i just installed ubuntu, hoary hedgehog. but my screen resolution is at 640 x 480 and when i go to change it, that is the only option. are they're no drivers? or can i try a different driver? how?

what kind of video card is it???

Intel Springdale G Integrated Video

Ubuntu probably couldn't detect your monitor and configure it. Setting a vertical refresh rate higher than what your monitor can handle can physically damage your monitor. Since Ubuntu couldn't figure out what your monitor was, it chose a VERY safe configuration for it. They don't want to be responsible for damaging your monitor. That's what happened and why.

Now to fix it you have to manually configure your monitor and video card. Do the following:
sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
look for the following lines in xorg.conf

These are the lines that config your monitor. you need to fill in the information for your monitor for the
lines. DO NOT GUESS at this. You need to get this information from your monitor manual or from your monitor manufacturer. If you guess wrong, you can damage your monitor.

Next you need to look for these lines

Again, you need to get this information from your monitor manual or from your monitor manufacturer. Depth refers to color depth in bits. 8 bits is usually referred to as 256 colors, 16 bits is usually referred to as thousands of colors, and 24 bits is usually referred to as millions of colors. You need to check your monitor's manual and fill in what resolutions your display supports for each color depth. DefaultDepth tells which color depth (in the above example 24 bit or millions of colors) is the default.

After manually configuring xorg.conf you should be able to select the resolution and color depth you want.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: Oh Yeah, after editing xorg.conf, you need to stop and restart the X server for the changes to take affect. The easiest way to to this is to reboot.

Pudge

I had that same problem and I have an Nvidia GeForce 4 MX440 and I just came up around it by just changing all the depths on the /etc/X11/xorg.conf to 1024x768. You just need to make sure that your supports that so you don't blow it up.

well, here's what the section you described looks like without any editing

I added the HorizSync and VertRefresh, they weren't on by default. And of course the nvidia for the driver instead of the default nv.

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 440]"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DELL E171FPb"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 31-80
VertRefresh 56-76
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "NVIDIA Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 440]"
Monitor "DELL E171FPb"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSectionSection "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection

This my layout:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

#Section "DRI"
# Mode 0666
#EndSection

I have omitted dri module as well as the section along with the mode and section end. Take a look:

Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
# Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
# Load "int10"
# Load "record"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

I have an nvidia card and it used to crash with X on Kubuntu and SuSE as well as Mandriva/Mandrake and Fedora Core. Make sure that you have your mouse right as well. For example i have a serial mouse and on Mandrake Mandriva it was under /dev/mouseman but i changed it to ttyS0 and that made my X load nice and clean.

adding the horizontal and vertical refresh did the trick.

thanks, this forum never ceases to amaze me