Newbie video problems

[James Takac]

On Monday 03 December 2007 11:14:34 Hal Davis wrote:
>  Andy, James,
>
>  After trying Andy's suggestion, and fumbling and guessing my way through a
> large number of things, I now have Ubuntu up and running in low graphics
> mode.
>
>  I think I know what graphics adaptor to tell it to use, but I don't know
> what to tell it about my monitor. Looking at the HP tech support web site,
> it's not at all clear which monitor was installed on my laptop. Do I just
> guess-and-test until something works?
>
>  Thanks,
>
>  Hal
>
>  andy baxter wrote:
> 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.


Hi Al

This is where the envy script at the page I pointed to should get your card up 
and going with any luck. install the deb package at

http://albertomilone.com/ubuntu/nvidia/scripts/ubuntu/envy_0.9.9-0ubuntu1_all.deb

then go thru Applications -> System Tools -> Envy

that will install it. If it finds a ready installed one it will prompt you to 
uninstall it before carrying on

James