Documenting this here for the record.
I think I have finally resolved the “the system is running in low graphics mode” error I’ve been getting on Project e (which, I will remind you, is an Asus 1005HA with an integrated Intel 950 graphics adapter) since upgrading to Ubuntu 13.04.
This particular document is comprehensive and ultimately useless. I tried every suggestion in it, with no success at all.
What finally seems to have resolved the problem was a suggestion in this thread. Specifically, brucey99’s suggestion to edit /etc/init/lightdm.conf and add
sleep 10
above
exec lightdm
seems to have done the trick. (I used “sleep 20” instead of “sleep 10”. What’s the harm, 10 seconds more boot time? I can always change it later.)
It also seems like the
sudo service lightdm restart
command from a terminal window works to get things back to normal if the machine does start in low graphics mode.
And I’m not sure it made any difference, but just to document: I also created a xorg.conf file (from xorg.conf.failsafe) and edited the “Device” section:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "UXA"
EndSection
After restarting about a half-dozen times, it hasn’t come up in low graphics mode yet. I’ll see how it goes.
As David Brin once said, “Let the next guy know what killed you.” And thanks, brucey99.