NewInstance

I recently installed ubuntu linux 5.10 “Breezy Badger” on my laptop, a DELL Inspiron 8600. Just following default installation all went ok, it recognized all my hardware and configured it correctly, included wifi, memory card adapters, a ntfs external disk, an external dvd burner, audio, etc. I believe that bleutooth is not configured so I’ll have to do something handly. About the video adapter I had to install “nvidia-glx” package that made glx direct rendering work (remember that, after installing nvidia-glx, you have to enable it thru the command ‘sudo nvidia-glx-config enable’).
The only problem was that maximum resolution was 1600×1200, and my monitor works best at 1920×1200.
To enable 1920×1200 screen resolution I had to tweak /etx/X11/xorg.conf as in this howto.
My complete xorg.conf file follows (in red my tweaks):

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/CID"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
        # paths to defoma fonts
        FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
        FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load    "GLcore"
        Load    "i2c"
        Load    "bitmap"
        Load    "ddc"
        Load    "dri"
        Load    "extmod"
        Load    "freetype"
        Load    "glx"
        Load    "int10"
        Load    "type1"
        Load    "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "it"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
        Option          "HorizScrollDelta"      "0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "NVIDIA Corporation NV28 [GeForce4 Ti 4200 Go AGP 8x]"
        Driver          "nvidia"
        BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
        Option          "UseFBDev"              "true"
        Option          "NoLogo"                "true"
        Option          "FlatPanelProperties"   "aspect-scaled"
        Option          "UseEdidFreqs"          "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Dell Panel WUXGA"
        DisplaySize     330     210
        Option          "DPMS"
        HorizSync       28-110
        VertRefresh     43-90
# 52.3 Hz refresh, 65.3 KHz, 162.0 MHz
        Modeline "1920x1200" 162 1920 1984 2176 2480 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "NVIDIA Corporation NV28 [GeForce4 Ti 4200 Go AGP 8x]"
        Monitor         "Dell Panel WUXGA"
        DefaultDepth    16
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           1
                Modes           "1920x1200"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           4
                Modes           "1920x1200"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           8
                Modes           "1920x1200"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           15
                Modes           "1920x1200"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           16
                Modes           "1920x1200"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1920x1200"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen          "Default Screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
        InputDevice     "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
EndSection

If I’ll find some more tweaks that will make this laptop to work better with Ubuntu Linux, I’ll update this post. I’ll also appreciate any tip.