800x600 is the only setting for my desktop

[Hardcoretexan]

New to Linux so please reply in baby steps(lol).
I have an inspirion 1525 which I installed linux lite on.
I downloaded some movies mp4, avi etc... and they used to play fine but for some reason(I don't play movies a lot on my laptop) they stopped playing instead the video would never start playing(just a frozen blurred screen). The audio played fine, so I downloaded several players to make sure it was not the program( I have handbrake, brasero, smplayer) none of them worked.
I found a site to reinstall drivers so i did the following.

1) First, you need to open up a terminal shell. You can either start up your computer and go to a virtual shell

Ctrl+Alt+F1

or login and open up the gnome terminal

Ctrl+Alt+t

2) Then In the terminal, run the following commands:

This command will refresh your packages

sudo apt-get update

Then you will need to install the linux headers if those are not already installed.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

Next, you will need to do a dist-upgrade, which upgrade some packages of your system

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

When that is all done, you will need to reboot your system

sudo reboot

The Installation of the Drivers

1) Repeat step one to open the terminal.

Now install the Nvidia drivers

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates

You have one more step, or else, you will have a high chance that you just soft-bricked your system. For safe measures, run this final command:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

*There was a well known bug that the Nvidia installation script did not run that command. If that config file is not created, your graphics will not work.

Now reboot your system:

sudo reboot

Congratulations! You should now be using Nvidia Drivers.

Now I can play videos but my desktop settings are only 600x800 and the video is too large for the players screen. any help would be appreciated.

Greg

[torreydale]

I'm not sure if those instructions get to the core of your problem.  Those instructions assume you have an NVIDIA graphics card.  From what you're describing, I think you need to try this:

1) See if you have any Additional Driver options using Menu->Settings->Install Drivers.  If there's nothing there for NVIDIA, then you don't have an NVIDIA card.  If there is something listed there, then choose the NVIDIA proprietary tested one.
2) Have you installed Restricted Extras?  You might have checked this option when installing Linux Lite, but I have found I still need to install it after the Linux Lite install is done.  You can install the Restricted Extras using Lite Software at Menu->System->Lite Software.

[Hardcoretexan]

Ok I thought I had nvidia but maybe it was on a different computer. I used to have xp on this machine but switched to linux lite when they stopped supporting xp.

I ran the lite software  and got the following error msg.
"Updating sources has failed.

Refer to /var/log/lite-software.log

for more information."

[Hardcoretexan]

Strangest thing happened, after I ran that I rebooted and my settings are back to 1280x800, I don't have any other options to change it but it is back to where it was.

GC

[torreydale]

Try this.  Open up a terminal (Menu->Accessories->Terminal).  Copy and paste in the following two lines, one at a time.

Code:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
sudo apt-get update

Then try opening Lite Software (Menu->System->Lite Software).

If the above doesn't work, then try the following.
1) Reboot.  (Menu->All->Turn Off Computer) and then select Restart.
2) After rebooting and you're back at your desktop, make sure no other window is opened and run Install Updates (Menu->Favorites->Install Updates).
3) When updates are done, close any windows associated with installing the updates.
4) Then try opening Lite Software (Menu->System->Lite Software).

[Hardcoretexan]

Now my desktop is back to normal but I cannot play any videos again, I tried wmv. avi  and mp4s they all have sound but a blurred frozen video.

GC

[torreydale]

As I mentioned in an earlier post within this thread, it seems you need to install the Restricted Extras.  They can be found in Lite Software.

You should also see if there are any Additional Driver options in the Install Drivers app.

[Hardcoretexan]

When I run lite software I still get the following error message
"Updating sources has failed.

Refer to /var/log/lite-software.log

for more information."
And I don't know what to do to correct this or how to view/correct this log.

GC

[torreydale]

I addressed that earlier in this thread.

Try this.  Open up a terminal (Menu->Accessories->Terminal).  Copy and paste in the following two lines, one at a time.

Code:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf
sudo apt-get update

Then try opening Lite Software (Menu->System->Lite Software).

If the above doesn't work, then try the following.
1) Reboot.  (Menu->All->Turn Off Computer) and then select Restart.
2) After rebooting and you're back at your desktop, make sure no other window is opened and run Install Updates (Menu->Favorites->Install Updates).
3) When updates are done, close any windows associated with installing the updates.
4) Then try opening Lite Software (Menu->System->Lite Software).

[Hardcoretexan]

I did this again and got the same results after running the lite software I  got the error msg."Updating sources has failed.

Refer to /var/log/lite-software.log

for more information."

Also after running the two commands seperately  in the terminal I had this error msg.
"W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/openshot.develo...4/Packages  404  Not Found

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/openshot.develo...6/Packages  404  Not Found

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
"