Configuring Intel 845G video chipset on Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn desktop

I just finished installing Ubuntu 7.04 desktop on an old IBM desktop I bought over three years ago. This desktop had a video chipset on the motherboard. The install went fine except that when it was done and the system booted up the graphics resolution was only 640×480.

Seeking a solution that would let me use the 1280×1024 resolution of my Viewsonic VG7010B LCD display, I found the IBM machine type to be 8199-54u and from that learned the video chipset was the 845G from Intel.

So I did a web search for “intel 845g ubuntu.” The two highest-rated were both from Ubuntu Forums. The second was Intel 845 On-Board GPU?. It addressed just this problem, and after reading through a few posts I came across a post that said:

had the same problem

this is how it was resolved

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=434175

🙂 zostra 🙂

When I followed that link I found a post that said,

If you are using Feisty 7.04 you are better off to use the new Intel driver, which is available in the repositories.

If you have installed 915resolution, just un-install it, using Synaptic Package Manager.

After that is done, type this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel

Then re-start your PC and it should have correctly detected your optimum video settings.

I did as suggested and found my display was now working at the resolution I desired!

I’ve been using Linux for close to a decade now, and back in the early days a frequent problem doing an install was to configure the video. There was a lack of drivers and one had to fiddle with X11 config files.

This problem remains but things are *much* better now. It took less than fifteen minutes of web investigation to find a solution to this particular Ubuntu install problem, and I’ve had similar experiences with other questions like this lately.

Ubuntu is much more than a spiffed-up Debian. It is also a community that is quite extraordinary in its reach, something I’m coming to appreciate more and more with each passing day.

6 Comments

  1. Posted September 1, 2007 at 04:46 | Permalink | Reply

    Thanks for this 🙂 I’m about to get hold of a Dell Optiplex GX260 for my parents that has integrated Intel 845 G graphics and I wasn’t absolutely sure whether Feisty came configured or not for it. Your blog post will help save me a little time! Thanks

  2. redfish0
    Posted September 13, 2007 at 07:55 | Permalink | Reply

    I’m running an Optiplex GX260 right now. Suse works perfectly. Ubuntu – No chance. None of the fixes seem to work. Not even the one above 😦

  3. Posted October 1, 2007 at 22:27 | Permalink | Reply

    Unfortunately, this is not a universal fix. I have been using 7.04 and now have 7.10 on another drive. Neither of these installs work with a 1280×1024 resolution. Even after running the dpkg command, when the dusk cleared the best I had done was lose my 75 refresh rate and was now stuck with a glaring refresh rate of 60 at 1024×768. A clamp-on monitor filter for 25 bucks takes care of it until the monitor just burns out from the mis-set refresh. And no, I’ve tried this on an emachines 17 inch monitor (brand new) a sony a200 and two viewsonics, one lcd and the other crt. None of them give me anything higher than a 1024×768. I was hopeful that this release would fix this. I’m glad it worked for you. The only option I have is to go back to the 915resolution. I may have to hack on the xorg.conf and the 915resolution confs, but at least I will be able to use my monitor without a filter and sunglasses.

    h

  4. PaulK
    Posted October 30, 2007 at 20:10 | Permalink | Reply

    Thanks for the help. It solved the problem w/my 865G chip. Whenever I get frustrated, trying to solve driver problems, I think of going back to Windows. At that point, I work even harder to solve my Ubuntu problem.

  5. Suvajit
    Posted December 17, 2007 at 08:20 | Permalink | Reply

    Thanks a lot … could install the display driver of Intel 845G very easily.

  6. Jonathan Archer
    Posted January 23, 2009 at 08:52 | Permalink | Reply

    I’ve solved this problem starting in recovery mode, running startx, setup display to minor resolution and than restart ubuntu.

    bye

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