Help with video settings

[eakergd]

Hi. Totally new to Linux here. I actually installed and got the Ubuntu for AMD64 installed and running, but many programs and add-ons were only compatible with the 32 bit version, so I decided to make the switch. I have had all sorts of problems with this version.

First, it took me forever to figure out that the reason I saw only colored pixel gibberish when I booted the live CD was because the video settings were too low. Once I set it up to 1024x768x32 everything booted fine -- except that i couldn't see my mouse. No problem -- I got through the install with the tab and enter keys, but when I rebooted I get a screen full of colored pixel gibberish again. When I start in recovery mode it drops me to a command prompt. That doesn't intimidate me, as I used to prefer it over a GUI before Win 3x came along, but I don't know any of the Linux or Unix commands. I know I need to edit some config file to get it running. Could someone walk me through changing that video setting from the command prompt in recovery mode?

Thanks in advance.

Gary

[Saragon]

Re: Help with video settings

For your case and anytime you screwup you display  , try the following;

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

[eakergd]

Re: Help with video settings

OK, did that. But now it is dropping me to a command prompt. I can login, but I don't know the command to start the GUI. I searched the topic on this forum, but I guess that is too basic and everyone already knows it. I tried CTRL+ALT+Backspace, but that does nothing. HELP the NOOB!

[Saragon]

Re: Help with video settings

To start the GUI try this.

Kill all dkm in case it crashed with;

sudo killall kdm

and then start with;

sudo kdm

[Tynach]

Re: Help with video settings

What type of graphics card do you have? If you have an nVidia card, I bet it will give an error about not being able to start X. If this is the case, I found that they only way to solve it is to edit the /etc/xorg.conf file.

sudo nano /etc/xorg.conf

Go to the line that is similar (probably not exactly like) to:

driver: "nvidia"

and change the "nvidia" to "nv" assuming you have installed the nvidia-glx driver. If you havn't done that, then I can't help you. If you don't have an nvidia card, ignore me.

After getting the original driver back, reboot, and you should have GUI. Log in, and back up any important data. Then, re-install Kubuntu.

Then, when you have completely re-installed Kubuntu from scratch, get the nVidia driver:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx

and enable by editing /etc/xorg.conf as root, from the "nv" driver to the "nvidia" driver. I strongly advise to NEVER change display settings with the GUI. NEVER. I've had to re-install almost 20 times due to that mistake. Good thing is, that you will never need to edit xorg.conf for the driver again.

Now, I found taht 32-bit color screws up my screen. I think Linux only supports 24-bit color, so go with that. (It's somewhee in xorg.conf), and set the screen resolution correctly (also in xorg.conf).

[eakergd]

Re: Help with video settings

Hey, thanks for the help. I finally got it to boot into the gui by changing the settings using the "sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" command. I just kept trying different video settings until one of them finally worked. "nv" and "vga" were both problematic, but I was able to boot using the "vesa" setting. Oh, and yes, it is Nvidia -- 6600 GS. Next I'll be working on the nvidia driver. Thanks.