Open the terminal and type lshw. Scroll to the graphics section and post the
results here. It is likely that you are not using a driver that will support
beyond 800 x 600. It is likely that it defaulted to this setting when it
installed as a result of not finding a driver on the CD. To go beyond that
you will have to use another driver.

You can go to System, Adminstration, Hardware drivers and try to download
one if it exists. If one does then it should clear up your problem.
Depending on the results of lshw above, users may be able to assist further
if we can't find drivers in the repositories.

Here are the results of the lshw command. It is somewhat long. I tried the
hardware drivers route before I posted the message, but it remains blank. Thanks
for any help you can provide.

ubuntu-dell
description: Desktop Computer
product: Dimension 2350
vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
version: A02
serial: 9XV6521
width: 32 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.3 dmi-2.3 smp-1.4 smp
configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop cpus=1
uuid=44454C4C-5800-1056-8036-B9C04F353231
*-core
description: Motherboard
vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
physical id: 0
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: Mitac International
physical id: 1
version: A02 (03/24/2003)
size: 128KiB
capacity: 192KiB
capabilities: pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing escd cdboot
bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720
int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video
acpi usb ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification
*-cpu
description: CPU
product: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.40GHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 5
bus info: cpu@0
version: 15.2.9
slot: Socket 478
size: 2400MHz
capacity: 2800MHz
width: 32 bits
clock: 400MHz
capabilities: boot fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr
pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2
ss ht tm pbe up pebs bts cid xtpr
configuration: id=0
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 9
slot: Internal Cache
size: 8KiB
capacity: 8KiB
capabilities: synchronous internal write-back unified
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: a
slot: External Cache
size: 128KiB
capacity: 128KiB
capabilities: synchronous external write-back unified
*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: 20
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 512MiB
capacity: 2GiB
*-bank:0
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 266 MHz (3.8 ns)
product: None
vendor: None
physical id: 0
serial: None
slot: A0
size: 256MiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 266MHz (3.8ns)
*-bank:1
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 266 MHz (3.8 ns)
product: None
vendor: None
physical id: 1
serial: None
slot: A1
size: 256MiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 266MHz (3.8ns)
*-pci
description: Host bridge
product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM
Controller/Host-Hub Interface
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=agpgart-intel
resources: irq:0 memory:e8000000-ebffffff(prefetchable)
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated
Graphics Device
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:16
memory:e0000000-e7ffffff(prefetchable) memory:ee000000-ee07ffff
*-usb:0
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI
Controller #1
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:16 ioport:d000(size=32)
*-usb:1
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI
Controller #2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:19 ioport:d400(size=32)
*-usb:2
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI
Controller #3
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.2
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:d800(size=32)
*-usb:3
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.7
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:23 memory:ee080000-ee0803ff
*-pci
description: PCI bridge
product: 82801 PCI Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1e
bus info: pci@0000:00:1e.0
version: 82
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci bus_master
resources: memory:ec000000-edffffff
memory:20000000-200fffff(prefetchable)
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: BCM4401 100Base-T
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 9
bus info: pci@0000:01:09.0
logical name: eth0
version: 01
serial: 00:08:74:b8:46:da
size: 100MB/s
capacity: 100MB/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list rom ethernet
physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes
driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.103 latency=32 link=yes
multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100MB/s
resources: irq:17 memory:ed000000-ed001fff
memory:20000000-20003fff(prefetchable)
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: isa bus_master
configuration: latency=0
*-ide
description: IDE interface
product: 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.1
logical name: scsi0
logical name: scsi1
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ide bus_master emulated
configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:1f0(size=8) ioport:3f6
ioport:170(size=8) ioport:376 ioport:f000(size=16) memory:20100000-201003ff
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: WDC WD400BB-53CL
vendor: Western Digital
physical id: 0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 05.0
serial: WD-WMAAN2514010
size: 37GiB (40GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=e25de25d
*-volume:0
description: Windows NTFS volume
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sda1
version: 3.1
serial:
5a43d33b-6b1e-8a46-9461-d8a4a36e7b3b
size: 25GiB
capacity: 25GiB
capabilities: primary bootable ntfs
initialized
configuration: clustersize=4096
created=2009-02-14 06:24:26 filesystem=ntfs modified_by_chkdsk=true
mounted_on_nt4=true resize_log_file=true state=dirty upgrade_on_mount=true
*-volume:1
description: Extended partition
physical id: 2
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
logical name: /dev/sda2
size: 12GiB
capacity: 12GiB
capabilities: primary extended partitioned
partitioned:extended
*-logicalvolume:0
description: Linux filesystem
partition
physical id: 5
logical name: /dev/sda5
logical name: /
capacity: 11GiB
configuration: mount.fstype=ext4
mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,barrier=1,data=ordered state=mounted
*-logicalvolume:1
description: Linux swap / Solaris
partition
physical id: 6
logical name: /dev/sda6
capacity: 564MiB
capabilities: nofs
*-cdrom:0
description: SCSI CD-ROM
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom1
logical name: /dev/scd0
logical name: /dev/sr0
capabilities: audio
configuration: status=nodisc
*-cdrom:1
description: CD-R/CD-RW writer
product: CD-R/RW SW-240B
vendor: SAMSUNG
physical id: 0.1.0
bus info: scsi@1:0.1.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/cdrw
logical name: /dev/scd1
logical name: /dev/sr1
version: BD11
serial: [SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-240B BD11D
capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw
configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
*-serial UNCLAIMED
description: SMBus
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus
Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: latency=0
resources: ioport:500(size=32)
*-multimedia
description: Multimedia audio controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97
Audio Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.5
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.5
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=Intel ICH latency=0
resources: irq:17 ioport:e000(size=256)
ioport:e400(size=64) memory:ee081000-ee0811ff memory:ee082000-ee0820ff

Your card is detected and a driver is installed. It says i915. I am not
familiar with Intel drivers. My card is Nvidia.
Obviously it does not do the trick or you would have the resolution that you
want. It is the closest match is my guess.

I went to the Dell site and found no driver for your card (Brookdale).
support.dell.com/.../devices.aspx\
temID=DIM_PNT_CEL_2350&os=WW1&osl=EN

You can compile your own, but that prospect may not sound encouraging. This
is how:
www.lesbell.com.au/.../16b775253fa0\
d477ca256d07001cd06c?OpenDocument

This has not been a banner year for open source and Intel display drivers.
Earlier in the year many Intel and ATI users were left in the cold when
those equipment manufacturers were late in providing drivers for the kernel
included with Ubuntu 9.04. It dragged on for months. Not being affected I
did not keep up with those developments. Don't get me wrong. Intel graphics
cards are great, just not well supported.

Perhaps someone with a Dell Dimension and Intel display driver could add
their two cents.

I will see what I can do about compiling a driver.
Maybe someone else will come forward as well with an idea.

Thanks for the reference - I have the same chipset on my Dell Dimension 2400 and
will be facing the same problem when I install 9.10. (I won't attempt *that*
until I re-partition to preserve my operational 8.04 LTS configuration.)

I've done driver builds before (ACPI for a Toshiba laptop), but this one looks
harder. A quick review suggests that there's more to it than just a simple
installable kernel module.

Can you double-check whether you have the "xserver-xorg-video-intel" package
installed? (System | Administration | Synaptic Package Manager, and enter
"video-intel" in the Quick Search box.)

I apologize for taking so long to reply to your request. According to Synaptic,
I have the following showing installed on the machine

xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-ivideo-i740

Also available but not installed is

xserver-xorg-video-intel-dbg

I had plans of upgrading my laptop as well from 9.04 to 9.10, but after this
experience, I think I will wait until I learn a little more about 9.10. Thanks
Joe for any help you can provide

To all who was following my older post, it seems that the problem has corrected
itself. I use Ubuntu on a dual boot system, which I normally keep in XP due to
the wife. This morning I boot into Ubuntu, and wouldn't you know that everything
on my screen looks smaller. I have made no changes to the system except for
installing updates periodically. Maybe now I will be brave enough to upgrade the
laptop from 9.04

That probably happened because you have to reboot to see the changes in xorg
as the kernel based drivers start before X can start. You would have been
running on the old setup until you rebooted. It is the same when you upgrade
the kernel. You don't have to reboot after an upgrade, but when you do you
get the new kernel with its changes.