[Xastir] Re: [ubuntulinux] Re: Screen Resolution problem

[Jeremy Utley]

On 7/31/07, Earl Needham <needhame1 at plateautel.net> wrote:
> At 05:45 PM 7/19/2007, I wrote:
> ><snip>
> >At one point, I had 25 various xorg files, all different
> >iterations of the same thing. I tried to delete the excess ones and
> >got the basic one too, so the machine was toast. Reloaded Kubuntu
> >and started searching on the internet and found some common problems
> >having to do with missing lines for vertical and horizontal specs for
> >monitors. Currently, I have added the lines and it seems to be
> >running well, but I'll give it a few days before I trust it again --
> >the problem only seems to show up on a reboot.
>
>          And now it's gone bad again, but it's SO bad that I can't
> even see the screen well enough to change the resolution to something
> that will work.
>
>          I really wanted Kubuntu to work, because I really wanted
> Xastir to work.  But I think this is the end and I'm done with it.
>
>          I wonder if Fedora is less buggy.
>          Earl

Hey Earl -

I don't think it's Ubuntu itself that's the buggy thing.  I seem to
remember from your previous descriptions that you had a newer ATI card
in your machine?  (Radeon 9600 if memory serves)  ATI's linux drivers
are notoriously buggy drivers, and Xorg itself sometimes has problems
with driving newer ATI cards due to lack of proper specs.

Before totally giving up and wiping out ubuntu, I would probably try
one thing - see if you can get a very simplistic setup going with your
video card.  Open up whatever your current X config file is in an
editor, find the "Driver" line (probably says ati or radeon or fglrx)
and change that to the "vesa" driver.  Then drop down to your "Modes"
line where it specifies what resolutions you want to use - remove
anything higher than "1024x768" - you very well might get some stable
performance this way, but without 3d acceleration - and for running
xastir, that's not really needed anyway.

HTH,

Jeremy, NW7JU