Ubuntu Wiki

Misconfigured Graphics Server

Your Graphics server may be misconfigured if you have the folloing symptoms

• you are not getting any graphics, just a text log in screen
• you are not getting the right resolution for your screen

This may happen if you've installed/upgraded the kernel or changed your graphics card.

You will need to log in in text mode. If you are not at a text login press Ctrl+Alt+F1. Log in and type

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Follow the questions, most thing are automatically detected

note: you may need to know how much memerory you graphics card has, which is mb x 1024. You may also need the horisontal sync and vertical refresh of your dispay.

To restart the graphics server type

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

or, if you are using kubuntu

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm restart

For the kernel update you must also install restricted-modules hiting escape at boot will allow you to boot into previous kernel and install them with synaptic.

Nvidia Graphics Cards

Some Nvidia Graphics cards need the Nvidia binary drivers, see BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

ATI Graphics Cards

Some ATI Graphics cards need the ATI binary drivers, see BinaryDriverHowto/ATI