bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

[JKH Designs]

I am new to 8.04 Hardy and Kubuntu been using it about a year. I really like it and have a lot of software loaded. I came in this morning and at startup my monitor resolution was very large. I could not increase the resolution through the settings monitor desktop menu. I found a message about editing the xorg.conf file which I tried, rebooted and now I have a black screen. How do I boot into a console or bare bones os to try to restore the original xorg.conf file?

Thanks in advance

James

[Snowhog]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Do you have a (recovery mode) boot entry in your Grub menu when you boot? If you do, select it. That gets you to a command line 'as root.' If you don't, then when you see the Grub menu, press 'e' to edit. Select the kernel line and arrow to the end and then backspace to erase the items after ro and then type single so that the end of the kernel line you have so single

Tthis is what mine looks like:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-16-generic root=UUID=8c01fe0c-a60f-4921-94d6-cabbfff0a699 ro single

Then press 'b' to boot. You will end up at the command line 'as root.'

[lmilano]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Right. There is also an option to "repair graphics" usually in the Rescue Mode. That might work.

[JKH Designs]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Thank you both Imilano & Snowhog very much for the input.

I did not have a recovery mode already in the Grub.

Pressed esc. key at boot up and went to the newest kernal Recovery mode.
first loaded any new dpkg, rebooted and then went in to x file server recover and rebooted into a kubuntu o.s.

Couldn't have done it without your input, thanks so much thought I had lost everything.


James

[Snowhog]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Glad we could help.

Do you even see your Grub menu? If 'no,' then it's hidden, and if you don't want that, it can be 'unhidden' so you can see all the kernel boot options available to you.

[GreyGeek]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Hey, guys, the visual impaired GreyGeek has a question:

I thought that HAL no longer uses xorg.conf and identifies and configures the video device each time it boots? Yes? No?

[Snowhog]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Not in Hardy IIUC.

[lmilano]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Hey, guys, the visual impaired GreyGeek has a question:

I thought that HAL no longer uses xorg.conf and identifies and configures the video device each time it boots? Yes? No?

Hi GreyGeek,

Yes and no. It is not needed by default in Karmic. If it's not present, it's not used, and everything works automagically. If it is present, it is used.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8051823
http://ubuntu-ky.ubuntuforums.org/sh....php?t=1221226

Apparently, "sudo Xorg -configure" regenerates one.

[JKH Designs]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Hey Snowhog,

Yes I have a grub menu that comes up very briefly. I only have the one os on this system so it does not stay on but a second or 2. I have several other systems that give you a choice at start of which os you need to boot into.

Thnaks again for ya'lls help. ;

[JKH Designs]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Snowdog,Imilano and all,

I thought we had this problem solved. I rebooted my system this morning and it came back up to the oversized resolution. I went through the steps ya'll recommended yesterday and I'm back to an adjustable resolution again.

My question is what do I need to do to save these settings permanently?

I found this command in the xorg.conf file but have not tried it, kinda gunshy after messing around with it yesterday.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure - phigh xserver-xorg

Any suggestions?


Thanks again in advance

James

[GreyGeek]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

......

I found this command in the xorg.conf file but have not tried it, kinda gunshy after messing around with it yesterday.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure - phigh xserver-xorg

.....

James, that command is why I asked my question above. The "-phigh" parameter USED to create an xorg.conf file, but it is no longer functional. Only the "-plow" parameter for configuring the keyboard, etc, works.

So, I was wondering how those folks who created their xorg.conf file, since HAL no longer creates it, did that. It looks like
Xorg -configure
is it. That's nice to know. (Odd that that command starts with a capital X).

[lmilano]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Another thing that might help in your cse is to try to choose a fix DPI in System Settings -> Display

[JKH Designs]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Imilano,

This fix DPI in system settings display sounds like it might do the trick if I could just find it now, sorry about being a little slow you know. Under System settings I found the Monitor & Display thats where I've been adjusting the resolution when it will let me that is. I've gone in to admin and logged in then monitor size,orientation & positioning tab, color & gamma tab, the hardware tab has 2 configure buttons but no fix DPI. Am I in the right ballpark or are you talking about another spot that I haven't found yet? I am running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS server with KDE release 3.5.10

Thank yall for being patient,


James

[lmilano]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

Mmm, it is there in Jaunty. Is anyone else running 8.04 and able to help with this? Thanks!

[Picabia]

Re: bad edit of xorg.conf recovery

maybe you dont have to mess with the xorg file? i booted in recovery mode and ran "xfix". that did solve my problem. i really would encourage to try this, before you edit a system file.