Upgrade install from 11.10 - 12.04 fail

what video chip do you use?
does the system have a make and model?

My suggestion is that you get the 12.04 live-DVD iso and burn a DVD. Boot from it and take the 'Try Ubuntu' option. If you can run Ubuntu OK from the DVD you can browse to your existing stuff and rescue anything you need before proceding. Please let us know what the result is when you boot from the live-DVD. Also, we will need details of your graphics controller.

It is a quite old desktop from Systemax, with an AMD chip, but was was working perfectly under 11.10. The graphics card is a Radeon 9800, with a VGA connection. Previous installs had used the vanilla driver, saying no proprietary drivers were available. Don't need to rescue anything as I had taken precaution of backing up documents before updating. But had hoped there was a better/shorter route than downloading Live DVD and full reinstall.

There may be a better route - I am just suggesting use of a live-DVD to see if your hardware can actually run 12.04. If not, you might want to consider wither installing 11.10 again, or opting for Lubuntu which is usually a better optin on an older box. The thing is, if the live-DVD runs OK this will be an easy way to show that your upgrade went wrong. I wonder if doing startx from the terminal gets you anywhere? Any error messages this get could be of use.

Try the boot option:

nomodeset

May help

Some progress thanks to Barry's suggestion of trying 'startx' ... which manages to launch 12.04, though with a few errors messages about passwords and keyrings. However even though i then adjust settings to a working condition, the problem is repeated on restart, and i have to resort to startx each time.

Once in, there are other issues too. Thunderbird email is ignored. There is no sound at all, and the sound settings only shows dummy output and no input... the install has failed to detect microphone, sound card and webcam.

I have an earlier LIVE CD, and will next etst that to see if all is restored. If so, I will go back to an earlier working version. If this is a stable, long term support version I hate to think what a less stable one would do!

Andrew - I don't know how to change a boot option to 'nomodeset' - I'm a Linux newbie

Thanks to both for your help

Yes but I'm VERY sure you are not new to researching things online to find out how......

Even a simple websearch would bring up this link:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

12.04 is very stable. Your upgrade went wrong somehow. Now you can get into it by using startx, you can take a look in the system settings->additional drivers app and see if there are any drivers you need to load. However, as you have problems with so many bits of hardware, getting your broken system working is going to take a lot longer than a clean install would. Please try booting the live-DVD and see if all the hardware is properly detected when you are running from the DVD.

Barry
One challenge appears to be, as i had already checked, that the additional drivers reveals no drivers listed at all.

I do understand that these things happen.. but I moved from version 9 to 10.10 without problem, and from there to 11.04 and 11.10 equally easily, so was surprised to experience so many difficulties. I understand the point about a clean install, and will indeed try that next, once I establish which version to install cleanly (and how to remove the existing one!)

Andrew - take the point about a web search, but I was replying in real time and hadn't had time to try one! As someone who is used to Mac and Windows, and who hadn't gone anywhere near grub, grub2 etc this is quite a learning journey, so all I can do is ask for some understanding. Frankly I find that page rather daunting, and I get confused that some pages appear to be for certain versions of Ubuntu, rather than generic, and also appear to mix booting from CD with booting from installations. I realise i have to put some serious reading in if I am to get to grips with this stuff!

First, run 12.04 from the DVD without installing. It could be that there are problems running your hardware properly from 12.04. You don't need to get rid of the old version if Ubuntu is the only operating system on your computer. If you are dual-booting tell us a lot more about what is installed and how it was installalled originally - if Ubuntu is a wubi installation we need to know.

I should have mentioned that yes, it was a wubi installation. I am afraid that after two more days of struggling and failing to get a clean 12.04 install working I tried Linux Mint 12 and Mint4Win, which installed without any problems at all.

I couldn't face starting over again, so am sticking with that. Thanks again for your help.