installing programs problem

it won't even let me get on terminal.

can someone please help me with this?

If you can't open a terminal try the following:

1) Press Ctrl+Alt+F1

This should put you into a text-only terminal.

2) Login with your username and password.
3) Run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoclean

4) Make note of any errors that are printed to the terminal. You won't really be able to copy and paste that easily, but if you run into errors they will be important to figuring out your problem.

5) You can get back to your graphical session by pressing: Alt+F7

well that got rid of needing to get the updates installled. but i still can't get on terminal or download programs. when i click to install or go to terminal it pops up a white box with nothing in it. is there anyway to download compiz and other programs the way i did the updates. And what could be the problem wiht the white box thing. i didn't see any errors pop up like you told me to look out for so i don't know. all i want to do is install compiz and a few other programs. any ideas?

Well, you can install programs using the method I gave you in the last
post by running the command:

sudo apt-get install packagename

where packagename is the name of the package you want. You can find the
package name you are looking for by using the command:

sudo apt-cache search search_term

where search term is a term related to the program you are looking for.

However, it is better if we actually hunt down the problem preventing
you from opening a terminal and other programs, since I doubt you want
to drop into a text terminal every time you want to install software or
update or do other things that require a terminal.

Does the terminal not open no matter how you try to start it? For
instance, does it start if you do the following:

1) Press Alt+F2
2) Type: gnome-terminal
3) Press "Run"

If that doesn't work try this:

1) Press Alt+F2
2) Type: xterm
3) Press "Run"
4) If xterm starts, type the command:

gnome-terminal

5) Copy and paste any error messages that get output when you try to
start gnome-terminal and post them here.

both options when i clicked run all they did was bring up the blank white box and then sit there. it does nothing after that and nothing loads.

your a god in my book, changing the visual effects did it for me. i can get on terminal and everything now. tytytytytyty

Thanks Steven Danna, that solved my question.