do not want to see text when I bootup and shut down

In your menu.lst, the first entry should look similar to this

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=96b3ef31-7978-41f1-b699-6bfe46eec52d ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

Make sure it says "quiet splash" at the end of the kernel line.

If you can't figure this out, please you post the output of

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

hi Johannes I did a sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
and this is what is there and not familier with the cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-20-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-20-generic root=UUID=acea277d-66cd-49be-8fc4-ce06d17bf1ae ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-20-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-20-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-20-generic root=UUID=acea277d-66cd-49be-8fc4-ce06d17bf1ae ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-20-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=acea277d-66cd-49be-8fc4-ce06d17bf1ae ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=acea277d-66cd-49be-8fc4-ce06d17bf1ae ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

ok sorry I did the cat thing while I was running the gedit menu thing so did not show up in terminal but output was about the same

look at the line containing the defoptions, you should have :
# defoptions=quiet splash

thanks Nizar Kerkeni
but it is there... I have done a little looking around and it might have something to do with my partitions... as I said it only happened after I did some changes to the hard drive partitions.

it seems the same as this
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=754023
but not sure of the answer to fix it

you can test the command given in the forum. It's a simple check of hard disks.

this is the result
~$ fsck -y
fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
fsck.ext3: Unable to resolve 'UUID=acea277d-66cd-49be-8fc4-ce06d17bf1ae'

Why don't you just go to your startup manager and uncheck the box that says: Show text during Boot.

The Startup Manager is under System, Administration.

Thanks Andre Mangan but I already looked at that...
Like I said all was fine till I did some re-partitioning with the live cd and gparted...Up till that point I had a nice boot sequence...
So it must be something to do with what I did as I found with this link...http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=754023
seems similar problem...

the boot slider bar moves from left to right for 1 complete movement and then moves left to right again and then on the return the screen goes to black backround and white text saying
*reading files needed to boot
*setting preliminary key map
*preparing restricted drivers
*setting system clock
*starting the basic network
*starting kernel event manager
and so on......

When you said that "the screen goes to black background and white text" it shows that you are booting from a terminal.

When you get to the login screen, click on the options tab in the left bottom corner and select "Gnome". Then log in as usual.

 Thanks for that pointer Andre Mangan but tried it after you said and no difference.
the text type is like when you first boot the pc... giving you the video card details, hard drive , mouse, ram etc...
It is not affecting the performance of the system at all but just boot and shut down look.... am thinking to reinstall the whole thing again... start from scratch or is that an ex windows mentality:)...

Reinstalling is a bit drastic since this is really just a cosmetic issue - the system works fine otherwise.

What happens if you select a previous kernel from your GRUB boot menu?

I suspect that something is awry in GRUB and that with shifting partitions the poor thing is a wee bit lost. I would try a repair there by using your Super Grub Boot Disc (everyone should have one of these).

     http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/SuperGrubDiskPage.html

thanks Andre have downloaded SGD 0.9745 and will look at what it can do... previous kernel does the same thing... I was hoping it would not... strange thing also is that sometimes in the shutdown sequence I get the nice ubuntu splash and progress bar other times I get all the screen dump stuff.... but the starup is always the same... The reinstall is my last option that ius whay I have posted another question regarding moving my home folder to its own partition https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/41867 to help keep settings and data.

after a bit of scary navigation in the SGD It did a check and this was one of the comments
" error 6 is OK"
"mismatched or corrupt version of stage1/stage2"... does that help in the diagnosis?

I cannot help you with the first error message.

The second one can probably be fixed in the following way.

In a terminal, type (without the quotes):

"find /boot/grub/stage1"

This will return a value looking something like this (hdx,y) Note x and y.

type: "root (hdx,y)" substituting the values of x and y found previously.

type: "setup (hd0)" 0 is zero.

Quit and exit and then reboot.

this is what I get
kev@kev-ubuntu:~$ find /boot/grub/stage1
/boot/grub/stage1
kev@kev-ubuntu:~$

I do see this file structure when browsing the "filesystem" so it is there

Sorry Kev, I forgot to include the first line.

type " sudo grub" to get you into the grub directory.
then do all the other entries.

still no joy did as you said... this is the output

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
 (hd1,4)

grub> root (hd1,4)

grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd1,4)/boot/grub/stage
2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub>
 still shows the boot checking list with the [ok] on the right hand side
thanks for your help by the way,,

I am stumped.

you and me both mate:) that is why I will reinstall OS again just as soon as I have worked out how to move my HOME folder to its own partition... and sort my net connection out... line speed has dropped from 1500 to 350.... thanks for your help any way. I will leave this open for a while longer and see... many thanks again...

Just save your home partition to CD or USB device. That way you can format and partition to your heart's content.

Just in case you haven't reinstalled yet...

Try following the solution in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usplash/+bug/205990

It worked for me!

thanks Paco
I did land up reinstalling the lot. I followed the link you gave and it seems it was like the issue I had... Thanks for the link Will keep it in mind if it happens again. Although I might be heading to 8.10 when it is out of beta... thanks for passing the info on anyway
regards
Kev