Setting Monitor Scan Rates

[WilliamColls]

When I try to install 11.10 on a system that uses an older Sun CRT monitor, the install fails about 1 minute in, and the monitor displays a message telling me that the scan rate is out of range. The install starts correctly, and I get the normal GUI initial menu. Select "Install" and I get a screen with "Kubuntu", and a series of dots being displayed below; then the screen goes blank and the monitor display the error message. For previous testing, I know that the X11 process is correctly identify the monitor make and model, and the possible display settings. However, for reasons unknown, it will select a valid mode, but the wrong scan rates. Setting VGA mode on the boot line doesn't help, since that only specifies the pixel values. I need to be able to set the Vertical and Horizontal scan rates as well. Is there any way to generate an install image that will allow me to specify the required rate. Alternatively, are there boot parameters that I can specify as boot parameters to fix the problem?

Thanks for your time.

William.

[SecretCode]

I'm not clued up on the relevant xorg.conf settings - but I think it should be possible.

Since no one else has responded yet, I just wanted to add a thought or caution: some monitors display "scan rate out of range" when they are not actually getting any signal at all. It could be that the install process is actually crashing and losing the VGA sync. Could this be case here?

One reason for sudden crashes during installation is low RAM - how much RAM does the system have?

[WilliamColls]

/proc/meminfo reports 2,053,744Kb installed, 1,803,900Kb free. The monitor is receiving a signal; the tty terminals are all usable (which is itself a bit of a puzzle).

Since I made the original post, some developments:
I knew that 10.04 would install correctly, so I installed that, and then did successive do-release-upgrade to get 11.10. So I now have a working system, but no GUI. If I can build a working xorg.conf file I should be fine. However, I would really like to solve the original problem, since I suspect that it will persist into 12.04 and beyond.

Further update:
I have discovered that if I boot the system with NO monitor connected, and then connect a monitor, the GUI works. However, as soon as I log of, the the system resets, and goes into the over scan condition. (GUI not accesible)

More technical Details:
CPU is a dual core Celeron. Xorg version is 1.10.4, Intel Integrated Graphics Chipset detected.

[SteveRiley]

I have discovered that if I boot the system with NO monitor connected, and then connect a monitor, the GUI works.

In this scenario, when you open a console and run

xrandr

what output do you get? You should see a list of available resolutions and refresh rates.

[WilliamColls]

Yes, I get a set of resolutions and scan rates for each. Should let me make an xorg.conf file. The scan rates range from 43.0 to 112.1, depending on the resolution.