[R-sig-Debian] [OT] What file can I use to change Ubuntu 9.10 display characteristics?

[Michael Rutter]

Doug,

It appears (I have not upgraded my machines to 9.10 yet so I cannot 
confirm) that you can generate xorg.conf with "Xorg -configure" and then 
copy that file over to /etc/X11.  This link has some information:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1221226

Michael

Douglas Bates wrote:
> This question is vaguely related to R in that I have managed to wedge
> the netbook computer that I use for demonstrations of R and I would
> like to know how to un-wedge it so I can continue to give lectures
> about R.
> 
> I have an ASUS eee PC running the netbook-remix version of Ubuntu
> 9.10.  The X server in 9.10 is a little different from earlier
> versions in that it does not require an explicit configuration file
> for the X server ( /etc/X11/xorg.conf, IIRC) as it can autoconfigure.
> That it did fine.
> 
> When I attached the netbook to the VGA input for the video projector
> in a lecture hall I found that it dropped the resolution to 640 x 480,
> which is undesirably coarse.  I decided to tinker and see if I could
> get it to 800 x 600 on both the built-in display and the video
> projector.  I used the GUI application accessed through the menu
> sequence System -> Preferences -> Display.
> 
> I believe that at one point I actually got things working that way
> but, of course, I couldn't leave well-enough alone and decided to try
> to get a resolution with 768 lines as I knew the projector supported
> that.  That was when it all went south.  The system froze with a blank
> screen and blank projector output.  I needed to do a hard power-down
> and reboot without the projector plugged in.  Fortunately I didn't
> lose the disk (I run ext2 file systems as a journaled file system puts
> too much wear on the solid-state disk) and I can use the computer
> without an external display.
> 
> Now I can use the netbook when it is not connected to an external VGA
> display but as soon as I connect the external VGA it freezes,
> presumably because it is trying to use an unsupported video mode.  The
> information on the video modes I selected must be stored somewhere but
> I can't find out where.  Does anyone know where that GUI application
> caches its information?  All this GUI configuration is great unless
> the thing you are trying to configure is the display and you can't get
> that working.  In the old days when you needed to edit a text-based
> configuration file you had a fighting chance of doing that even if you
> could only get the barest of systems, a text console device, running.
> 
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-- 
Dr. Michael A. Rutter
School of Science
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Station Road
Erie, PA 16563
http://math.bd.psu.edu/faculty/rutter