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Shawn
Asked: 2012-05-16 09:51:15 +0800 CST

Need to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf from a live CD

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I have just installed Ubuntu 12.04 on an HP Laptop with Nvidia Graphics hardware. This machine used to run Ubuntu 10.10 and I have to use an external monitor as the internal screen on the laptop is broken and cannot be read. Using the LiveCD to install 12.04 and erase the previous 10.10 installation, all worked fine while installing from the live CD and the external monitor was detected and could be used. After finishing the install, and rebooting, the laptop will not recognize the external monitor and since the internal screen is unusable I cannot configure displays as one normally would. I think I may be able to alter my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to use the external monitor instead of the default device, but I am unsure of what to change in the file. My /etc/X11/xorg.conf file looks like this:

Section "Device"
        Identifier         "Default Device"
        Option "NoLogo"            "True"
EndSection
multiple-monitors nvidia hp 12.04 external-monitor

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Install the proprietary driver will still using the Live CD (should work if you have enough ram) this will install nvidia-xconfig which you will need to run as root so type the following:

    sudo nvidia-xconfig -o ./xorg.conf

    This will give you a more detailed xorg.conf file that should have both the broken and working monitor listed.

    Below is what it added on my system. I doubt our systems are similar enough to just copy and paste what I have, but you can see in the "Screen" section it lists Monitor0 connected to Screen0 I would suspect you could change this to Monitor1.

    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

    When you've made the changes copy ./xorg.conf to your harddrives /etc/X11/ directory.

    Reboot and hopefully its fixed.

    • 2

  2. The system will still need to have the nvidia driver installed which the above answer fails to mention. Here is how it is done.

    From the live CD Open a terminal window ctrl+alt+t or drop to a console ctrl+alt+f1. Now type:

    sudo apt-get download nvidia-current

    once complete make sure your harddrive is mounted it will be under /media/"whatever" type:

    sudo dpkg --root=/media/"whatever" -i ./nvidia-current*

    This should install the driver on the harddrive.

    Reboot the system

    • 1