GeForce 2 Driver

If you have a default 10.04 then the nouveu driver will support you. To get the correct resolution if udev doesn't detect it correctly, you will need to form an xorg.conf file to set the display up correctly.
You can get a skeleton file using:

Sudo Xorg --configure

And pad out the file from there. The proprietary driver has nvidia-xconfig which can make a half decent file you can then fine tune. I am unable to give the file it makes personally as I am not at home or have access to my file or I'd give it you. I will give the file when I can to hopefully get you sorted if you do not get a response in the mean time.

I initially generated my xorg.conf with "Xorg -configure" (had to stop X first). It generated a xorg.conf similar to nvidia-xconfig or nvidia-settings (GUI version). On the other "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg", "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg-video-nv" and "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg-video-nouveau" does not generate xorg.conf at all which is, in my opinion, really strange.

I will only paste the module, monitor, device and screen Sections as the rest is not important:
Section "Module"
 Load "i2c"
 Load "bitmap"
 Load "ddc"
 Load "extmod"
 Load "freetype"
 Load "glx"
 Load "int10"
 Load "type1"
 Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Monitor0"
 VendorName "Unknown"
 ModelName "Unknown"
 HorizSync 30.0 - 110.0
 VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
 #Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Device0"
 Driver "nv"
 #Driver "nvidia"
 VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
 #Option "NoLogo" "true"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Screen0"
 Device "Device0"
 Monitor "Monitor0"
 DefaultDepth 24
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth 16
  Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth 24
  Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
 EndSubSection
EndSection

It looks like xserver (Xorg -configure) prefers the nvidia proprietary driver above any other. I tried using "rmmod nvidia" before regenerating new xorg.conf, but it did not help. Just tried rebooting without xorg.conf and it caused my computer to hang just after " * Starting Common Unix Printing System: cupsd", I believe that was the last thing in /etc/rc... to load before X started.

I'm starting to think that there is a conflict between nvidia and nouveau drivers, either that or just plainly a bug in the nouveau driver. Whenever I put "nouveau" in as "Driver" under the device section it also causes the computer to hang.

To sum things up a little... I'm now going to try and support nouveau as it's my best option between nv, nvidia, nvidia-96, rivafb, nvidiafb and vesa drivers. Friday 9 July 2010, on IRC "Sarvatt" in #ubuntu-x helped me to purge nvidia proprietary drivers which helped a lot seeing that it brought back my software rendering. Where I usually got "Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0"." I now get a proper output using glxinfo with "OpenGL renderer string: Software Rasterizer" (software rendering) I can now scroll text without lag! :-)

Seeing as I still don't have proper 2D acceleration and I cannot change my screen resolution to 1280x1024 (currently my max is 1024x768) I went one step further trying out xorg-edgers ppa to test bleeding edge of what xorg/nouveau had to offer. I also had to update my kernel to 2.6.35-7-generic-pae otherwise nouveau would not load, but with no luck. The latest kernel, xserver and nouveau-driver still does not work. I get a simple green flash (as x tries to start up) then another one, after the second green flash my computer locks up completely.

I am now linking my question to bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/596402 and will be continue there.