I'm switching from onboard video to PCI, but before I make the changes I thought I'd put this to the LQ to see if there are any more suggestions.

Confused! I installed a Geforce 7300 GT PCI-E x-16 card. Held 'del' key upon boot to bring up settings. I found these that looked like video settings.


Features:
1- Onboard PCI IDE controller - set to 'both' - options are: primary - secondary

2- Onboard 1394 - 'Enabled'


PCI/Plug and play set-up:

1- Boot graphics adapter priority - set to 'PCI/IGD' options are: IGD,PEG/IGD,PCI/IGD

2- Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA - set to ' yes'

3- PCI IDE Busmaster - set to 'Enabled'

Leaving the above settings as-is:

The system starts booting and will begin to load the devices and drivers in the Ubuntu GUI screen but then gives the following:

'Failed to start x server (your graphical interface). It is likely that it is not set up correctly. Would you like to view the x server output to diagnose the problem?'

The computer manufacturer (PowerSpec) says that when I plugged in the new PCI x-16 card that the onboard graphics was automatically disabled. I guess that means physically. But I still have to set the bios, and I'm confused as to what setting is the right one(s). As above - 'both' may be the wrong one... Maybe should be 'primary'?

Also tried live boot of the new Sabayon mini on DVD, and got
-------
'FATAL: Could not open' /lib/modules/2.6.18- gentoo -r5/video/nividia .ko No such file or directory.'
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Even if I do make changes, will I need to install a driver for this card? I am under the impression that it will work in Ubuntu plug-n-play.

Ubuntu dapper
PowerSpec 6343/ATI raedeon express 200 onboard graphics
GeForce 7300 GT PCI-E x16 new graphics card.

Which video card is your monitor cable connected to? If it's the GeForce card, and your monitor is displaying an image, then it's working and you don't need to make any BIOS changes. OTOH, if the only way you can have the monitor work is by connecting it to the onboard video, then making BIOS changes will be necessary.

I'll assume you are connected to the GeForce, and if so, then the problem is most likely what the error message indicated - your xorg settings are incorrect. Can you post the contents of your xorg.conf file (in the /etc/X11 directory) and also specify the exact make and model of your monitor

I'm connected to the Geforce PCI x-16 card. And you're right, I didn't have to change the BIOS settings. I rebooted in recovery ode and logged in as root user, then reconfigured xorg 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg' and had to specify an identity for the video card and monitor. All working good thus far.

Thanks, Paul

Uh-Oh, I'm still trying to get sabayon 3.2 (the new mini edition) to boot live. I still get this:
'FATAL: Could not open' /lib/modules/2.6.18- gentoo -r5/video/nividia .ko No such file or directory'.The GUI progress bar stops at the power icon.

Also having trouble with other distros with live CD/DVDs. I get this: 'PCI cannot allocate rescource region 3 of 0000.000'

Thus far I have installed on this computer: Ubuntu by itself without Windows. FC 5 Live DVD works good and Freespire works good. Although I have tried other boot modes I still can't get these trouble distros to boot live. Do I still have problems with my new PCI graphics card or setup?