Edgy fails to start xwindows

Mm, I think you have to install it to get it working. When you get "failed to start X server" than try sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and you can optionally select "vesa" as driver.

 Thanks for looking at the problem. If I try install Edgy which isn't working right, what assurances are there that XP will still work? There are a number of (likely proprietary) applications which Ubuntu doesn't run, so I have to have XP functional for them.

 I don't want to risk Edgy not working, and having to re-install XP which I don't know how to do since it came with the system.

 Would it help to try to run in persistent mode with a USB memory? I'll try.

 BTW, "The Official Ubuntu Book" on page 188 suggests wiki.ubuntu.com/debuggingxautoconfiguration which doesn't find anything. There is an entry help.ubuntu.com/community/DebuggingXAutoconfiguration which hasn't been useful yet.

 Somewhere on all the lines of output I think I remember an Edgy message: no monitor. I'll look for that again.
  Thanks, Jerry Amos

 -----Original Message-----
 From: <email address hidden>
 To: <email address hidden>
 Sent: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 3:26 PM
 Subject: [Support #2278]: Re: Edgy fails to start xwindows

  Support request #2278 on Ubuntu changed:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+ticket/2278

Comment:
Mm, I think you have to install it to get it working. When you get "failed to
start X server" than try sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and you can
optionally select "vesa" as driver.

________________________________________________________________________
Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- 2 GB of storage and industry-leading spam and email virus protection.

With a USB casper-cow memory in - I don't know if this is relevant - CD Live seems to run sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg with writing changes somewhere and allowing various guesses. It seems to get some response using driver I810 but says "no Video Bios modes for chosen depth" and then "no screens found".
Whew. Windows XP still runs, reports 64MB storage, int 16, some I/O addresses, default monitor 75hz, ...

 Found a fix someplace in launchpad (I can't find that entry again).
 The Intel 82845G chipset on a Dell machine had a Bios setting of 1024KB shared video ram. The person posting the entry had changed it to the max 8192KB which fixed the problem.

 Same fix worked with the IBM Net Vista 8303-SB2. Hooray for the forums.

 I spent about a week thrashing around with dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg to little avail, best I could get was 640x480.

 If anyone's watching these forums, I'd suggest a sticky note entry for anyone with a Intel 82845G to check their bios shared video ram before even bothering to try to boot the Edgy Eft CD.

 Thanks much to someone.
 -----Original Message-----
 From: <email address hidden>
 To: <email address hidden>
 Sent: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 8:26 PM
 Subject: [Support #2278]: Re: Edgy fails to start xwindows

  Support request #2278 on Ubuntu changed:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+ticket/2278

Comment:
Mm, I think you have to install it to get it working. When you get "failed to
start X server" than try sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and you can
optionally select "vesa" as driver.

________________________________________________________________________
Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- 2 GB of storage and industry-leading spam and email virus protection.

If these comments have solved your problem, please consider marking this request as answered. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SupportRequests contains useful information about managing your support request.

If you are still having problems, let us know and we'll keep working on them.

Best Regards,
neuromancer

Increasing the Bios setting to 8192KB for shared videoram fixes the problem. Someone suggested trying in the Device area of xorg:
Option "VideoRam" "65536"
if I understood correctly. I'll give it a try later.
Thanks for helping fix the bug.
Jerry Amos