Comment 29 for bug 247771

Hi, i've been reading this all and I think I might help a litle; since dates are nowadays (allthought dell inspiron 8000 isn't) maybe someone will read this and find usefull. I have the same laptop and problem with several distros: debian 50, ubuntu 8.04, 8.10, kubuntu 8.10, 9.04 some rescue cd-s, but NOT with debian based knoppix and sidux - they read hardware perfectly. When asking for help my friend point me to correct direction and i solved problem. The trippled picture has nothing to do with ati mobility, but with screen! it is extraordinary quality then and today! So hardwer detection and instalation scripts mix up the frequences and become stupid. The solution is manualy edit xorg.conf. I copied parts of xorg.conf file from this two live distros and edit a little section "monitor", and now I'm using it allways when needed with copy-paste & ctrl+alt+backspace, then the picture becomes perfect 1400x1050 resolution. Here is my file:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/OTF"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "xtrap"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 31.5-90
VertRefresh 59-75
Option "PreferredMode" "1400x1050"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "r128"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "Rage Mobility M4 AGP"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
EndSubSection
#SubSection "Display"
#Viewport 0 0
#Depth 4
#EndSubSection
#SubSection "Display"
#Viewport 0 0
#Depth 8
#EndSubSection
#SubSection "Display"
#Viewport 0 0
#Depth 15
#EndSubSection
#SubSection "Display"
#Viewport 0 0
#Depth 16
#EndSubSection
#SubSection "Display"
#Viewport 0 0
#Depth 24
#EndSubSection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050"
EndSubsection
EndSection

I commented sub sections of display cause I want only top picture so I'm not interested in lower color depths.
I hope this will help a little.