Ububtu question

[nweaver]

isn't the command to reconfig X something like "dpgk-reconfigure xorg-config" or "xserver-xorg"? Not sure, as I dont' have an ubuntu box handy.

 

[Skyhack]

Try this...at the grub boot prompt, choose "recovery mode"

Then type...

nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

That will bring up the nano text editor. Scroll down in that file until you find the line that looks like

Device "ati"

Then edit it so that it looks like

Device "vesa"

Save the file (by hitting <ctrl><x>, and pressing enter)
then reboot...

shutdown -r now

And boot as usual.

 

[Nothinman]

I don't know if the OSS ati or radeon drivers will work with your card. Try installing the binary-only drivers like so: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: nweaver
isn't the command to reconfig X something like "dpgk-reconfigure xorg-config" or "xserver-xorg"? Not sure, as I dont' have an ubuntu box handy.

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Originally posted by: Skyhack
Try this...at the grub boot prompt, choose "recovery mode"

Then type...

nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

That will bring up the nano text editor. Scroll down in that file until you find the line that looks like

Device "ati"

Then edit it so that it looks like

Device "vesa"

Save the file (by hitting <ctrl><x>, and pressing enter)
then reboot...

shutdown -r now

And boot as usual.

Okay, I'll try that next! Get back to you.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX
I'd hate to thread crap and say get another distro, but Ubuntu/Debian has always given me problems getting a display when first installing..

And how did you fix it?

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Originally posted by: Skyhack
Try this...at the grub boot prompt, choose "recovery mode"

Then type...

nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

That will bring up the nano text editor. Scroll down in that file until you find the line that looks like

Device "ati"

Then edit it so that it looks like

Device "vesa"

Save the file (by hitting <ctrl><x>, and pressing enter)
then reboot...

shutdown -r now

And boot as usual.

Um...no file came up that shows anything like that at all. Just a bunch of stuff at the bottom of the screen, such as (^G help ^S exit etc...) But nothing can be entered! Eventually, after much random typing on the keyboard, I get back to the robert@ubuntu:~$. (Not quite sure how!) So, as usual, I just type exit and let my PC restart, and then I go into Windows! (again...

 

[Skyhack]

Are you typing "11" (one-one) after the capital X?

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Originally posted by: Skyhack
Are you typing "11" (one-one) after the capital X?

OOps...not capital X! That may be part of the prob!

 

[Skyhack]

Yeah, you have to type it exactly like I showed it...And you do know that the "^" means the CNTL key, when editing in nano, right?

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: CDC Mail Guy

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX
I'd hate to thread crap and say get another distro, but Ubuntu/Debian has always given me problems getting a display when first installing..

And how did you fix it?

Well since you're using such a newer ati card, Ubuntu will try to pair it with an open-source driver (ati) that won't support it.

1) Make sure you're in the console and logged in and everything.

2) Type 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg' for a setup for your x server.

3) During the setup just keep hitting enter so it'll choose the defaults and eventually you'll come to where it says to choose your driver. Instead of choosing the driver called 'ati', choose 'vesa'. It'll probably help to choose 1024x786 for your resolution and 8bit for your color depth as you continue the setup.

4) Once the setup is over, run startx.

That's pretty much it. Once you get the x server up and a nice graphical display going, I can give you instructions for getting your ati card working with fglrx (the proprietary driver that supports your card with higher resolutions and refresh rates and such).

 

[Nothinman]

One should note that using the vesa driver will result in no accelerated 3D and probably much slower 2D.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX

Originally posted by: CDC Mail Guy

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX
I'd hate to thread crap and say get another distro, but Ubuntu/Debian has always given me problems getting a display when first installing..

And how did you fix it?

Well since you're using such a newer ati card, Ubuntu will try to pair it with an open-source driver (ati) that won't support it.

1) Make sure you're in the console and logged in and everything.

2) Type 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg' for a setup for your x server.

3) During the setup just keep hitting enter so it'll choose the defaults and eventually you'll come to where it says to choose your driver. Instead of choosing the driver called 'ati', choose 'vesa'. It'll probably help to choose 1024x786 for your resolution and 8bit for your color depth as you continue the setup.

4) Once the setup is over, run startx.

That's pretty much it. Once you get the x server up and a nice graphical display going, I can give you instructions for getting your ati card working with fglrx (the proprietary driver that supports your card with higher resolutions and refresh rates and such).

That did it! Thank you for your help Sleep Walker. And to everyone else as well that got me to the point that I could fix it. Now thsat I am in it though I cannot watch videos because the Totem Movie Player is not working.

Okay, now I'm getting this error message for the Totem Movie Player

Totem could not startup
The video output is in use by another application. Please close other video applications, or select another video output in the Multimedia Systems Selector.

I don't know what other application is using this, and I cannot seem to find the Multimedia Systems Selector

 

[SleepWalkerX]

From googling around, it seems that Totem does something like that when DRI is turned off with your drivers. Perhaps that's the issue. If so, its time to install the proprietary ATI driver.

Check out this wiki article.

 

[daniel49]

Since he has said nothing about libdvdcss2 I assume he hasn't gotten it yet?

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Originally posted by: daniel49
Since he has said nothing about libdvdcss2 I assume he hasn't gotten it yet?

???

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: CDC Mail Guy

Originally posted by: daniel49
Since he has said nothing about libdvdcss2 I assume he hasn't gotten it yet?

???

Libdvdcss is a library that applications can use to crack encryption on DVD movies.

A Library is a like a peice of a program kept in a seperate file. Any programmer that wants to gain extra functionality then use functions from that library and incorporate it into their program. It allows nice things like sharing functionality and often reduces memory usage and improves performance. They are like DLL files in Windows.

The reason you need libdvdcss is it allows you to playback and rip dvd movies from Linux. Since no company supports and licenses CSS encryption to Linux or Linux applications then this is the only way to watch movies on Linux distros. It's quite commonly used, but you have to usually install it seperate from your main install due to legality issues. Distros won't touch it, but they often provide information on how to obtain it easily.

I don't know why the other guy mentioned it in this thread though.

 

[JohnBernstein]

Originally posted by: CDC Mail Guy
Okay, I installed Ubuntu 5.10 on my hard drive...dual boot with Win XP, but that's not my issue. After I type my "username" and enter password, it comes up with

******@ununtu:~$

The question is this, what do I do from here?

You graphics configuration is stuffed.
Believe it or not, some distros deliberately screw your graphics configuration (ie X configuration).

First thing to do is type

lspci

This will tell you what type of graphics card you have. Then have a look at:

http://linux.coconia.net/general/ati-md2005-suse93.htm

This will give you some idea of what you are up against.

The best answer to this type of problem is to install Mandriva, or some distro that works, and copy the working X configuration file /etc/X11/xorg.conf from there to Ubuntu.