[juneau-lug] Re: Poor graphics

  • From: James Zuelow <e5z8652@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: juneau-lug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:26:57 -0800

On Saturday, October 30, 2010, Larry Hurlock wrote:
> Confession:  I just lived with poor video quality until I taught myself
> enough command line usage to be able to now hold a useful exchange about
> how to correct it.  Larry
> Am running Ubuntu 10.10 on a Dell running at 2.8MHZ w/1G Ram
> 
> I am able to use my
> 
> Monitor: ViewSonic 19" 1440X900 60 Hz
> Video Card: ATI Radeon 7000 PCI card w/32MG ram

OK, ATI video card...
> 
----8<----snip----8<----
> 
> Here is a copy of /etc/X11.xorg.conf:
> 
----8<----snip----8<----
> 
> Section "Device"
>     Identifier    "Default Device"
>     Driver    "nvidia"
>     Option    "NoLogo"    "True"
> EndSection
> 
----8<----snip----8<----

Uh oh.  ATI video card, but nVidia drivers specified.


> This file does NOT update when I reboot.

Yes, this is by design.  The xorg.conf file is meant to be used to ensure that 
xorg does what you want.  It will not update when you reboot.

I suggest you move it out of the way (if you want to keep it) or just delete 
it since it is not helping you at all.  In fact, it is hurting you.

> It will not recreate itself if I move it to change its name temporarily
> while rebooting
> It will not fill a null file of the correct name if I create that

If you want to create a basic xorg.org file, try this:

Switch to a console as root (not a terminal emulator in X  -- ctrl+alt+F1 
should get you to one), log in and then run:

cd /etc/X11/
sudo Xorg -configure

However, that will get you an xorg.conf file that has the same values as what 
xorg.conf does when it autoconfigures.  So you only need to do this if you 
need to change something.  If you leave the generated file as is, you'll get 
the same results as if you didn't have one at all.  Probably this is a trick 
for the future.

> 
> Here is a copy of lines from the file /var/log/Xorg.0.log searching for EE
> & WW as requested by James Z.:
> 
>     (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
> [    23.161] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not
> exist. [    23.212] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for vesa
> [    23.212] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev
> [    23.427] (EE) Failed to initialize GLX extension (Compatible NVIDIA X
> driver not found)

The 3D library is not being loaded.  That is because your xorg.conf file tells 
xorg to try to load the nvidia glx driver.  But xorg has some autoconfigure 
functions, and it is in fact loading the correct radeon driver:

----8<----snip----8<----

> [    23.182] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
> [    23.182] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules/libglx.so
> [    23.198] (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
> [    23.198]     compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
> [    23.198]     Module class: X.Org Server Extension
> [    23.198] (II) NVIDIA GLX Module  96.43.18  Tue Jul 13 13:31:40 PDT 2010
> [    23.198] (II) Loading extension GLX

Above, the nVidia fails to load.  However below, xorg has identified your 
video card and loads the correct video driver:

> [    23.203] (II) RADEON: Driver for ATI Radeon chipsets:

The end result is that xorg tried to do what xorg.conf told it to do, but was 
unable.  So you ended up with a system that is half ATI and half nVidia.


Things to do:

1) ditch the xorg.conf file.
2) using synaptic, or whatever package management tool Ubuntu is using, find 
and uninstall (purge if you can) any package with "nvidia" as part of it's 
name.  I can't stress this enough -- PURGE the packages if you can.  When the 
nVidia GLX driver was installed, it set up a diversion from the "regular" GLX 
driver.  You need to make sure your system undoes this diversion.
3) if you want to use the free radeon drivers simply reboot.  The radeon 
drivers are pretty good.  It is what I use on my Debian desktop at home.
4) if you want to use the proprietary ATI drivers, search for and install the 
"fglrx" drivers.  I don't use Ubuntu, but instructions are here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI
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