laptop won't boot properly after install

[Thufir Hawat]

When the laptop boots, It cycles between showing a mouse on a black 
background.  It seems an infinite loop.  Sometimes there's distorted 
writing which I can't read or capture.  I just installed 12.10 (server) 
on the laptop and xubuntu on top of that.

I think that I'm running into a problem I had before on another 
computer.  I installed Linux but had to modify xorg.conf manually as 
below:

thufir at dur:~$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf 
Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Driver		"vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
EndSection
thufir at dur:~$ 


http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ubuntu.user/264245


This was because it was old hardware.  As before, I started with 
installing the server version (12.10) because it fits on a CD.  Next I 
installed xubuntu-desktop lightdm and xfce and rebooted the laptop, a 
Sotec 3120x:

http://www.cnet.com/laptops/sotec-3120x/4505-3121_7-20801932.html

As happened with my desktop, however, there's some problem with 
resolution or aspect ratio, perhaps.  On the desktop, I just modified 
xorg.conf.

Should I also do this with the laptop?


thanks,

Thufir