nvidia-xconfig creates an unusable xorg.conf file

[Laurence Nagel]

This has got to be a stupid question. I'm installing Ubuntu 11.04 on a new computer that has a Dell 19" monitor plugged into the motherboard and a Dell 22" monitor plugged into an nVidia Quadro 600 video card. I cannot get both monitors to work at the same time. If both monitors are plugged in, only the 19" monitor works. If I unplug the 19" monitor, then the 22" monitor works. Both monitors work fine with Windows 7 (dual boot). What am I doing wrong???

[Laurence Nagel (lwn)]

When I attempt to change NVIDIA options using nvidia-settings, I get the message "You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver. Please edit your configuration file (Just run 'nvidia-xconfig' as root) and restart the X-server." When I do this, nvidia-xconfig creates a xorg.conf file which causes the computer to hang on reboot and I have to logon under safe mode and remove the offending xorg.conf file to get the computer to boot. The contents of the xorg.conf file created by nvidia-xconfig are:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 270.41.06 (<email address hidden>) Mon Apr 18 15:14:00 PDT 2011

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "Layout0"
    Screen 0 "Screen0"
    InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier "Mouse0"
    Driver "mouse"
    Option "Protocol" "auto"
    Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier "Keyboard0"
    Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Monitor0"
    VendorName "Unknown"
    ModelName "Unknown"
    HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device0"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Device0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

I have been unable to determine, given my limited knowledge of xorg.conf, what is wrong here.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Maybe best try to ask the question on a forum or askubuntu.com before filing a bug.