Taking the plunge – Part 2

Well, that was quick before I ran into a problem! During the first boot on my desktop computer (pre-installation), Ubuntu defaulted to run in 800×600. This wouldn’t seem like a huge deal for me during the installation process – however, the installer needs a few more vertical pixels than that. The “next” buttons for the wizard weren’t visible/clickable at all!

I tried changing the screen resolution using the System menu – however, I was only able to choose between 640×480 and 800×600.

I figure I should mention what my setup involves. I have an ATI Radeon 9600 All-in-Wonder, with a Samsung SyncMaster 174v monitor. I’m not sure which one of these is the culprit, though I found a post about someone else with a Radeon card who had the exact same issue. I figured out an easy-enough workaround, though – moving the default panels from the top and bottom to the sides of the screen. I suppose hiding them would have been an option, too, but I wanted to keep them there. Right-click on either panel, choose “Properties,” and change the “Orientation” setting to the left or right. Then move the Installer window to the top of the screen, and you can at least view the tops of the buttons.

I wish that the installer were usable in 800×600 with, even if it involved using some sort of scrollbar. It seems unlikely that they need that full amount of screen real estate, but we’ll see.

Hopefully the next post won’t be for a while longer… 🙂

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