[ubuntu-za] Problems with my Dell machine

[Jonathan Carter (highvoltage)]

Hi Bill

Bill Cairns wrote:
> To make a very long story short - the problem is not Ubuntu 7.10 per se 
> nor the antique Dell machine per se (and especially not the 256 K 
> memory), but an incompatibility between all 7.10 releases (both standard 
> Ubuntu and Xubuntu) with my equally ancient Mecer monitor. Having tried 
> everything else that I could think of, I eventually took my new monitor 
> upstairs to try everything all over again and found that everything - 
> and I mean everything - works fine. But with the old monitor both OS 
> reach the point just before the log in screen and then the monitor just 
> turns off.

The new Xorg that ships with Ubuntu 7.10 doesn't require a configuration 
file as the older versions did. As a result, the installer generates a 
much smaller configuration file than previously, typically just storing 
exceptions to what Xorg would normally detect on start-up.

What you could try is, booting from a 7.04 live CD and storing the 
/etc/X11/xorg.conf on a USB disk or network location and then copying it 
to your new 7.10 system, and see if that works for you. You could also 
create a new Xorg config file by typing "sudo dpkg-reconfigure 
xserver-xorg" from a command line with your admin user. This will give 
you a bunch of options screens where you will be able to choose an 
appropriate resolution and frequencies. There will be a bunch of 
questions where you might be unsure, just hit enter. When it comes to 
frequencies, etc- check the back of your display, it's usually listed there.

-Jonathan