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About a month ago, I had a little computer glitch. I ended up reinstalling Windows XP, but I ran into some more problems when Windows updates began to trickle in. I just couldn’t get past Windows Authentication since I didn’t have a valid license.

I was literally stuck with Windows XP SP1. There were some programs that refuse to install unless I had SP2. So much for that idea.

Then, Solaris came out a few weeks ago, I tried to install it by overwriting my Ubuntu partition. The Solaris installation was smooth. There were no issues. However, running it is another story.

There were two major problems:

1. Xorg wasn’t working quite well. I was only seeing 3/4 of the screen. I tried rebooting. I also  reconfigured Xorg. It worked for the lower resolutions, but not the 1680×1050 widescreen my monitor supported. So, I gave up Solaris and went back to Ubuntu.
2. I learned after the install of Ubuntu that the MBR (Master Boot Record) aka PBR was destroyed. I could no longer boot to Windows or Ubuntu. Nice job, Solaris.

I wiped out the entire disk and removed the two partitions. I installed Ubuntu as the only OS on my computer. C’est la vie, Windows.

The only thing I missed in Windows is viewing in portrait mode which is great for browsing websites and documents, while landscape mode is perfect for viewing spreadsheets.

So, did I get portrait mode working in Ubuntu?

I had an old ATI graphics card which I learned later that it had issues with rotating views. I ended up buying an older Nvidia FX-5200 from Ebay for a fairly good price.

So, here’s my setup.

• Monitor: HP w2207h 1680×1050 60 Hz
• Video Card: Nvidia GeForce FX-5200
• Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04.

I set the device section of my Xorg.conf to:

Section “Device”
Identifier    ”Configured Video Device”
Driver        ”nv”
Option        ”Rotate”    ”RandR”
Option        ”NoLogo”    ”True”
EndSection

Screenshots:

To view in portrait mode, just go to Systems - Preferences - Screen Resolution - Monitor Resolution Settings and choose either Normal or Left rotation.

Landscape Mode (Normal) Setting: 1680×1050 pixels.

Portrait Mode (Rotated Left) Setting: 1050×1680 pixels.

So, this is how I setup my Ubuntu in Portrait mode with my HP w2207h monitor and my Nvidia FX-5200 video card. I will note however, that are currently issues with running Xrandr with Compiz at the same. Unfortunately, you can’t have both. Other than, I’m a happy camper.