ubuntu 8.04 starts in low graphics mode

Asked by angrybunny

i am a new linux user and i am having some trouble .. im using ubuntu 8.04 hardy heron .. and it only seems to work in low graphics mode.. when i would boot from the cd it worked fine but after installation i can only get low mode 800/600 or 640/480.. i was told to enable restricted drivers under the driver section but it says that 'no proprietary drivers are in use' ... ive installed something called 'envy' that only returned an error when i tried to install drivers.. ive installed xserver-xlg.. or something like that.. that didnt work.. im not sure of the graphics card but under display in device manager it says 'via/3ga unichrome pro igp'.... any help would be appreciated.. as i said im new to this so overly technical information will just go over my head *this is my first day on linux... thx for any help

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Kev (kevvroxx) said :
#1

this worked last night for someone else
try.. system... preferences....main menu...in left hand panel, go to other... then enable by ticking screens & graphics. then close and go to applications... other and you should see that option and have a play .. good luck

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#2

sorry i should have mentioned that.. i tried that too

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#3

kev's suggestion did allow me to change my screen resolution but not escape the low graphics mode

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Kev (kevvroxx) said :
#4

What graphics card are you using?

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#5

maybe im not looking at the right thing.. but i go run.. dxdiag.. display.. and it says name via/s3g unichrome pro igp.. manufacturer: via/s3g.. chip type via/s3g/unichrome pro igp.. dac type: internal.. mem: 64 mb.. is that what you are asking?

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#6

that was a typo in the original post.. its via/s3g not via/3ga

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Kev (kevvroxx) said :
#7

I did a quick look at the S3g web site and they seem to have linux drivers for some of their cards... try to find your exact model.. mayby even open the PC box and see if there is a model number there.. do a search for this card and use linux as part of your search. It's late here so am off to bed hope this helps...

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Kev (kevvroxx) said :
#8
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Kev (kevvroxx) said :
#9

is this a laptop?

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Kev (kevvroxx) said :
#10

what does the "screens and graphics say in the graphics card tap say?

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Kev (kevvroxx) said :
#11

what does the "screens and graphics say in the graphics card tab say?

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#12

im just going to remove this os thx anyway

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Kev (kevvroxx) said :
#13

pitty i was going to sugest that you load the live cd and now that you know your way around to look for settings see what it origionally started with. good luck

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Gustavo Recio (eltavo18) said :
#14

I had to do this (http://guxlightyear.blogspot.com/2008/03/solucionar-low-graphics-mode-en-ubuntu.html) in Ubuntu 7.10 in order to solve the "low graphics" problem. I don't know if it will work in 8.04 (I haven't upgraded already).

It's written in Spanish, but commands are the same than in english ;-). It's basically what Kev has suggested: load the live cd and copy the resulting xorg.conf in your installation.

Hope this works for you,
Gustavo

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#15

hello gustavo.. thanks for taking time for my little problem.. this forum is the only thing i like about linux so far..except for my dream of a world without windows... anyway i took a look at that link you provided but im canadian so i dont even know rudimentary spanish.. i assumed that i should just run the live cd.. open the terminal and type in the commands in order....this is what i got

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mkdir /media/disk
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdal /media/disk
mount: special device /dev/sdal does not exist
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

am i missing something? or do i have to enable something in the synaptic manager first? thanks for your help.. Kurt.

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#16

also.. i dont know if this means anything but when i try to look at the x11 file ..it says that no such file or directory exists.. although i see it in /etc.. it's listed in blue

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#17

does this mean something? trying to play 3d chess:

You are unable to play in 3D mode due to the following problems:
No Python OpenGL support
No Python GTKGLExt support

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Gustavo Recio (eltavo18) said :
#18

Hi angrybunny,

I guess that if my first exposition to Linux had been like that, I would have hate it for the rest of my life ;-). It uses to work without problems, in other case It wouldn't have such a community.

Don't worry about Spanish. That was supposed to be what you had to do, anyway, this little tutorial assumes that your first partition in your first SCSI drive is the one you choose to install Linux, what is not your case. That's what '/dev/sda1' mean: first SCSI partition in your first hard drive.

You should then look what's the device name of the partition where you have Ubuntu installed. That's quite easy: just boot your Ubuntu installation (not your live CD) and type in a terminal

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ mount

and look at the output. You should see several lines, and one like that. The one you have to look at is the one which contains "on / " following a device name. It's likely to be the first one, as it's the main partition. That's an example:
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro,data=writeback)

In my case that means that I have to use '/dev/sda1' in the tutorial. Maybe in yours is something like '/dev/hda2' or like that.

Once you have it, boot your live CD and follow the tutorial replacing '/dev/sda1' with the device name you got in the step before.

PS: about x11, Linux is case sensitive about files and directories, so you should write everything exactly as it's said in the tutorial. x11 should be X11 (capital X).

Hope this helps,
Gustavo

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#19

ok mine says '/host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk on / type 3 ext' so i replaced /dev/sdal with /host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk and it said 'mount: special device does not exist' i have linux installed inside of windows does that make a difference?

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angrybunny (angrybunny3) said :
#20

ok i deleted wubi and did a full installation so i could try that and it didnt work..i didnt get any error messages..it just didnt seem to do anything. thx anyway

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Jonas Lindström (macandron) said :
#21

Thank you for the excellent tip Gustavo! I encountered the same problem, but the instructions at the link you provided worked perfectly. Now I have a beautiful 1680x1050 resolution working on my 20-inch screen. :)

The same shortly in English:

1. Start Ubuntu from the CD in Live mode.

2. Create a new mount point with
sudo mkdir /media/disk

3. Mount the existing Ubuntu installation with
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/disk

(Note that sda1 could be something else depending on which partition is your primary boot partition.)

4. Copy xorg.conf to the existing Ubuntu installation with
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /media/disk/etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /media/disk/etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup (in case something goes wrong you can copy the contents of this to xorg.conf)

5. Remove write permissions from the file
sudo chmod -w /media/disk/etc/X11/xorg.conf

6. Reboot

Should work now! :)

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Fernando Chávez (nandoc) said :
#22

Hola,
The solution is so simple....
edit xorg.conf and add:

~~~~~~section of xorg.conf changed as mentioned~~~~~~~

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver "openchrome"
EndSection

So simple, taken from:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/+source/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome/+bug/244413

Fernando

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