Screen resolution loop [help!]

[David Armour]

Rashkae <ubuntu <at> tigershaunt.com> writes:

> 
> > <snip> 
> >>> screen resolution seems flawed, at this point. 
> >>>
> >> David, I still haven't heard, have you tried the Xfix solution?  (ie,
> >> boot into rescue mode from your grub menu and choose xfix option from
> > 
> Keep in mind that after you do xfix, you will probably have to start the
> restricted driver manager and enable the binary driver for your video
> (ATI or Nvidia),,but a clean slate xorg.conf from xfix should at least
> get you going.

Reporting in...:

Hitting ESC during the boot sequence did allow me to continue booting in
recovery mode which subsequently enabled xfix, fsck, and the eventual resumption
of standard log in. (Thank you for suggesting that strategy.) 

BUT, no amount of tinkering in the console, left or right mouse button clicking,
or downloading and installing an additional 137 updates led any closer to
increased screen real estate. A couple of times -- sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
...for example, or crtl-alt-backspace -- in fact led back to that ol' black
screen, the reset button, and good old recovery mode re-booting. A few consoles
reported "command not found" for stuff such as "sudo nvidia-config", or display
info screens with puzzling contents such as "a gvfsd-trash closed unexpectedly",
or "Desktop effects could not be enabled." 

I'm not just stumped; I'm dangerously close to being ground up into sawdust, and
fed to the pulp mill.  I wouldn't have thought altering screen resolution would
entail quite this much sturm und drang for a comparatively straightforward
(vanilla, even) install, for either LTS or Alpha6.

Where would the Restricted Driver Manager reside? I recall a panel icon in an
earlier incarnation, but I couldn't see one this time. Nothing much resembling
it showed up in the menus.