Ubuntu

gdm refuses to start

Asked by baddison

Today, while I was logged into Ubuntu 9.04, my computer suddenly locked up and became unresponsive (couldn't move the mouse or do anything else). Before I proceeded to do a hard restart I noticed that the light for the caps lock key on the laptop keyboard was flashing on and off (very weird). After restarting my computer, Ubuntu started to load with a progress bar and everything. My computer finished loading Ubuntu (the progress bar moved all the way to the right) and right before the log in screen would normally appear my screen flashed some weird colors then went blank. I waited several minutes but my screen remained blank with no hard drive activity. I did another hard restart since the commands to restart my computer weren't working but the same thing happened again. I then booted up Windows Vista to see if I could find a solution to my problem. While in Vista one of the windows I had open all of a sudden became pixelated and colored with all sorts of different colors. Then a my screen went blank but then came back and I had an error message saying that the display device R600 has stopped working but has recovered.

I have since tried fixing the graphics display in the ubuntu recovery menu and checking for broken packages but nothing has worked. It seems to me that my graphics card is no longer functioning correctly but I could be wrong.

I have a compaq presario X6000 with an intel Pentium 4 processor, an ati x600 graphics card, and currently running Ubuntu 9.04. Let me know if you need more info on my system and any help would be appreciated. Thanks

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#1

Hmmm, your "display device R600" is your graphics card. Has your laptop had any hard knocks lately? It sounds to me like there might well be a hardware problem as both Vista and Ubutnu are independant of each other and both reporting problems. |Hopefully it's just a loose connection or something easy to push in firmly again but i would get a computer shop or someone to do this, ie someone with insurance. If the machine is still under warantee then it'd be ideal to use that. If you want to get you data off your hard-drive first then please let us know if you have a cd/dvd-drive and/or an external drive.

Thanks and regards from
Tom

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baddison (tennis34242) said : 		#2

To my knowledge it hasn't had any hard knocks but I have had this laptop for about 4 years and I'm sure it has been bumped around a few times (this summer I have taken it to my research lab almost everyday so maybe while carrying it my backpack?). I do have an external hard drive but I'm not sure how to back up Ubuntu since I can't see the partisan Ubuntu is on in Windows Vista. Just let me know how to get the data off of that partisan, or maybe better yet back up the whole hard drive (I should have enough space on my external) and then I will take it to a computer hardware store. How much do you think it will cost me to take it to a computer place and have them look at my hardware (hopefully not $100 or more since my laptop is not worth that much anymore)?

Thanks

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baddison (tennis34242) said : 		#3

I tried booting from the Ubuntu 9.04 live cd but this was not successful either. Right after everything finished loading off the cd, a bunch of weird colors appeared on the screen and then the screen went blank. For some reason I'm not having any more issues with my graphics card in Windows Vista. I wonder why Windows Vista can boot up without any problems but Ubuntu won't load (both from the hard drive and live cd). This is very strange. I will definitely take my computer to a computer service store unless someone else has another idea.

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Rob Frerejean (hffrerejean) said : 		#4

After reading all the text here, I think it´s best to take your computer out for repair. And because it´s not worth more then $100 let then do a check up and estimate the cost.

BTW, for about 600 or 700 $ you have a very nice and good new laptop.

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#5

If Vista has stopped being temperamental then it might be worth trying a different version of linux to see if something other than Ubuntu works. I would try sliTaz and Wolvix because they are both very small and should make a good cd - also they are from different families so we might have more chance of one of them working if Ubuntu didn't
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slitaz
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=knoppix

Also this guide gives some advice on making a cd, although this is an Ubuntu guide
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
although it does sound like you are getting this bit right :) In fact it's hard to see what you're doing wrong. Hopefully trying one of these other distros will flag up what's going wrong. Knoppix is good as a LiveCd and has really advanced hardware detection but Wolvix covers slightly different hardware. I would be surprised f neither of these work.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#6

Err, the best Wolvix to try is their Wolvix Hunter 1.1.0, it's a little older than their new beta versions but is a cd worth having for a variety of reasons

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