Fluxbuntu Screen Resolution Problem Solved

By: Rebecca Date: 2008/02/15

I was very interested Fluxbuntu because it is the lightest version of *nix, and it meets my need for a minimal operating system. I began installing Fluxbuntu. The installation went well, except that at the end of the installation, the screen appeared really stretched (the fluxbuntu writing was stretched horizontally) and I couldn't see the login form, and I couldn't log in to the GUI interface.

I tried for many hours to fix this problem. My best friend who has a great experience in Linux helped me. I bow to him (yes he is that great). Without his help I couldn't have solved this problem. Without much further delay, let me take you through the steps we took to solve the screen resolution problem.

The Problem

• The screen is stretched horizontally.
• You see black lines appearing spaced apart like bars.
• The login box is not visible because it is stretched off to the right of the screen, making it impossible to login.

Step by step solution.

1. To solve the screen resolution problem switch to command line mode (one of the 6 command line virtual consoles) by pressing Ctrl Alt F1 or F2 through F6. (F7 will puts you back into the GUI mode).
   
   Login with the user name and password you setup during installation. Don't try to login as root. I don't think *Ubuntu allows root login, but there's a way around it, we'll get to it in a moment.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Now at the command prompt type the following
   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
   and enter your password at the password prompt . This will open the X Server Video Mode configuration interface as shown below:
   
   This screen allows you to set or change the screen resolution.
3. Now it is time to select a few screen resolutions. One mistake many people (including me) make while selecting a resolution is that they don't actually select it. When the red bar appears over a selection, and you select OK, nothing is actually selected.
   
   In order to make a selection, use the arrow keys to move up and down and then press the SPACE key to actually make a selection. When you press the SPACE key and asterisk appears inside the square brackets to the left of the selection like so [*] (also shownin the image). I picked both 800x600 and 640x480, and this setting worked for me.
   
   You can try other resolutions later, if the ones you picked don't work after you try out all of the steps below.
4. After making a selection press the tab key to place the focus on the OK button and hit Enter to save your settings. Give Fluxbuntu some time to save this new configurtion to a file. On the console you can see the configuration file being overwritten.
5. Now you should see the command prompt again. For the screen resolution configuration changes to take effect you must reboot Fluxbuntu. To reboot Fluxbuntu type the following
   sudo shutdown -r now. Enter your password at the password prompt, and wait for the reboot.
   
6. After rebooting Fluxbuntu switch to the GUI console by pressing Ctrl Alt F7. Now you should see a normal screen with a login form.
   
7. 
   Enter the username and password that you set up during and press Submit. Oh wait, where did the submit button go :( ?
   
   Relax my friend, there's no submit button. Simply press enter and you're in.
   
   
   
   
   
   

I hope someone finds this solution useful. Note this was tested on Fluxbuntu (Ubuntu version 7.10) on Microsoft Virtual PC Console.

References:

1. Fluxbuntu Help.
2. Fluxbuntu Wiki
3. Fluxbuntu Forums.
4. Ubuntu Home Page
5. Ubuntu Forums
6. Fluxbuntu 7.10 RC review

Books

1. Ubuntu Books
2. Linux Books