[ale] bizarre ubuntu video on Dell optiplex 740 (dropbox images)

[neal at mnopltd.com]

Now this IS totally linux...

Below is a link to Dropbox images of attempted Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 GUI 
on a recent install on a Dell Optiplex 740.  I tried attaching but the 
list server gagged on the size.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xn6n8d3xkuvj47j/AABCpduOm7matlU-TU733C7ia?dl=0

Probably an understatement to note that installation was a LOT of fun; 
like living in an old Max Headroom episode.

This Dell has an NVidia graphics chip that Dell failed to provide a 
driver for after Windows 7.   (Add Dell to the list of vendors I now 
hate)  Hence the upgrade to Windows 10 was whacky, and there were video 
issues there.  But that's also why my wife let me have this for linux 
use.

There is a BIOS setting for how much system RAM to allocate to video.  I 
think I've tried various settings from 32mb to 128 and found that it 
appears to change the behavior slightly, but no flavor makes it 
readable.

So, the only way I can use this is CTRL-F2 and login to text mode.  Is 
there a "SAFE" video mode I could get this into to have the GUI work? 
Some least-common-denominator driver that just assumes basic VGA?  And 
if so, how would I invoke that from text command mode?

I tried this:

111 sudo apt-get autoremove --purge nvidia-*
112 sudo service lightdm stop
113 sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
114 sudo ubuntu-drivers devices
115 history
116 sync
117 sudo reboot

and no joy.

118 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers
119 sudo apt-get update
120 man apt-get
121 sudo apt-get install nvidia-460

and it didn't find the package.

Plain old VGA mode GUI would be just fine at this point.

regards,

Neal
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