display properties creates unusable xorg.conf

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

Having just upgraded to 9.10 successfully on my laptop, I plugged in an external monitor, opened up the gnome-display-properties (belonging to gnome-control-center 1:2.28.1-0ubuntu1) , and de-selected the "mirror screens" checkbox. It offered by default that the external monitor should have 1680x1050, with the laptop screen at 1024x768, but that it needed to resize the virtual desktop before the settings would take effect. I said okay.

On logging out, the laptop screen went to flickering without end, as in a respawning X server, while the external stayed blank. I rebooted, external monitor still connected, and the flickering display started immediately after decrypting my drive, before X was even thinking of starting. This new flickering prevented the startup process from going forward, and persisted on my next reboot without the external monitor connect. I restarted in recovery mode, and copied the old xorg.conf into place to be able to file this report, but I haven't rebooted again to see if the initial framebuffer death is still there. If so, I imagine pulling the "splash" out of the boot options should be enough to continue to use my computer.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Nov 2 11:26:40 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: gnome-control-center 1:2.28.1-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:13402): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:13445): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:13458): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (workrave:13498): GStreamer-WARNING **: Failed to load plugin '/usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstschro.so': /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstschro.so: undefined symbol: schro_virt_frame_new_vert_downsample
 (nautilus:13563): GStreamer-WARNING **: Failed to load plugin '/usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstschro.so': /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstschro.so: undefined symbol: schro_virt_frame_new_vert_downsample