How can I revert to a saved xorg.conf file from the terminal?

The reason why it is saying "No such file or directory" is because you have no file on your computer called "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak". If you ran the backup previously as stated then the file that you are trying to restore from is called /etc/X11/xorg.conf.mysave. The way you would restore it would then be to issue the following:

 sudo /etc/X11/xorg.conf.mysave /etc/X11/xorg.conf

  This should ask you if it ok to over wright the current copy. If you are sure that's what you want to do, then hit "y", and restart X or the whole machine and you will be back in business.

   Good luck,
        ~ Mike

I get this error when entering the command you gave me:

sudo: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.mysave: command not found

The command should be

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.mysave /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Simon

When I typed the command in, it asked me for my password then did nothing. When I rebooted it said that my x server was not configured correctly.

If it helps, at end of the X server output it says:

Fatal server error: no screens found

Press Ctrl + Alt + F1

Log in text mode

do

  sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Hello !

When I look to the command you entered, it seems that you messed up with the order for the arguments of cp ... The correct syntax is "cp existing_file destination" ...

When I look at the first command you issued, I think that you overwrited your backuped file with your misconfigured one ...

It is normal that you don't see anything while copying ... If you want something displayed on screen, use cp -v (v stands for verbose)

So, I think you'll have to make as Carles suggested: sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

That should give you a basic (but working) xorg.conf file.

Regards,
Benoît

Okay, I tried restoring my X server by going through the setup and I was able to do it correctly. At the end it said

xserver-xorg postinst warning: overwriting possibly-customized configuration file; backup in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.20070319071951

Is that saying that a backup was overwritten, or have I already overwritten all of those? I know I made atleast two.

But now that I have the GUI restored, will it be easier to overwrite the xorg.conf file with a backed up one, assuming I still have a backup?

you have them all.

Alright, so should I look for my backed up copies in the /etc/X11/ directory? And then should I just open my xorg.conf and copy in the text from a backed up configuration file?

Also, what should I do in the future when installing beryl to avoid this problem? The guide instructed me to do this:

Add this to xorg.conf "Screen" section

# Enable 32-bit ARGB GLX Visuals
    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"

# If you are using an older version of compiz that
# does not support rendering into the Composite
# Overlay Window, you will need to disable clipping
# of GLX rendering to the X Root window with this
# option, or you will get a blank screen after
# starting compiz:
    Option "DisableGLXRootClipping" "True"

Add this to xorg.conf "Device" section

Option "TripleBuffer" "true"

I added that in to the correct sections, with the spacing and everything, but every time I do that it gives me a problem.

I tried

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.mysave /etc/X11/xorg.conf

from the terminal with the GUI loaded, but when I reloaded the X server it gave me the same error that I need to reconfigure it.

Also, how come Beryl is installed and is able to run with this partially functioning X server?

The problem seems that we don't know exactly what the backup copies of your xorg.conf file are. The best way is to list the content in the folder with the foolowing command:

ls /etc/X11/

or for just the xorg files with:

ls /etc/X11/xorg*

Even better you can see when they were last changed with

ls -alh /etc/X11/xorg*

Then choose the correct one and "copy" it with the cp command to where it should be with:

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.(something) /etc/X11/xorg.conf

   Thanks,
          ~ Mike

Sorry for taking so long to respond.

That seemed to work. I found the backup I made right after I installed my Nvidia drivers, copied it over, and my x server started correctly.

Thank you all for your help