Comment 7 for bug 79016

I installed Kubuntu Herd 4 AMD_64 on an emachines M6810 (amd64 w/ATI radeon 9600), and experience this same problem. So it may be a larger X problem, not just nv.
Initial install selected 1024x768, when I have a 1280x800 widescreen.
  I changed resolution to 1280x768, and the 'test' showed a scrambled screen. I crossed my fingers, clicked 'keep' anyway, and rebooted. The desktop came up clean, but at some intermediate resolution (1152x768??). I again changed it to 1280x800. This time, the test was clean, I clicked 'keep', and went on to other things. Upon shutdown, it went to black screen, no disk activity, so I ended up holding power switch to power down.
  When I booted this morning, the KDM login screen was huge - apparently 640x480, and when X came up, was so scrambled that only the upper left quadrant was readable. Bottom and right side were apparently 'folded' back on themselves several times.