Need Help!- How to create an xorg.conf file for editing

[dmiller47591]

I'm pretty new to Linux, so this one has me stumped for the moment.

I'm running a Dell optiplex with Ubuntu 10.04. This machine has the Intel 82845g/gl(brookdale-g)/ge chipset graphics hardware. There are known problems with the intel 845 chipset and Ubuntu 10.04. I get some random X crashes while multitasking with several browser windows open. Ends up in a screen flashing white and black bars on the top half. Have to reboot every time. The wiki at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes has some fixes for this. I can invoke this X crash reliably by running screen saver "Antspotlight".
1. Ubuntu 10.04 does not come with an xorg.conf file. I must make one. The wiki says that the file is in /etc/X11/ but all the other x configs are in /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d. Got this info at 10.04 - Where is /etc/X11/xorg.conf? - Ask Ubuntu - Stack Exchange
Which place do I put xorg.conf once I've created and edited it?

2. When I try to create xorg.conf in a terminal with the command sudo Xorg -configure i get a fatal error. Makes me thing that maybe it should be done in a terminal WITHOUT Ubuntu running in the background. Error reads as so:

Fatal server error:

Server is already active for display 0
If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
and start again.


Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
at X.Org Wiki - Home
for help.

ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log

I'm doing something wrong here. How can a linux newb fix this intel 8xx bug?

[cncbasher]

Basically even though xorg.conf does not exist, it will be read if created.

The easiest way to create it and get a basic configuration
is to start the computer into a text log in screen

IE
1. Hold down shift at boot.
2. Select recovery mode for your kernel build.
3. Select Root command prompt (can select with networking if needed)
4. Switch to runlevel 3 with the command “telinit 3″

Then run
xorg -configure to generate /etc/X11/xorg.conf on detected hardware and settings.

Re-boot and try it in full system graphics mode.

That in itself may do the trick, if not gives a good base to start from.

[dmiller47591]

Thanks for your reply. Something wasn't going right when I would try to run command: Xorg -configure. This time I kept getting a fatal error saying that it could not move the "old log file". This drove me to a sort of desperation and I tried something that I didn't think would work, but it did.

1. Created a gedit text file, saved as Xorg.conf to desktop. Made sure to check that it's saved with read permissions in the save as dialog box. This file had the section needed to disable DRI. Copied and pasted straight from the wiki:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "intel"
Option "DRI" "off"
EndSection

2. I copy pasted this file into my documents to be a target for "mv" (move command)

3. Opened a terminal window and commanded the following:

sudo mv /home/darren/Documents/xorg.conf /etc/X11

4. Not knowing if the file should just be in "/etc/X11" or with the other xconfig snippets in "/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d" I opted for a bit of redundancy. Copied and pasted the file Xorg.conf from desktop to my documents again. Then in terminal I commanded the following:

sudo mv /home/darren/Documents/xorg.conf /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d

5. Restart machine. Ran antspotlight screen saver. All good!

**Obviously for anybody who might use this, My name is Darren, my Ubunty machine is named darren. Thus the name in the file path for the move commands in terminal. Adjust that section of the file path for your system.

**All copy and paste of the Xorg.conf file was done in Ubuntu (right click mouse over icon style). Only the 2 "mv" commands were run in terminal, and while Ubuntu was running in the background. The need for this was to use the "sudo" command to become super user and move files into their directory. In the ubuntu file manager UI, you do not have permission to add files to those folders.


This was all done on a Dell Optiplex GX260, P4 processor, with the above mentioned graphics, and Ubuntu 10.04. With SMI disabled, and now DRI disabled.

I ran glxgears, and a minimized antspotlight screen saver and Latency test all night after this fix. After 8 hours, I now have a max jitter of 13616(ns). And no crashes whatsoever. Can't complain about that. All thanks to the CNCZone community, Linux community, and LinuxCNC community!