I have an Inspiron 8000 with an ATI Rage Mobiliy M4 and a 1600x1200 screen.
I can confirm that this is a multi-distribution problem that I believe is specific to Xorg (either how it handles its auto-probing or more likely, the settings it has for Dell laptop screens) as it seems to go all the way back to when all the distros switched over from XFree86 to Xorg. Prior to the switch my monitor got auto-probed fine by distros using XFree86, but Xorg seems to bungle it. As a result, any auto-probed configuration from ANY distro that uses Xorg (including all versions and releases of *buntu, Fedora, etc) makes the screen look like it's been spliced vertically into 4 semi-overlapping sections. It makes it impossible to navigate. The graphics card appears to be detected fine, it just seems to be a screen modeline issue. Until it gets fixed I have to boot using the "safe video" mode. This gets me into X using vesa but the resolution is at 800x600. I then go to system configuration and change my monitor to "Generic Flat Panel 1600x1200" and restart X. I've tried changing it to the "Dell Laptop 1600x1200" option, which is what worked in XFree86, but then the "splicing" problem returns. Which is why I think it's a problem with the settings Xorg has for my screen) -- bad seing of the Desktop on a DELL and the live cd https://launchpad.net/bugs/92667 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
