Display problems with Ubuntu

[Stargate199]

Okay, I decided to dual boot ubuntu and xp on my thinkpad. I installed ubuntu and did the updates, but after the updates, something went wrong with my display settings. Now it will not run with the ati driver, it uses the default vesa driver and I can't get the display above 800x600. I have the ati moblie radeon 9000 graphics chip and SXGA+ (1400x1050) display, I also have a monitor with 1680x1050 resolution that I would like to use as my primary with the thinkpad display off. What should I do to get this working?

[Stargate199]

Okay, I manged to get the thinkpad display working again, but I still can't get the external to work properly. Every time i try to my settings, Ubuntu reverts to default settings. What is going on?

[rmcder]

Many have had problems with the restricted drivers at high rez. There are a whole series of articles dealing with this problem. You might want to Google ENVY, which is a program to help install the driver properly, and you'll also find a link to the author who has written quite extensively about the problem.

[Stargate199]

ENVY won't work. Gives me an error that my OS does not support the driver. Using Ubuntu 7.10. The only thing I can get to work that will somewhat give my full display is boot into recovery mode, use

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

and reset all the settings. When that is done, my thinkpad display comes on and so does my monitor. The resolution is set to 1400x1050, but it "extends" my desktop so it can also take up the full resolution of my monitor, but still acts like its in 1400x1050.

[Stargate199]

Okay, did some more playing around, and I think I may have gotten the legacy Ati drivers to install (not 100% sure). Somehow, I still can't get the Ati driver to work properly. I can not get it to play nice with an external display, and I can't seem to use the more advance driver that should allow for more special effects. I am wondering if it has something to do with how IBM setup the graphics chip. From what both Windows and Linux tells me, the Mobility Radeon 9000 chip is AGP based, but there is some kind of bridge that puts it on a PCI bus. I am not that technical with computer hardware architecture, so this may be how AGP works, but I always thought that it AGP had its own bus. If that is the case, it may explain why the driver does not want to work.