Please help with graphics drivers in Ubuntu (1 Viewer)

[Brennan77]

Let me start by saying I'm a complete linux noob. I'm trying to get ubuntu up and running for my buddy's PC. He wants a cheap box for his wife to web surf, listen to music, and check email. Enter ubuntu in place of stealing Windows XP.

Unfortunately, this is turning out to be less than intuitive.

My problem is screen resolution. After activating the recommended nvidia display drivers, which were not automatically installed, the default selection of resolution is not supported by the monitor. This is a regular 1280x1024 lcd screen, so I can't see what the problem would be, but I can't boot using the display drivers. I can boot using recovery mode to disable the drivers, but I can't seem to change the resolution to something appropriate for the monitor.

Any help would be appreciated. It's really unfortunate that something this simple is ruining my experience here.

 

[eaux-yeah]

What's up, Brennan!

What exact card is this?

Have you used the nvidia-settings tool?

gksudo nvidia-settings

 

[Brennan77]

Hey! Thanks for the reply! Just playin with computers on my day off...

....
I can't see the settings tool when the driver is activated. The resolution it selects is not supported by the monitor, therefore nothing is on the screen except the message from the monitor telling me that it is not happy.

I can't run the tool with the driver not being activated. I'm trying to reactivate an older driver version right now to see if that helps. In the meantime, I haven't been able to install the latest downloaded driver. It says something about an x server running.

Sorry, this is all greek to me.

This is a 6600GT AGP card on an nforce 2 Abit NF7S with an Athlon XP 3200. Nice old system.

 

[eaux-yeah]

Are you sure the nvidia module is loaded? Open a terminal and type:

lsmod | grep nv

If it returns "nv", then the correct module is not loaded.
If you see "nvidia", then it is.

When you say you "activated the recommended nvidia display drivers", what did you do?
Was X restarted afterward? Just logging off and back on will not restart X.

Quick way to restart X, in Ubuntu, is:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

 

[Brennan77]

Are you sure the nvidia module is loaded? Open a terminal and type:

lsmod | grep nv

If it returns "nv", then the correct module is not loaded.
If you see "nvidia", then it is.

When you say you "activated the recommended nvidia display drivers", what did you do?
Was X restarted afterward? Just logging off and back on will not restart X.

Quick way to restart X, in Ubuntu, is:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

I went to the administration hardware drivers menu and selected a driver to activate. I then actually restarted the system, which upon reboot selected an unsupported resolution.

 

[Brennan77]

Yes, it says...

nvidia
nvidiaagp
agppart

 

[Brennan77]

So I've tried hooking it up to my own monitor. Same problem. Whatever mode it's trying to set as the default when you get to the GUI, it does not support it.

 

[Brennan77]

Thanks for the help. But I give up. I've searched all over throughout the course of the day and could never get this right. I tried. Oh well.

 

[eaux-yeah]

Sorry to drop out on ya, Brennan. Had to make an emergency run (work) yesterday.
Even more sorry to hear your frustration.
When dealing w/Nvidia and Linux, it can get this way at times. The fault falls 100% on Nvidia, not Linux.
Nvidia really is a mess and, honestly, I refuse to buy anymore products from them until they play nice /wLinux.
/rant-off

So anyhow,

Yes, it says...

nvidia
nvidiaagp
agppart

This is good.


I usually do not suggest this, but you might just want to try EnvyNG.

First, you will have to enable the "universe" and "multiverse" repositories.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu

Then, from a terminal, run:

sudo apt-get update

then

sudo apt-get install envyng-gtk

After that is installed, run:

sudo envyng -g

('sudo envyng -t' works if there is no X running)
Follow the instructions and hopefully things will be good.

http://www.albertomilone.com/envyngfaq.html