Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron on a Toshiba Portege 2010 - how to change the video settings

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The last few days I’ve been playing around with the latest Ubuntu Linux release (8.04), aptly named Hardy Heron. I suspect the next release will be called Ingenious Iguana.

I love the way the Ubuntu crowd increment each release with an animal name and descriptor. What’s after that, Jolly Jellyfish or Jaunty Jaguar?

I have a spare laptop at work, a nice little Toshiba Portege 2010 which is circa 2003. I was interested to see how Ubuntu’s challenger to Microsoft Vista would perform on a reasonably old laptop.

The bottom line is it works surprisingly well. It takes 1 minute 45 seconds to load, but once loaded, it works just fine. Not as fast as XP performed, but acceptable none the less. I doubt very much if Vista would load at all on such old hardware.

I mainly use this laptop for web based work when I’m upstairs away from my normal desk. Because it’s so light, I also prefer to take it on interstate trips rather than my Dell.

I lie, I prefer to take it on interstate trips to impress clients who have never seen Linux in action before.

The major problem I had after install was trying to sort out the screen resolution and video settings in the xorg.conf file. I wanted XVGA 1024×768, all I could get was 800×600.

All the online help I could find didn’t work for me, possibly because I did a network install rather than a CD boot disk install. Unfortunately my Toshiba Portege 2010 can’t boot from an external CD-ROM.

After a day or so of faffing around in my spare time and then looking at the laptop’s spec sheet, I realised my Google searches were wrong. What I should have been searching on was “ubuntu trident cyberblade video settings ” rather than “ubuntu toshiba portege 2010 video settings”. The Toshiba Portege 2010 has a Trident video card.

To cut a long story short, once I changed my Google search I stumbled upon a post with a xorg.conf file that works for the Trident video card. It’s at the bottom of this post. Just replace your current xorg.conf file with the text below. Make sure you rename the old one before doing so. The commands to create the new file at the terminal window would be something like:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
The original xorg.conf file that worked for me was set up for a Spanish keyboard which mean the @ symbol became “.

I used the keyboard tool in the Ubuntu desktop preferences (click on photo above), settings to fix that and ended up with a xorg.conf file that worked. I hope you enjoy. Either way, please leave a comment. I’m especially interested in comments from other Toshiba Portege 2010 users

PS - Make sure you check out what to do after you have installed Ubuntu. For those of you who are wondering what Ubuntu has to offer, read this review. For those of you who want to have the choice of Windows or Linux, read about Wubi installations.

=Cut and paste this text into the gedit window to overwrite your existing xorg.conf file =

# /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/100dpi”
FontPath “/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi”
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath “/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType”
EndSection

Section “Module”
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” “es”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “mouse”
Option “CorePointer”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Protocol” “ExplorerPS/2″
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “true”
EndSection

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

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “stylus”
Option “Device” “/dev/wacom” # Change to
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Option “Type” “stylus”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″ # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “eraser”
Option “Device” “/dev/wacom” # Change to
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Option “Type” “eraser”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″ # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “cursor”
Option “Device” “/dev/wacom” # Change to
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Option “Type” “cursor”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″ # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XPAi1″
Driver “trident”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0″
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Device “Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XPAi1″
Monitor “Monitor genÃ©rico”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 1
Modes “1024×768″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 4
Modes “1024×768″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1024×768″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1024×768″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1024×768″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1024×768″
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Default Layout”
Screen “Default Screen”
InputDevice “Generic Keyboard”
InputDevice “Configured Mouse”
InputDevice “stylus” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “cursor” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “eraser” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “Synaptics Touchpad”
EndSection

Section “DRI”
Mode 0666
EndSection

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