your description of the console as being screwed up texts. What you are describing is the OPPOSITE of what I would expect from an incorrectly set up frame buffer, but I don't know where else to look on that right off hand.

But at any rate I can help tackle that one later, do you have a prompt when you switch to your F1 screen? If not hit escape and see if you do then? It will probably ask for your login first of course.

Try what ABF said and typed exactly, and see if that helps. Otherwise what I may do is see if we can set up a VNC or ssh session so I can guide you through it if yall don't get anywhere.

ABF(Or BT, BigE, etc) is SSH or VNC set up by default on ubuntu? If so you know what ports it uses by default in case we need to set up port fowarding on a firewall?

Seablade

[abf]

havent tried vnc in ubuntu so wouldn't know. the best i can tell you is that tightvnc works exceptionally well for me, i've gotten tightvnc working on pclinuxos--->pclinuxos as well as xp ---->pclos and pclos--->xp, hell, evne my axim x50 through vnc viewer can do pclos or xp.... so that works really well for me. so my recommendation would be go with tightvnc since its very easy to configure.

[ChrisLilley]

I have a wacom tablet. It works, but it has issues with my laptop's wide screen. It's very frustrating to work with. I find that I have to constantly lift the pen so that it re-orientates itself.

Wacom now have widescreen (16:10) tablets. They look cool and are expensive ;-)

http://www.wacom-europe.com/int/products/intuos/tablets.asp?lang=en&pdx=35
http://creativebits.org/wacom_widescreen_tablet_review

[bmwrob]

Just in case anyone is still interested, I finally found instructions to install the damn ATI drivers here. (http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Edgy_Installation_Guide)

Finally, after a mere eight days (:dummy3: ) the resolution is correct. :banana:

Thanks to all.

[ChrisLilley]

Just in case anyone is still interested, I finally found instructions to install the damn ATI drivers here. (http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Edgy_Installation_Guide)

Finally, after a mere eight days (:dummy3: ) the resolution is correct. :banana:

Thanks to all.

Have you added a link from the Ubuntu community documentation wiki to those instructions? To save anyone else the eight days pain ...

[drlouis]

:eek: how did I miss Rob using linux??

glad to hear you got it working... I shoulda checked here sooner (not that I could have helped given that ATI is the bane of my existence.)