Resolution Problems

[Jeffrey Tooker]

Charlie Kravetz wrote:
> On Sun, 2008-05-25 at 12:43 -0700, Jeffrey Tooker wrote:
>   
>> Hello:
>>
>> I am having resolution problems.  I have been searching online for a 
>> solution but I have found none that work for me.  System info:
>> Dell    1.7M CPU
>> OS       Ubuntu 7.10
>> Dual Boot    XP/Ubuntu each on separate drive
>> Monitor    Dell    E772C
>> Graphics Card   Intel 845
>> Driver   VESA   -generic VESA compliant card
>> I am marginal at CLI.
>>
>> Problem started last week.  System kept reverting to default 
>> resolution.  I find default resolution very hard to read over time.  I 
>> found  and went through the resolution edit.  System came up and said 
>> the monitor was running on minimum resolution.  I tried several times to 
>> get the system back up and was only able to get it back up by accepting 
>> the minimum (640 X 480) resolution.  It appears to be locked in now as I 
>> can not change it from the screen resolution app.  640 X 480 is the only 
>> choice. While in this resolution I ran into several problems with being 
>> able to see the bottom of some windows on the screen.  This morning the 
>> top panel ended up on the left hand side.  I tried to get it back to the 
>> top, but is so compressed I can not get a handle on it.  I believe I 
>> have to get the resolution problem fixed so I can go onto other 
>> problems.  I found online Xorg-edit  
>> "http://linuxappfinder.com/package/xorg-edit" and downloaded it to 
>> "Applications", however I can not open it because the top panel is on 
>> the left hand side and so compressed that Applications will  not open. 
>>
>> All help greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Jeffrey Tooker
>>
>>     
> I am not an expert on these things, but I have found that with Ubuntu 7.10, gutsy, sometimes the easiest way to fix the video is to start over. What I mean is go into a terminal, using the following commands rename the X-Org file, then delete the rest and let the system rebuild it.
>
> Start with 
> $ cd /etc/X11
> $ sudo cp xorg.conf.? xorg.conf.keepthis - ? is whatever the highest
> number is, 1,2,3...
> $ sudo rm xorg.conf
> $ sudo rm xorg.conf.failsafe  - or similar
> $ sudo rm xorg.conf.?
>
> now close the terminal window, and restart your system, using the quit,
> restart. When it restarts, it will rebuild the file and you should be
> able to reset the resolution. 
>
> Also, check out the bug reports in launchpad:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/3731
>
> It starts out on Ubuntu 5.10, but goes on into Ubuntu 7.10
>
> good luck,
>
>   
Charlie:

Thank you for the info. I will get to it as soon as I can. Looking at 
the chronology of this thread it seems I was looking up bugs about the 
same time you were. I have come across several references to an Intel 
i915 driver which seems to be a more up to date driver, which corrects a 
lot of problems of the previous drivers.

I am using a Dell which was originally an XP machine. I have had to dump 
the Lexmark printer for an HP. It seems that Ubuntu has been fighting 
this driver/resolution problem for about 30 months. I will try the 
suggested solutions. However I wonder if there is a better graphics 
card. The i845 I have is several years old. I guess I will start 
searching for info on drivers for E772C Dell monitors.

Jeffrey Tooker