ubuntu bulletproof x

[Douglas McClendon]

Dave Airlie wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-08-30 at 13:49 +0000, igknighted at gmail.com wrote:
>> I think the main purpose is for people who are using proprietary
>> drivers (maily nvidia) and have kernel module breakages.  Also for
>> those messing around with other settings manually (trying to get a
>> multi-button mouse working, for example).  For those not used to linux
>> I can see how this could let them get online in order to get help.
>>
>> But I also think it is poorly implemented.  Why not ask the user when
>> they update xorg.conf if their previous one worked, and then if they
>> want to save it as a fall-back in case the new one fails.  This way
>> you don't end up any worse off if it fails.  You'd have to make the
>> name of the backup well known enough for those manually editing the
>> file to save the backup properly (xorg.conf.bak seems fairly standard
>> for this, yes?), but I feel like most users who would need this would
>> be using Ubuntu's GUI xorg.conf tool, and that could be built right
>> in.
>>
> 
> Really if you have to ask the user you've already lost....
> 
> The main use this gives is you can let a user try the binary driver, and
> if it tanks, you can use the GUI to go back to the open source or vice
> versa,
> 
> Really though a simple ordering like:
> 1. Users current xorg.conf
> 2. No x.org conf - default driver
> 3. Try another driver in list (like fglrx or radeon)
> 4. Try vesa.
> 5. lose.
> 
> I'm not sure what asking the user in-between really gives you..

RTFA...

"
One of the most impressive new features in Ubuntu's BulletProof-X 
implementation is support for reading monitor settings from a Windows 
driver CD. "Unfortunately, it doesn't work to select just any of the 
generic monitors, so users may find they need to trial-and-error a 
solution. Fortunately, there is a cool new feature—Add Model which 
allows users to add a new monitor by using the Windows driver CD that 
comes with their monitor," Harrington writes. "This uses a script to 
parse the Windows *.inf file to get the hsync, vsync, edid, dpms, and 
other info to update the database locally."
"

-dmc