Ubuntu
xorg package

No GUI when upgrading Ubuntu

Asked by awilson

I opted to upgrade my laptop (a first gen. Dell Inspiron 1501, nothing fancy) from Ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10. During the process, I decided to move it to my desk, which required unplugging it. My battery is on its way out, and the computer crashed. So the first part of this issue is definitely my fault. I rebooted the system, and had a lot of problems, as expected - I had no GUI, no access to a terminal, and all I could see was a black screen with vertical colored lines. It was a mess.

The forums helped to a degree, I was finally able to get to a terminal using alt-ctrl-f1 and finish the upgrade, or so I thought. During the upgrade process via the terminal, I saw a lot of junk code that looked like it might of been a virus (lines like "error installing JapaneseGovernment.dll" and so on). The process finished, I rebooted the computer, and "normal mode" is just a text screen. I cannot access Unity or even install GNOME (I've tried, all I get are error messages). I have tried uninstalling and re-installing Unity with no success, the process fails due to a flahplayer installation failure. I have screen captures of the error messages if that would be helpful.

I was hoping to run a Live CD or USB to at least retrieve my data, but the colored line problem persists when I boot from either of those, and I have tried other types of OS' as well. Any help would be appreciated, I can't afford to replace the computer, and I don't want to have to wipe the drive if there is any way of saving my data.

Thanks.

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Eliah Kagan
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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#1

For everyone's convenience, here's the thread on Ubuntu Forums about this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1864854&page=2

@awilson
Can you explain what you mean by the "colored line problem"? Please also provide details about anything you have attempted to address this problem (whatever it is).

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awilson (refusingsilence) said : 		#2

The colored lines are vertical lines of color on a black screen that show up whenever I try to boot from a Live CD or USB stick. I had this problem when I first installed 11.04 about 8 months ago, but I was given a workaround via a set of keystrokes (which I no longer remember, unfortunately) by someone on the Ubuntu forums which allowed me to access the disc and install. I had no graphical issues after that until the upgrade.

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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#3

You might be able to proceed with the installation in spite of the colored line problem. But if not, or if you'd prefer not to, then my guess is that it was solved by setting the nomodeset boot option. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132.

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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#4

(I should've said: "...to proceed with the data recovery and/or reinstallation."

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awilson (refusingsilence) said : 		#5

The forum thread you directed me to was a life saver! I was unable to get the commands to work in my current system state, but what it did help me do was finally (after two weeks of asking how) load a live CD. What I need to know is how to back up my home folder to an external drive via the terminal. Once I have that piece in place I'll have a functional computer.

Do you know the command lines for preforming a terminal back-up? I would appreciate it.

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awilson (refusingsilence) said : 		#6

I should have specified, but I tried setting the boot options when I booted normally, but the commands were either not recognized or GRUB was restricted and wouldn't let me edit it.

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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#7

In reverse order...

"I should have specified, but I tried setting the boot options when I booted normally, but the commands were either not recognized or GRUB was restricted and wouldn't let me edit it."

What specific error message(s), if any, did you get?

"What I need to know is how to back up my home folder to an external drive via the terminal."

It's easier to do it graphically, if you have a usable graphical desktop when booted from the live CD. (You can use the live CD system to do the backup.)

Do you want to perform the backup from the live CD system (graphically or nongraphically), or from the broken installed system?

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awilson (refusingsilence) said : 		#8

If I can use the live CD do back things up that would be great. I honestly didn't know I could (I'm learning a lot as I go), but it would be nice to avoid using the broken system.

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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#9

Yes, you can, and doing so doesn't require that you do anything in the Terminal. Just boot from the live CD, select Try Ubuntu (rather than Install Ubuntu), and when you get a working desktop, use Nautilus (the file browser) to mount the drive on which Ubuntu is installed, and copy the files somewhere else, like an external flash drive, or over the network to another machine, or you can email them to yourself. If you need help doing this, please post another reply with whatever specific questions/problems you have.

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awilson (refusingsilence) said : 		#10

Thanks for all of your help. I am almost done with the backup process, but I keep getting "permission denied" errors when I try to create a copy of my documents and music folders. Everything else has copied just fine. Any ideas? I am compressing the files and sending them to a USB stick.

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Best Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#11

Run a file browser window as root (press Alt+F2 and run the command "gksu nautilus" without the quotes). With that, you can copy the files. If you later find that you cannot read the files that have been copied, you'll have to use a "gksu nautilus" window to change their permissions.

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awilson (refusingsilence) said : 		#12

Thanks Eliah Kagan, that solved my question.

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awilson (refusingsilence) said : 		#13

Thanks so much, this solved my problem. I finally have a functional computer again!