Really stupid mistake

[Doosterama]

Hey everyone!

So I am new to linux, and don't really know much about how to use it. My brother was really the one that helped set everything up for me and got me going. He also installed VMware player on the machine, with a windows xp SP3 guest. The host was a Kubuntu 8.04 64 bit version.

Anyway, I tried to install Civilization 4 on the guest machine, which worked fine. However, when I tried to play the game there was always an error with the video card. This prompted me to download Virtualbox, but the problem with the video card persisted. I think it was saying that I had an unrecognizable 3d device...

So, this all made me go into monitor and display settings, where I started to fool around with the different video card options and different driver options. Eventually, for some reason my machine got stuck in a really low resolution really slow display state. This made me switch back to the old settings (ati card with the fglrx driver), but for some reason the machine was still stuck in in 640x580 (I think) which was the highest resolution I was able to move it into.

So, after trying to mess with the monitor settings for a little, which did no good, I thought it could be something with the video card itself. So, I went to the driver information in the start menu, and looked at the graphics card. Ati Radeon, which was fully enabled. Well, I thought that if I disabled it, and then enabled it later, it would solve the problems.

After disabling my video card, I then restarted my computer. Much to my surprise, I was stuck in bash mode, with absolutely no idea how to re-enable and redownload the fglrx drivers.

Really, I would love it if someone could tell me how to:
1) Download and enable again the right drivers for for video card
2) Tell me how to get out of bash mode
3) Tell me how to go back to the old resolution values of my monitor (1280x1024)
4) Install and be able to play Civilization 4 in a virtual machine


I know this is a lot of questions, and that I made a lot of stupid mistakes all building upon each other. If anyone could give me any help at all though, it would be wonderful!

Thanks so much in advance!

[dibl]

Re: Really stupid mistake

So, this all made me go into monitor and display settings, where I started to fool around with the different video card options and different driver options.

Now there is the classic method to FUBAR your Kubuntu system!

Hit the link in my signature, and review #7 -- it should get you close to fixed.

[Doosterama]

Re: Really stupid mistake

Thanks a lot dibl!

I think my computer is almost better... :P

I managed to get through step two on your guide, but the bash command then recommend that I restart my machine after having installed the drivers. So, I followed the advice and did that. Then, however, on start-up my machine went back to the regular gui animated screen.
"Well!" I thought, "I guess my machine is all better now!" So, then I logged in, and it did manage to log in, however now my desktop and everything on it is an offwhite. It is like looking at a white-washed wall - I cant see any icons or anything. I also have a cube-desktop, so I tried spinning that around (which worked) but all four desktops are covered in the same blanket of off-white.

Any ideas?

[Doosterama]

Re: Really stupid mistake

Oh, important to note though, I can still see my mouse pointer

[Doosterama]

Re: Really stupid mistake

And one more oddity - don't know if it clarifies anything - but I have compiz installed, and I have the mac like taskbar at the bottom of the screen. I can still guess where those icons are, and click on them. Strangely, the applications still open, but everything is still the blanket of white. I know they open because when I go into the cube desktop, I can see them popping out of the screen...So I know I opened an application, but I have no idea which one....

[dibl]

Re: Really stupid mistake

I'm not an ATI guy, so that's a weakness here. But I'm a little surprised at the notion that you'd have to restart your system after installing the driver. Did you try EnvyNG? If not, why not give it a shot? Follow the steps that I laid out, and after you run

envyng -t

and you get the menu, choose the ATI driver, and see if it gives you a better result.