can't get to login blinks black then, bad graphics

Hi :)

When you switch the machine on does the boot-menu give quite a few choices for booting into Ubuntu? The 2nd one should have "recovery mode" near the end of it's line. This option should get you to a disturbingly blue screen with a very useful menu. Try the "Fix x-server" and then the "Resume normal boot" options there, you might need to scroll the menu down and then up again.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

well, I am not sure what your asking when I hit the esc key I get a list of things normal boot safe mode 2x, two other things I have tried them all and I am running a dual boot system I will go back in and see. next message I will tell you everything thats there but I haven't got a blue screen. But I have tried everything on the safe mode. like fix graphics I think I caused this problem by adding graphic software trying to get the most out of my machine. thanks for the responed will get back to you

ok I did what you said went to recovery mode there is no "fix x-server" choice only try to fix graphic choice and it doesn't work

ok I did what you said went to recovery mode there is no "fix x-server" choice only try to fix graphic choice and it doesn't work

Thanks Tom,

  My name is Randy by the way I am in NYC. I got impatinet and just went on wubi and reinstalled ubuntu 9.04 well, I tried kubuntu at first but it isn't for a netbook lol. While waiting to hear back from you I spent hours getting answers that lead to no where lol, but I learned alot. I am going to save your responds tho I am sure I will need in the future lol I am always trying to figure stuff out. I am a US disable Iraqi veteran so I have all kinds of time. I hope to help out other people as you are me down the line. I wanted to ask you about programs that would enhance ubuntu 9.04 I was looking at the remix for netbooks is there a way I can upgrade what I have to remix. Is it simiply just adding software. And I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 what would you suggest as a dual OS for that machine? I have to run dual OS because my wife and windows lol Thanks agian for the info talk to you later

Hi :)

The Ubuntu Netbook Remix has different hardware detection and is generally better for netbooks than the normal release of Ubuntu. We used to have quite a few questions about getting certain different things to work and it would turn out to be on a netbook which made the issues quite tough to fix. Now that the UNR has been released we don't get any of those questions anymore :) So mostly i would say it's just about drivers really but there's tons more stuff in the UNR that just wouldn't be relevant or might even be unhelpful to a normal desktop machine. I think it's worth asking a new question about side-grading your current install to UNR
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion
I know that you can effectively have Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Xubuntu all in the 1 install just by installing "kubuntu-desktop", "ubuntu-desktop" and "xubuntu-desktop" - Then at login there's an "Options" button tucked away at the bottom left usually that should give you a choice of session type to choose from. I don't know how it works with UNR so it'd be interesting to see what people suggest.

I think the Dell Inspiron E1505 is more hefty than a netbook. It should be good with normal Ubuntu so i would set-up Ubuntu as the dual-boot with Windows. I would give your wife and anyone else that uses the machine their own user-names through
System - Administration - User&Groups
just in case they fancy trying it out too. I would probably give them the same permissions your normal user has as that means they can use their own password without having to find out yours in order to do simple stuff like install simple programs. In linux each user is protected from all the other users so hopefully it should be fine like that :)

I think that most linux users have a Windows dual-boot somewhere in the mix. Quite a few have more than one distro too. I find it's great to have Ubuntu as my main stable OS, then Windows is available if i want a good laugh, but also i like to try out different distros on a spare partition. It's quite interesting to see just how similar they all are. Same commands, same command line, usually even the same programs and yet each is quite uniques and has something extra to offer too. It's quite good fun to have a look around but it's also good to have 1 main stable one to come back to when i need to get something done. :)

I started in bug-squad just helping file/triage bug reports but then moved into translations but finally found Answers was where i was happiest. A lot of times i find that by trying to help someone even with something i may know quite well i still end up learning quite a lot and often one of the other answerers might say something i had never thought of before. So i go and look up stuff in the documentation or try it out on one of the set-ups here (at the moment usually just in a virtual machine). There are a lot of community documentation pages and other guides that often solve a problem or at least help clarify exactly what the problem really is. Gradually that helps you answer other questions too. I think it's worth not being too ambitious at first, don't set yourself a target about having to know x, y, z before starting to answer. If you find a question you are unlikely to be able to answer then just leave it and move on to the next.

It's quite easy to add programs to ubuntu
Applications - "Add/Remove Applications"
presents the info one way but i usually prefer Synaptic Package Manager to do this type of thing
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto
because sometimes a program just needs an extra library or codec or something added in order to gain new functionality - linux doesn't always require a whole new program to do a task. The search button in Synaptic searches descriptions as well as titles so you can be a bit more vague about what type of thing you want to do and then see a list of programs, codecs, libraries and stuff is available. Sometimes it's interesting to dig around and see how little you need to add to get the job done. Other times it's better just to install tons of stuff to make sure you get everything ;)

My responds probably aren't really worth keeping. I do think these 3 guides are very useful so i would keep these bookmarked instead
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

For a Wubi install this guide is crucial
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide

And this one is good for morale when Windows users start getting all FanBoy-ish
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus

Err this is a public forum and i'm just rabbiting on because it's quite late here and i'm tired.
I hope this helps a bit anyway!
Good luck, congrats and regards from
Tom :)

Aaargh i have just noticed the Dell Inspiron E1505 has an intel graphics card which might still be an issue with any dsitro. I'm not een sure if this has been dealt with in Ubuntu
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090817#feature

don't get me wrong Tom it will be years before I will ever be able to help someone else out with linux I just find that almost everyone who knows linux and the "help websites" for linux make it more difficult than it really it is, like you were saying its basically the same as windows I am just trying to find out how to max out my machines abilitly you know what I mean thanks for all your help. So now I am going to get to it.

Thank you,
Randy Wilkerson
(347)393-2623

--- On Mon, 9/14/09, Tom <email address hidden> wrote:

From: Tom <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #82633]: can't get to login blinks black then, bad graphics
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Monday, September 14, 2009, 6:19 PM

Your question #82633 on gdm in ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+question/82633

Tom posted a new comment:
Hi :)

The Ubuntu Netbook Remix has different hardware detection and is generally better for netbooks than the normal release of Ubuntu.  We used to have quite a few questions about getting certain different things to work and it would turn out to be on a netbook which made the issues quite tough to fix.  Now that the UNR has been released we don't get any of those questions anymore :)  So mostly i would say it's just about drivers really but there's tons more stuff in the UNR that just wouldn't be relevant or might even be unhelpful to a normal desktop machine.  I think it's worth asking a new question about side-grading your current install to UNR
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion
I know that you can effectively have Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Xubuntu all in the 1 install just by installing "kubuntu-desktop",  "ubuntu-desktop" and "xubuntu-desktop" - Then at login there's an "Options" button tucked away at the bottom left usually that should give you a choice of session type to choose from.  I don't know how it works with UNR so it'd be interesting to see what people suggest.

I think the Dell Inspiron E1505 is more hefty than a netbook.  It should be good with normal Ubuntu so i would set-up Ubuntu as the dual-boot with Windows.  I would give your wife and anyone else that uses the machine their own user-names through
System - Administration - User&Groups
just in case they fancy trying it out too.  I would probably give them the same permissions your normal user has as that means they can use their own password without having to find out yours in order to do simple stuff like install simple programs.  In linux each user is protected from all the other users so hopefully it should be fine like that :)

I think that most linux users have a Windows dual-boot somewhere in the
mix.  Quite a few have more than one distro too.  I find it's great to
have Ubuntu as my main stable OS, then Windows is available if i want a
good laugh, but also i like to try out different distros on a spare
partition.  It's quite interesting to see just how similar they all are.
Same commands, same command line, usually even the same programs and yet
each is quite uniques and has something extra to offer too.  It's quite
good fun to have a look around but it's also good to have 1 main stable
one to come back to when i need to get something done. :)

I started in bug-squad just helping file/triage bug reports but then
moved into translations but finally found Answers was where i was
happiest.  A lot of times i find that by trying to help someone even
with something i may know quite well i still end up learning quite a lot
and often one of the other answerers might say something i had never
thought of before.  So i go and look up stuff in the documentation or
try it out on one of the set-ups here (at the moment usually just in a
virtual machine).  There are a lot of community documentation pages and
other guides that often solve a problem or at least help clarify exactly
what the problem really is.  Gradually that helps you answer other
questions too.  I think it's worth not being too ambitious at first,
don't set yourself a target about having to know x, y, z before starting
to answer.  If you find a question you are unlikely to be able to answer
then just leave it and move on to the next.

It's quite easy to add programs to ubuntu
Applications - "Add/Remove Applications"
presents the info one way but i usually prefer Synaptic Package Manager to do this type of thing
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto
because sometimes a program just needs an extra library or codec or something added in order to gain new functionality - linux doesn't always require a whole new program to do a task.  The search button in Synaptic searches descriptions as well as titles so you can be a bit more vague about what type of thing you want to do and then see a list of programs, codecs, libraries and stuff is available.  Sometimes it's interesting to dig around and see how little you need to add to get the job done.  Other times it's better just to install tons of stuff to make sure you get everything ;)

My responds probably aren't really worth keeping.  I do think these 3 guides are very useful so i would keep these bookmarked instead
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

For a Wubi install this guide is crucial
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide

And this one is good for morale when Windows users start getting all FanBoy-ish
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus

Err this is a public forum and i'm just rabbiting on because it's quite late here and i'm tired.
I hope this helps a bit anyway!
Good luck, congrats and regards from
Tom :)

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