Ubuntu

GUI not working after install

Asked by rhodyfanatic

At least it's consistent...

I created the 8.10 Live CD and booted the CD only version to try it out. Everything worked fine until after it auto logged into the "ubuntu" user. After running for a little while the screen went black but the mouse pointer worked. It stayed that way with the drive light flickering every two seconds.

I figured it was just a problem with the CD only version so I then did a full install and it went through the whole process with the GUI status of the install showing up fine. Finally it said it had to reboot, and after a reboot it asked for my user and password... then same thing happened.

I rebooted again and changed the session to "GNOME safe mode", no joy.

I rebooted again and tried "terminal safe mode" and got a command line session that works.

I'm new to Linux, but I was a unix guru back in the 70's thru mid 90's, but haven't used it since then - I may need a little hand holding but things will probably make sense soon.

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George Greene
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Andrew Morris (ajmorris) said : 		#1

hi there,
can you paste your /var/log/Xorg.0.log to http://ubuntu.pastebin.ca and paste the pastebin url here.
and also the same for 'sudo lspci'

Revision history for this message
rhodyfanatic (greg-winhaven) said : 		#2

OK, I'm a bit of a newbie, so I need a little info...

Maybe this is done automatically via Linux, but going on my historical
knowledge of unix:
Since I only have access to a "safe" terminal session, in order to provide
your data, I need to know the commands to mount a USB stick as a file system
so that I can copy the logs and output you want to it so I can take it to a
computer where I can post the data to pastebin.

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of
Andrew Morris
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 7:58 PM
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #57387]: GUI not working after install

Your question #57387 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/57387

    Status: Open => Needs information

Andrew Morris requested for more information:
hi there,
can you paste your /var/log/Xorg.0.log to http://ubuntu.pastebin.ca and
paste the pastebin url here.
and also the same for 'sudo lspci'

--
To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
this email or enter your reply at the following page:
https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/57387

You received this question notification because you are a direct
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Revision history for this message
Kristopher Ives (krisives) said : 		#3

The USB stick should auto-mount when you plug it in, it will be at /media/<something>, where <something> is the name of the label name or an auto-assigned name like sda, sdb, etc. To see what USB devices are plugged in:

$ lsusb
$ ls /media

If for some reason the USB device is listed but no mount at /media you need to find out what the name of the device is. There is good chance that it will be /dev/sdb1, since /dev/sda is your internal drive and /dev/sdb is the USB disk, with 1 being the first partition (since most USB have a single FAT32 partition). You could then mount it:

$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/MyUSBDrive

At the safe terminal to copy the file(s) to your disk, you should be able to:

$ cp /var/log/Xorg* /media/MyThumbDrive/

That should copy anything from the /var/log that has to do with Xorg to your thumb drive. To safely unmount it from the command line:

$ sudo umount -a

Will unmount all drives that aren't needed, which is usually everything but your internal hard drive, or whatever mounts to root (/)

Cheers,
Kristopher Ives

Revision history for this message
rhodyfanatic (greg-winhaven) said : 		#4

Here's the data you requested:

Xorg.0.log is http://ubuntu.pastebin.ca/1308827

lspci is http://ubuntu.pastebin.ca/1308829

Xorg.0.log.old is http://ubuntu.pastebin.ca/1308834

Both of the log files have strange things at the end.

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of
Andrew Morris
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 7:58 PM
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #57387]: GUI not working after install

Your question #57387 on Ubuntu changed:

https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/57387

    Status: Open => Needs information

Andrew Morris requested for more information:

hi there,

can you paste your /var/log/Xorg.0.log to http://ubuntu.pastebin.ca and
paste the pastebin url here.

and also the same for 'sudo lspci'

--

To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to

this email or enter your reply at the following page:

https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/57387

You received this question notification because you are a direct

subscriber of the question.

Revision history for this message
Best George Greene (georgegreene2005) said : 		#5

I had this same problem on an H-P desktop install about the same hour the original post was made here (but my blank screen after boot/login was pinkish). After a couple hours of aggravation I found my way to this thread, and proceeded to run down info in Xorg.0.log to compare with Win XP Device Manager. Then I thought about a disk I had from an install of 8.04, popped it in to run 'live' and graphics were okay. So I installed 8.04 to be on my way. Yeah, I'd like to try 8.10, but I don't want to bleed on it.

Revision history for this message
rhodyfanatic (greg-winhaven) said : 		#6

Thanks for your experience here! I'll get 8.04 and give it a whirl. I'll monitor the updates coming out, try live CDs and when it is fixed, I'll update.