Urgent help please - replace xorg.conf file

[The Liquidator]

Hi

Dell 630 Laptop with Intel 915 Graphics.

To see what it looked like I installed glx. seeing nothing I went into the display settings and I suppose messed about. The immediate impact was to lose the 1280 x 800 setting. In attempting to restore that I seem to have accidentally set the resolution beyond the cards monitor capabilities and now I cannot start x.

I can see the problem - running start x from recovery mode I get the error message about the /etc/x11/xorg.conf file. Seems there is an entry under "virtual" that is throwing things.

I have tried knoppix. Running konqueror( as root) I can make the necessary changes but am not allowed to save them. Making any reference to the file from recovery mode tells me the file is unwritable. This is quite typical as file permissions have been the bain of my life with Kubuntu.

Having done everyrthing I thought might work apart from black magic I am on the verge of giving up and wiping the lot as I need things back up and running. Before I do, has anyone got any ideas about how I can restore this backup file?

Thanks

Ian

[kubicle]

Re: Urgent help please - replace xorg.conf file

Hmm...you can't edit it in the kubuntu console with:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

?

[The Liquidator]

Re: Urgent help please - replace xorg.conf file

Thanks for the help.

As you will know, I start from Recovery mode as root. I type in the command and see the file name in a grey bar at the top and a series of what I assume are commands at the bottom. None of these comands actually seem to do anything. For example nothing happens when I type ^R which looks to me like the command to read the file which I would have thought would be the starting point. ^G (Get help?) doesn't do anything either.

Am I missing something here?

Thanks

Ian

[kubicle]

Re: Urgent help please - replace xorg.conf file

Ah, if you are in kubuntu recovery mode (as root), then you don't need the sudo part.

However, when you

nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

the file should open up automatically, if it doesn't there are a few things that might be wrong:

1. you tried to open /etc/x11/xorg.conf instead of /etc/X11/xorg.conf
(in which case it opens up a new empty file, since such a file does not exist)

2. Your xorg.conf file is empty for some reason, in which case you should create a new one with

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

(don't need to sudo as you're root)

Note that ^R is another (traditional) way of saying Ctrl+R, so instead of typing ^R press Ctrl+R. (though you don't need to read the file if you open the editor with 'nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf'
Ctrl+O will save the file, also if you exit (Ctrl+X) it will ask to save if the file is not saved.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Urgent help please - replace xorg.conf file

You are a superstar - don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's working again Not only that, by changing the "virtual" to 1280 x 800, I have got the resolution back! I must say that my Linux experience is that the most likely cause of having to reinstall is screwing up X so you have saved me a load of grief. This post is printed for future reference.

It would be interesting to get glx working but am not sure how I would go about it. Perhaps the cards capabilities are too limited anyway.

Incidentally, would it have been feasible to have replaced the xorg.conf file with the backup instead, or is it better to have done what I have done?

Thanks a lot

Ian

[kubicle]

Re: Urgent help please - replace xorg.conf file

Incidentally, would it have been feasible to have replaced the xorg.conf file with the backup instead, or is it better to have done what I have done?

If you had a working backup, that would certainly have been a good and fast option as well. But sometimes after multiple edits the (automatic) backups might also be faulty.
(Of course it's always wise to create a non-automatic backup, something like xorg.conf.orig before you touch key system files, for easy and certain restoration)

OTOH, this way you probably learned a few new things (like working with the nano editor), which may also help you in the future

[The Liquidator]

Re: Urgent help please - replace xorg.conf file

OTOH, this way you probably learned a few new things (like working with the nano editor), which may also help you in the future

Indeed, that I did, with many thanks for the help