Screen resolution problem in Ubuntu 9.04

Hello, Lawrence. :-)

Would you be kind enough to post both an "lspci" as well as your xorg.conf?

Just open up a terminal and type "lspci", copy and paste the results here, and then "gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf", and do the same.

We'll get you fixed in no time. :-)

Dear Bryan,

Thanks for helping me out with this. I have just done what you said and the results are below. I would like to add that on turning on the computer now, it seems to be having a good day and the problem is not there. I basically need to know the solution so that every time it comes up, I can sort it. Thanks.

seauk@seauk-desktop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661FX/M661FX/M661MX Host (rev 11)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS AGP Port (virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge)
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS964 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 36)
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev 01)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 90)
00:05.0 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] RAID bus controller 180 SATA/PATA [SiS] (rev 01)
00:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] (rev 08)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev a2)
seauk@seauk-desktop:~$

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Okay, you have an nVIDIA NV18 GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x graphics card.

Since you say that this problem is one that is off and on, I can only guess that the driver is deciding when to function.

I would suggest EnvyNG, an application that downloads, installs, and configures nVIDIA graphics cards, but the only place you can get it is from the repositories, and it looks like the Jaunty release has put an end to it being there. You can still try it, with a "sudo apt-get install envyng-qt" and tell me if it installs correctly. It probably won't, so what I did (having an nVIDIA driver myself) was find the Linux driver for my card from nVIDIA, and installed it.

You might try going to System --> Administration --> Hardware Drivers and seeing if there's a graphics card that you can download and use, but if not, download this driver to your desktop:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/96.43.11/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.11-pkg1.run

Then, get into a real terminal mode : CONTROL + ALT + F1, then login. (Don't do it right this second, or you won't be able to keep reading. Make sure you write down all of these instructions, and they are all case-sensitive.)

Go to your desktop:

cd Desktop

Turn off X.org/GDM (Gnome Display Manager):

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

Run the installer:

sudo sh ./N (Now press the TAB key, because the rest of the filename will automatically appear. This is a great feature!)

Choose x.org automatic configuration at the last step inside the installation program.

Restart your computer

sudo reboot now

If anything goes wrong, you can easily uninstall this driver by following the same steps and when running the installer type:

sudo sh ./N(Tab key) --uninstall

This will almost certainly solve your problem, but I still wish you good luck. Sorry it's taken me so long to reply, also.

I hope I've been of some help, and that I've solved your problem. Best to you, and good luck!

Hello, I have just re-installed 9.04 from 8.10, before I did it from 7.10, all the way through 9.04 and luckily the screen resolutions remained, but this time I could not do it from 7.10 since it won't let me upgrade from it anymore, so I loaded 8.10 and upgraded online to 9.04, so the highest screen resolution I have is 800x600 which sucks!... Since I was reading this post, I have already gotten the info requested here before, I hope I can get your help to increase the choices of screen resolutions... Thanks...
Here is the info:

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection