[gdm-list] GDM on Ubuntu: Resolution / Startup problem over SUN ILOM

[Traiano Welcome <traiano gmail com>]

Hi All

 I connect to an Ubuntu Linux 11.04 server (running on SUN hardware)
over ILOM (using console redirection similar to KVMoIP). I normally
use XDM to obtain a login screen, at which point I can log in and
obtain a fully  featured GNOME  desktop environment. However, when I
configure GDM as my default display manager, and start that up, I
initially get a message of:

 "Ubuntu is running in low-graphics Mode. Your screen, graphics card
and input devices could not be detected correctly. You will need to
configure these yourself"

I try to walk through the graphical configuration options that GDM
offers at this point, but it refuses to save a configuration, hinting
at some kind of permissions issue.

The display then issues "standby one minute while the display
restarts" and then crashes back to the text tty environment.

My questions are:

a) How is it that XDM would pick up the correct (or usable) console
configuration while GDM would not ?
b) How would I configure GDM to provide me with the same full desktop
environment that XDM starts up ?

many thanks in advance!
Traiano