I have a Dell GX260 box. The HDD was wiped clean and Kubuntu 7.04 was installed. The video driver is onboard the mobo and is crap. The highest resolution it offered on a 15 inch monitor was 640x480. So I bought a brand new Nvidia GeForce MX4000 DDR video card.

Installation of the card was successful, the driver, OTOH is squirrely. After installing the nvidia-glx driver and rebooting the OS seemed to detect the card. In checking the system settings GUI, the card is in fact there, so the OS seems to see it. I then selected the appropriate driver in addtn to having installed nvidia-glx at root from terminal. Immediately, I had options in system settings/hardware to adjust from 640x480, to either 800x600 or 1024x768. All was fine until I rebooted.


Upon rebooting, the OS is still locked into 640x480 mode. Despite the sys settings GUI seeing the card, I can't adjust the display. There is nothing else to choose from except 640x480.

Also, I have to plug in the monitor into the onboard video driver output on the back of the box instead of the input on the new video card because if I don't, there is no display. Repeat. Plugging in monitor into new video card does not yield a display. the monitor is blank. Its like the OS just doesn't see the monitor at all b/c the normally green power on light on monitor is amber color instead.

This is a challenging question and I would be very amazed if anyone knew the answer since everything I have researched regarding this matter both here and elsewhere, the challenging questions like mine tend to go unresolved, and, meanwhile, all the easy questions get answered.

If anyone has any clue as to what exactly the problem is here, then feel free to chime in with a suggestion. Before the problem was that the video card was crappy. So I have a new card and it still doesn't work the way it should.

I guess the operative question here is thus:

How do I tell the OS that the primary video card is the new one, NOT the onboard video card? I've gone into sys settings GUI and changed the onboard video card from "primary" to "secondary" and changed the new video card from "secondary" to "primary" but now the problem is that the LED on the monitor is green as it should be. I imagine switching worked, except that having plugged in the monitor into the new video card, the monitor is blank and the LED button is still amber. And now I'm screwed b/c I have no display at all. It's completely blank.

Is there a reason you want the onboard video active at all? If not (and I suspect not), then disable it in the BIOS. It will make life a little easier & will end the confusion as to which card is which and which one to use, etc.

to change your video resolution permanently, you need to update the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You can do this with the "nvidia settings" program (under system tools in Ubuntu), but unless you launch the program as root or change the permissions on the xorg.conf file, the settings will not be saved to disk & therefore will not be around after a reboot. You can launch as root by simply typing "sudo nvidia-settings" from a terminal

note: When going through the driver install, be sure to edit the xorg.conf file properly, or at least use nvidia-xconfig to help you out.

Actually I did that with zero success. I set the video in BIOS from "onboard" to "auto" and the pc just sits there. Won't budge from the first inch of the blue line of the Kubu splash screen. Doesn't even get to the loading GRUB screen. The HDD isn't even whirring. I think it's safe to say it's locked up.

UPDATE:

So I switched BIOS video back from "auto" to "onboard" and now the screen is blank. The pc is powered on b/c I see the green LED on it and the monitor is on b/c I see its green LED, but the screen just sits there black. I have rebooted several times with the same result. What do I do now and is this even worth it. Looks like I'm going to have reinstall the OS again.

Is it normal to have to reinstall the OS to get things back to normal every single time you mess with something in this OS? Shouldn't having re-enabled onboard from auto have allowed for the OS to load? Oh btw, yes, I DID in fact pull out the monitor cord from the new video card BACK to the onboard video card and the result is the same: Blank screen. This can't be normal. I have never had such epic problems with resolution before.
This can't be a normal thing.

I'm going to mess with this particular suggestion and report back, however, I'm not so convinced it will work. This is not the first time I've gone ten rounds with the screen resolution issue. Previously, I was told that it was the crappy onboard video drivers which I agreed with. The max was 640x480 so it made sense to get a new card. And I did. And the problem seems to remain no matter what. There does not seem to be an easy way to configure screen resolution for a new video card.

That said, I've had to reinstall the OS twice now b/c everytime I mess with something to tell the OS that the new video card is what I want as default, I either end up with a totally blank screen or it won't boot to the GUI. Just the login prompt. That would be fine except I don't know how to resolve anything past login name and password. So I just reinstalled the OS to save myself some time. I'm sure that's not so great on the HDD, but there aren't a lot of ready answers available to issues like this one.

Not sure what this means. I wouldn't even begin to know what to edit xorg or how to even get there. "edit xorg.conf" yields an error. Meanwhile, I still have a blank screen. I can't even GET to a text only to input anything to fix it. I tried the alt CD to fix it but that was useless as well. This issue doesn't even seem to be documented anywhere. Surely others must have encountered the very same or similiar issue with configuring a card? Surely this can't be normal to be stuck in one resolution and then every single time you change something around you have to reinstall the OS b/c if you don't you just never get the GUI back.

Display is permanently screwed. in bios I changed video from onboard to auto and back again. each time I rebooted. in "auto" the kubu screen you see immediately following GRUB loads to about an inch of the blue level and then locks up. Won't budge no matter how long I let it sit there to think about it. In "onboard" detection mode, the screen is completely blank. I can't even get to a command line only login. What now?