Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-video-mga package

Horizontal Lines Across Screen

Asked by Sam Adam Day

Hi, I have recently bought a new computer, having used Ubuntu in dual boot with XP on my last one. When I tried to install Ubuntu (10.10) on my new computer however, the screen became covered with horizontal lines. Whenever something changed on the screen (like the mouse moving), more lines appeared. I could make certain controls appear above the lines by clicking them.

Here's a screenshot: http://omgwac.com/uploads/screenshotsmaller.png

I managed to install Ubuntu, hoping that I might find a fix after it was on my computer. I can login in Failsafe Graphics mode, but I get the message 'Your screen graphics card and input device settings could not be detected correctly'.

My graphics card seems to be rather old, and there's only an old driver on the manufacturer's website (Matrox). When I try to install it, it says:
ERROR: The X server drivers included in this installation package do not support the current version of your X server.

The release notes for the driver (ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/archive/linux/2006/readme-mga-4.4.0.txt) says it will only support X.org versions 6.7.0, 6.8.0, 6.8.1, 6.8.2, 6.9.0 and 7.0.0.

'lspci -nn | grep VGA'
  outputs:
11:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200 AGP [102b:0521] (rev 03)

What can I do?

Thanks for your help.

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Ubuntu xserver-xorg-video-mga Edit question
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actionparsnip
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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Have you tested your RAM?

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

Can you also boot to root recovery mode and run:

sudo lshw -C display

What is written after:

driver=

Thanks (note the C is CAPITALIZED, Linux is VERY case sensitive, so stay accurate)

Revision history for this message
Sam Adam Day (me-samadamday) said : 		#3

Thanks for your reply. The RAM test passed (twice), but the command 'sudo lshw -C display' didn't return anything with 'driver=' in it. Here's the full output:

sam@Pythagoras:~$ sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password for sam:
  *-display:0 UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: MGA G200 AGP
       vendor: Matrox Graphics, Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:11:00.0
       version: 03
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm agp agp-1.0 vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: memory:dd000000-ddffffff memory:dc800000-dc803fff memory:db800000-dbffffff memory:df000000-df00ffff
  *-display:1 UNCLAIMED
       description: Display controller
       product: MGA G200 AGP
       vendor: Matrox Graphics, Inc.
       physical id: 4
       bus info: pci@0000:11:04.0
       version: 03
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm agp agp-1.0 bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: memory:de000000-deffffff memory:dc804000-dc807fff memory:dc000000-dc7fffff memory:df010000-df01ffff

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

Boot to root recovery mode and run:

nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and add this code:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200 AGP2"
        Driver "mga"
        Option "OldDmaInit" "True"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "PlugAndPlay"
        Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Device "Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200 AGP"
 Monitor "PlugAndPlay"
 DefaultDepth 24
 SubSection "Display"
            Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier "Default Layout"
 Screen "Default Screen"
EndSection

Press CTRL+X, Press Y, Press ENTER

then run:

reboot

If you don't get a desktop, boot back to recovery root mode and run:

mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_old; reboot

And you will be where you started.

Linux is VERY case sensitive so ALL commands and text must be written as given to work

Revision history for this message
Sam Adam Day (me-samadamday) said : 		#5

Thank you very much for your advice. Unfortunately, this didn't solve it (I made sure all commands were inputted correctly). What else could I try?

Revision history for this message
Best actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#6

Could change:

        Driver "mga"

to:
        Driver "vesa"

Then reboot

Revision history for this message
Sam Adam Day (me-samadamday) said : 		#7

That worked a treat, thank you very much for your help!

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#8

No worries. I suggest you backup the xorg.conf file so if you need to reinstall you can simply restore the file. You are using the failsafe driver which will work on any video chip and you won't get 3D effects using the driver but it seems to be the only one which works...

Revision history for this message
Sam Adam Day (me-samadamday) said : 		#9

I was just wondering, if I wanted to add more display modes to choose from, how would I go about doing this? Should I simply add them in speech marks on the end of the line starting 'modes'?

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#10

Yes, te leftmost value is the one used to boot in and will be default for the desktop.

Revision history for this message
Sam Adam Day (me-samadamday) said : 		#11

Hmm, that doesn't seem to have any effect, I only have 4 display modes to choose from in 'gnome-display-properties': 1280x1024, 1024x768, 800x600 and 640x480.

Revision history for this message
Tormod Volden (tormodvolden) said : 		#12

Please run "ubuntu-bug xserver-xorg-video-mga" if it does not work out of the box in 11.04 or 11.10.