Ubuntu on Dell 1100 or anything with Intel 845g/GL Video Card

From TomSchaefer.org Wiki

Loading any OS on a Dell 1100 or alike is difficult because of the graphics card. If you have a PC/Laptop with an Intel Corp. 82845G/GL (shared memory) graphics card its really hard to load anything on there. Well here is how I got around the problem.

As the user LennoxRock posted on the Ubuntu forums all you do is

Use the alternate desktop CD. Upgrade your BIOS, and changed the video memory to 8MB in the BIOS settings . Once you’ve installed Ubuntu -> reboot -> press Escape at the GRUB loader . Select the recovery mode. This should take you to the command prompt as root. From here type in

   # dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

This takes you to a series of setup questions regarding your keyboard, mouse, and video settings.

1. Answer NO to auto detect video hardware

2. Select i810 from the list of drivers.

3. Hit enter for the default identifier

4. Make sure the Video card’s bus identifier reads “PCI:0:2:0″ (without the quotes). This should already be the default.

5. Leave the memory question blank and hit enter.

6. Select NO on the kernel frame buffer interface question.

7. Answer the keyboard and mouse questions (use your common sense here) =p

8. Select YES on the question about writing the default Files section to configuration file.

9. Select NO to auto detect monitor.

10. Hit enter for the default identifier.

11. Select 1024×768, 800×600, and 640×480

12. Select ADVANCED method for selecting monitor characteristics.

13. Enter “31.5-48.5″ (without the quotes) for the horizontal sync.

14. Enter “59.0-75.0″ (again, without the quotes) for the vertical refresh.

15. Answer YES to the next question.

16. Select 24 for default color depth.

And you’re DONE!!!

After this type

   # reboot

And you should reboot into your nice, working Ubuntu installation. Enjoy!