9.04 Display Problem

[John Graddy]

After several major releases of Ubuntu, one finally doesn't work on my
system.  I have become so spoiled by all of the past success of Ubuntu
installations that I have neglected to learn much about the actual
operating system and am therefore not knowledgeable enough to get over
this hump by myself.

When I boot the live CD, I get a blank screen.  If I select basic
graphics at boot time, I get a 600x800 display. When I attempt to change
the display settings (system administration-> display), I get an
"unrecognized monitor" message.  When I attempt to gedit the x
configuration file (to see if there is anything obvious wrong) I get the
following"
" GTK Warning : cannot open display"

I've googled these messgaes and get a lot of hits, but, none of them has
been very helpful.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I have a
second (more modern) system that works fine with the same live CD.

Thanks,
John