Newbie video problems

[andy baxter]

James Takac wrote:
>>  After the splash Ubuntu screen, I see about four of the login screen
>> horizontally, and it goes down about 80% of the screen, with gibberish
>> underneath that. The screen has "untuubuntuubuntuubuntuub" going across,
>> with 4 logos, and a half username box, 3 username boxes, and another half
>> username box.
>>
>>     
>
> Ok, sounds like the driver have been switched to either the wrong one or wrong 
> mode.
>
> Use CTRL-ALT-F1 to get a console. You'll have to login there. Don't worry that 
> it wont echo the password, that's normal
>
> next type "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf" without the quotes. You'll be asked 
> for your password again. Scroll down to where you see the graphic card 
> idintified.  You should see something resembling the following
>
> Section "Device"
> 	Identifier	"Generic Video Card"
> 	Driver		"nv"
> 	Busid		"PCI:1:0:0"
> 	Option		"AddARGBVisuals"	"True"
> 	Option		"AddARGBGLXVisuals"	"True"
> 	Option		"NoLogo"	"True"
> EndSection
>
> What does yours list there? Take note more so of the driver here.
>
> Below that will be the monitor and default screnn areas. Might help to report 
> back what they say as well
>
> At the very worst, where mine says "nv" can be replaced with "vesa" just to 
> get a working screen. For nvidia cards it's usually "nvidia" for 3d support 
> or "nv" for 2d acceleration
>
> When making a change use CTRL-O to write back to disk. CTRL-X will exit back 
> to the prompt at which you can type "sudo reboot" to reboot the system for 
> changes to take effect for now
>
> Do you recall exactly what you did before things went awry?
>   
I was going to suggest exactly the same thing, but realised you can do 
the same thing in a way that may be easier for a new user by running 
dpkg-reconfigure.

I.e.:

get a terminal using ctrl-alt-f1
log in as a normal user.
type:
sudo -i
and type your user's password to become root.
then type:
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

This will start a text mode menu system which lets you reconfigure the 
graphics card. If you say yes whenever it asks you to autodetect 
something, and choose the selected option the rest of the time, you 
should get a working configuration. If not, try setting the driver to 
'vesa' instead of (probably) 'nv' when that option comes up.

You need to type:
/etc/init.d/gdm restart

to restart the graphics system (x server) after you've changed the 
configuration. You shouldn't need to reboot.