Dell Inspiron 8000 split screen with ATI Mobility 4 display adapter

[Jack]

I have a Dell Inspiron 8000, pentium III 850Mhz, 512Mb ram, dvd rom, touch pad and joystick mouse, USB and firewire ports, built in 56k modem, Xircom PCMCIA card that has a rj45 connector for internet. My problem is the display. Starting at the installation of 8.04 Hardy Heron my screen was split into about 3 different sections. I made it through the install hoping it would go away, but it didn't. It begins at the log in screen my screen splits up. The only way I can use the machine is to hit Fn+F7 together. This seems to give me a generic display with little options. I have 800x600 res or 640x480 as my choice. In windows I could run 1600x1200 res. although I don't need that good. 1024x768 would do me just fine. I've seen a few tips for other versions of Ubuntu and a few other s out there, but was just kinda hoping for a driver or patch as I'm kind of new to Ubuntu. If there aren't any patches available, but there is a fix, please send specific detailed instructions as I said I'm kind of new to this. I hope there is a solution to this and would appreciate any help anyone can give to me because I like what I see so far. Thanks for your time.

[Andreas Moog (ampelbein)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in xorg.

[Jack (jnl1993jack)]

I'm not sure what you mean by finding the right package. I clicked on the link to watch the video, but it gave me an error of "empty data stream". When I made the original request for help, I did click on the xorg link under "Graphic Environment" because I thought that was where the problem might lie. Thanks for your response.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Please attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log to the bug report.

[Jack (jnl1993jack)]

O.K. Could you tell me how to do this as I'm new to Ubuntu ?

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Sure. First go to the bug report on https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/257475. At the bottom of the web page there is an "Add a comment/attachment" link to click on. On the Attachment line, click "Browse...". In the file browser dialog window, click on "Filesystem" in the left pane, then find "var" and then "log" and now you can select "Xorg.0.log" and click "Open". Back on the web page, just click "Save Changes".

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Could you please also test this with an Alpha-4 LiveCD, to see if the issue is still present in our development version?

[Jack (jnl1993jack)]

Sorry for sounding like an idiot, but I don't understand if there is an attachment here for a solution for my screen issue or what. I am still having the same problems with the display and would like to get this corrected before trying it out on another version. From what I have read on the internet Ubuntu seems to have this issue with my display adapter going back several versions. I'm starting to think that this is not something that can be repaired, so if this is the case, could you please let me know so I can look at other options because I'd really like to use my PC. Thanks

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi jnl1993jack,

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? (ISOs are available from cdimage.ubuntu.com)

If it remains an issue, could you also attach a new /var/log/Xorg.0.log?
Thanks in advance.

The output of lspci -vvnn would also be worth having.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

[Mike (e-launchpad-romram-se)]

I have had a similar problem as the one stated here and would like to share how I got it solved. My problem was that the graphics card only could go as hi as 800x600 in resolution although the laptop LCD is 1024x768.

After days of googling and trial and error I discovered that there seems to be a important relationship between the resolution the xorg engine can activate and the HorizSync and VertRefresh rates entered.

The issue got solved when I tried the following entry in my xorg.conf file. Mind you I entered nothing else just this:

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Generic Monitor"
    Option "DPMS"
    HorizSync 31.5-55
    VertRefresh 40-70
EndSection

I hope it will solve your problem as well.

[Commoner (commoner51)]

I also had a split screen in my Dell Inspiron 8000 when installed Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric. After a lot of net reading and experimentation, I found the following simple solution. I created a new xorg.conf file in the directory /etc/X11. The file contains only the following lines

Section "Device"
     Identifier "Card0"
     Driver "vesa"
EndSection

As some other posts indicated, you have to change the graphic card driver. However, it was difficult to figure out how to do it correctly in the new Ubuntu that originally has no xorg.conf file.