I installed a new viewsonic VA1912wb monitor today and followed a howto I founded at ubuntuforums . . . in the process I really screwed up xorg.conf. The instructions I followed had me install:

xorg-driver-fglrx
add fglrx to /etc/modules
change "ati" to "fglrx" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
the last item was done using sed
the last thing was to reboot and when I did I couldn't get into gnome. I got error messages . . . I thought about it for awhile and decided backtracking might be a good idea. So I used sed again to change it back the way it was. However that didn't work. Now I am stuck in XP!! I did use CDLive to get to xorg.conf to see if I can find the two items ati and fglrx but couldn't find them. Oh, I am running a Celeron 2.40 GHz machine with a Nvidia GeForce MX 440. I believe I have pasted the proper part of xorg.conf below. Could someone tell me how to fix this problem? I posted on that Howto in Ubuntuforums but that was hours ago and I need to try to get this machine working again.

SSection "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 440]"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "NVIDIA Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 440]"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection

Try booting from the LiveCD and seeing if the system made a backup of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf - should be in the same directory, possibly xorg.conf.backup or xorg.conf~ or something. I've been there myself, and the golden rule is Always back it up before you tweak it! Googling xorg.conf and your video card could produce a config section you can cut-n-paste. Also, if your live CD boots and loads X ok, its creating its own xorg.conf which you could grab a copy of and try out. Did I mention back it up first? Good luck...

Well, I am back in Ubuntu thanks to your help. I was close to getting it working. The first part of that Howto should have been to BACKUP xorg.conf. It was listed as the next step. So I guess I will spend the rest of the day figuring out how to get the 1440x900 @ 60 Hz that viewsonic says works better. No more blindly following Howto's . . . well not until next time. Sometimes I feel I am not smart enough to be working with Ubuntu! tm

to add 1440, once again edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Basicaly adding it to the Modes as below is all that's required. You can add it to all Depths if you wish. You'll note that I also removed the more useless resolution. I have the same monitor and love it.

SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection

I guess I will have to try again when I am not so tired. I edited xorg.conf using what you typed above but when I rebooted the blue screen came up. Thankfully I backed up the file first. I am getting a little better at using CDLive! In the morning I will go over the file more closely. I wonder what I did wrong? Anyway, I will keep trying and thanks for the help. tm ps I have only had this monitor for a day and I love it too.