Easiest way to change graphics card?

Nick Croft adslpxgm at tpg.com.au
Mon Aug 15 05:56:31 UTC 2005


* Ari Torhamo (ari.torhamo at saunalahti.fi) wrote:
>
> Hi,
>

>  and it appears to me that
> dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg is the command to use.
>
dpkg-reconfigure should just present all his current choices. It would
simply be a matter of pressing <enter> over and over. The only hard part
would be where the script asks what make of card.

> What I would like to know is if there's a way to avoid going through the
> whole dpkg-reconfigure-routine
<snap>
> If I'm not wrong, editing xorg.conf would be one
> way to avoid it, but I read that doing so has some downsides.
>
If he's using a different card from the same manufacturer, no change should
be needed. If he's changing from (for instance) ATI to Nvidia , then get hold
of the Section "Device" part of xorg.conf, e.g

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "ATI Technologies, Inc. Rage Mobility M3 (AGP)"
   Driver      "ati"
   BusID    "PCI:0:16:0"
   Option      "UseFBDev"     "true"
EndSection

and change "ati" to "nv". You don't have to do anything to the "Identifier" line. That's just for the human maintainer's eyes. The other options would be OK.

I'd be ready to bet that Ubuntu would detect the change anyway, and reconfigure the xorg.conf file for you. But I'd also make a copy just in case.

Let us know what the two cards are. Be fearless.

> I also
> wouldn't know exactly what to write to "section "device"". Using
> autodetection would be desirable because of this.
>
> Does hitting "Esc" at the settings you don't want to change always leave
> them as they were before starting dpkg-reconfigure? Are the pre-selected
> values always the ones that are currently in effect?
>
Yes. Escape, or enter. The script reads the .conf file. It's all meant to be painless.

Nick





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