Reinstall Jaunty 9.04

[measekite]

Some file or part of a file got hosed in a shutdown denying me DVI but permitting VGA. I did uninstall nvidia and then reinstalled it but that did not solve the problem. Maybe every file and line in Xorg did not get cleaned but who knows and there is not totally and complete uninstall for it that I can find.

I would be interested in knowing if you can do this:

I want to be able to boot LiveCD and do a reinstall that would completely overwrite all of the system files but leave my menus, panels, colors and everything that I customized alone and in place.

I welcome ideas and thanks in advance.

[devils casper]

Backup user settings from /home folder and replace those with new installation.

I don't think its a good idea to re-install OS coz of Display problem only. Lets try to sort our display problem.

Execute this in Terminal and post output here :

sudo lspci | grep -i vga

Post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf file here.

[measekite]

Backup user settings from /home folder and replace those with new installation.

I don't think its a good idea to re-install OS coz of Display problem only. Lets try to sort our display problem.

Execute this in Terminal and post output here :

sudo lspci | grep -i vga

Post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf file here.

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600] (rev a2)

and here are the contents of /etc/X11/xirg.conf
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder63) Mon Mar 23 15:33:27 PST 2009


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

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

[Zeroangel]

Might be better to attempt to fix your problem before going through with a reinstall.

If you dont have more than a few gigs of data on your /home folder, you could always back it up and burn it to DVD or write it to an external HDD. Format -> Reinstall Linux -> Reinstall programs -> Boot into liveCD and overwrite your home folder with the backed up data

Another thing you could try after reinstall is to create a seperate partition for / and for /home

This will allow your /home folder with your personal preferences and files to survive an OS wipe.

[measekite]

Might be better to attempt to fix your problem before going through with a reinstall.

If you dont have more than a few gigs of data on your /home folder, you could always back it up and burn it to DVD or write it to an external HDD. Format -> Reinstall Linux -> Reinstall programs -> Boot into liveCD and overwrite your home folder with the backed up data

Another thing you could try after reinstall is to create a seperate partition for / and for /home

This will allow your /home folder with your personal preferences and files to survive an OS wipe.

I do have my home folder and all other data on separate drives and they are loaded in my fstab file. I guess I need to back that up also.

But where do the icons on my panels and my custom menu system live. /home to somewhere else on the file system. And then I have all the addons and custom colors and stuff in firefox and all sorts of data in thunderbird.

My only problem is I cannot get DVI which I ran for the past 2 months. If I remove all of the nvidia stuff and reboot I do get DVI but at the wrong resolution. So I then reinstall nvidia from the repository and wind up with the same problem I started with. All caused by a normal shutdown that some how hosed something I cannot find.

Any ideas will be appreciated.

[devils casper]

My only problem is I cannot get DVI which I ran for the past 2 months. If I remove all of the nvidia stuff and reboot I do get DVI but at the wrong resolution.

You can correct Resolution problem easily.
Edit xorg.conf file :

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 30.0 - 71.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
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
		Modes		"1280x1024" "1024x768" 

EndSubSection
EndSection

Save file and reboot machine.

But where do the icons on my panels and my custom menu system live. /home to somewhere else on the file system. And then I have all the addons and custom colors and stuff in firefox and all sorts of data in thunderbird.

Everthing is /home/user_id only.
Execute this

ls -a /home/user_id

Check the contents of .mozilla and .thuderbird folders.

[measekite]

You can correct Resolution problem easily.
Edit xorg.conf file :

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 30.0 - 71.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
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
        Modes        "1280x1024" "1024x768" 

EndSubSection
EndSection

Save file and reboot machine.

Execute this

ls -a /home/user_id

Check the contents of .mozilla and .thuderbird folders.

Now I am running native resolution 1680x1050 in analog. Everthing is /home/user_id only. I do not understand how the changes in the horizontal sync rate and the addition of Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" will get me DVI when I am already getting the proper resolution under Analog VGA.

Currently under VGA my monitor information says horiz 65 and Vert 59 and Pixel clock 145,

All I did to get the original problem is a normal shutdown, pull out my machine to plug in a new usb mouse and then lost DVI.

I even removed the nvidia 180 driver and everything I could find that said nvida. I then booted up and had dvi but the resolution was off. I then reinstalled nvida 180 and now no dvi at all but proper resolution on VGA.

I even booted up LiveCD and got both DVI and VGA at a lower resolution. I then used the LIVECD boot to download and install the same nvidia 189 driver in the same manner as with the hard disk boot and everything worked fine. Resolution as it should be and I could using the monitor control panel switch back and forth between DVI and VGA. Please keep in mind I have been running fine for 2 months.

There must be something on my hard disk that just got hosed.

Any more ideas or do you think the mode statement will give me DVI. I do not understand more.