Newbie. Appearance, graphics card, just problems everywhere! Ubuntu / XP dualboot

[cwoolbright]

Okay... I see all these cool themes and such, but I've read that I need to go to system, preference, appearance and enable "Extras" ... Hm .... It pops up some message about how it can't enable extras at this time.

So. I know I need a good graphics card to use all that cool stuff, so I spent some time trying to figure out on XP which graphics card i have ( I can't get on my dlink internet when I boot up on Ubuntu, that's issue #2 if you can help click here! ) Anyways, Device Manager does not have a Display Adapter button. Curious... System Information says absolutely nothing about a display adapter. So. I go to Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, Adapter. Absolutely nothing... there is nothing listed, and under "Adapter Information" it just says "Unavailable" five times. So I click Adapter Properties. "VgaSave" ... so i wiki that and learn that that's Window's default when the graphics card isn't working.. or something. Under device type, it says "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" and the rest says "unavailable" (if that helps anything)...

This is a nice computer with 200g on the C drive and various other upgrades, but it is from 2002, used once by my computer illiterate grandpa, and put up until now. Why shouldn't there be a graphics card working??

If anyone has any information that could help me out, I'd love anything...

Thanks.

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+
Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 2

[devils casper]

Open Terminal and execute this

sudo lspci | grep -i vga
grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Post output here.

[cwoolbright]

okay, will do right now, be back in a sec ( i'll have to reboot into ubuntu )

[cwoolbright]

OK, entered sudo lspci | grep -i vga and got
"00.05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia corporation C51G (Geforce 6100) (rev a 2)

and entered grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf and got
"Driver "kbd"
Driver "mouse""

[Taltos]

I don't know much about getting video drivers to work on linux, but a quick google search of "ubuntu geforce 6100" got me this tip:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Bi...erHowto/Nvidia

Go to System->Administration->Hardware Drivers and check the box to enable the restricted drivers for your nVidia card if the option is provided.

Hope it helps.

[devils casper]

You have to install Nvidia Proprietary Driver as suggested by Taltos. Hardware Drivers option is available in latest version of Ubuntu only.
Which version of Ubuntu are you using?

[cwoolbright]

8.04, the newest.
I'll try that and let ya know if it works, thanks!

[cwoolbright]

Okay. I went to System, Administration, Hardware Drivers just like you suggested and no dice. I mean, the nVidia driver was listed there (nvidia new is what it said) and "Enabled" was already checked, but it said something to the right of that about ( and I can't remember the terminology for the life of me) being unable to use or something to that effect with a red circle... I unchecked Enabled and ReChecked it just to see, restarted my computer, and still no change. I then went to take a screenshot just to make it easier to show you guys but having no internet, I tried to save it onto a flash drive when I discovered yet another problem...... for some reason I can't open any usb drives! It just says error (even on a brand new one)...

So. I was thinking, with the internet problems and this and that, maybe I just have a really messed up version of Hardy Heron... but I mean, it passed the whole check thing that you do when you download it... and I installed it from a bootable USB I made according to one site's how-to...

Gosh, any ideas?!

And thank you all so much ....

[cwoolbright]

Hm.....

I am on another thread here trying to figure out my internet connection, and in doing so I discovered yet ANOTHER problem (but minor); the printer prints blank pages (even though it works fine in windows) ... Just thought I'd add it to this list and ask: are all these problems typical with setting up Ubuntu? I mean, once I've got internet and it's all working fine I'll be happy, I'm just wondering.

Thank you guys

PS
On boot it says kernal 2.6.24-16-generic.. the guy in the other forum needed to know that so it may help here =)

[devils casper]

Execute this code again :

grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Does it list nvidia in output?