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xorg package

Uploaded to 9.04 from 8.10 and forgot username

Asked by JimB

Last night I uploaded to 9.04 from 8.10 and when installing this morning it asked for my username and password. I knew the password but apparently forgot the username. In recovery mode I got to the root@name but apparently that is not the username. Aside from reloading 8.10 (I have the 8.10 DVD) and stating all over (losing all my data) is there anyway I can obtain my username?

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Tom
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Tom (tom6) said : 		#1

Can you try following the Medibuntu instructions? I think it's all command-line based anyway.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

You have already tried the boot menu option into "Recovery Mode" and then tried all the options including "fix x-server" so that just leaves possible graphics-card-driver problem or something to do with xorg. Do you know which graphics card family your cards belong to? Intel, ati or nVidia? Did you install proprietary drivers already or still on defaults?

Thanks, good luck and regards from
Tom :)

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JimB (jbarden1) said : 		#2

The Graphics card is a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD and I did not install proprietary drivers, they are the default drivers that came with the machine.

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#3

Can you use the Ubutnu Cd as a Live Cd, this means bootup off it and "Try without installing/changing anything on the machine", if this gets you to a working desktop then we call it a LiveCd of Ubuntu - most distros have this option

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JimB (jbarden1) said : 		#4

Initially I was able to, but now I cannot get to the working desktop even by booting off the U 8.10 CD; it only gets me to the text mode, same as booting off the HD.

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#5

Ok, if it does work then please try the web-browser to see if it automatically connects and allows you to get to this thread
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+question/67248

If it does work and you're still using the LiveCd session then please go up to the top taskbar and click on

Applications - Accessories - Terminal

sorry about the irony here. Into the terminal/command window/console type (or copy&paste

cd /etc/X11
gedit xorg.conf

all the lines that start with a # mark are just notes for humans to read, the machine completely ignores these so we say they are 'commented out' . Please copy the chunk of lines near the end of the file that aren't commented out into here.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

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Best Tom (tom6) said : 		#6

Ahah. Right in that case it looks like there could be a hardware problem with the machine itself. Does it still boot into Windows or has that gone?

It might be worth trying a different distro from a different fork of linux. My usual favourite for this sort of thing is Wolvix Hunter from the Slackware fork
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix

This should get you to a working desktop, hopefully. If so i will be hoping to copy some parts of their xorg.conf into the Ubuntu one. I know it's cheating but it often works ;)

Good luck with this, from
Tom :)

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JimB (jbarden1) said : 		#7

Thanks Tom, that solved my question.

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#8

Wow, you fixed it!!? Brilliant, nicely done :))
Did you use another distro?
Thanks and regards from
Tom :)

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JimB (jbarden1) said : 		#9

Tom thanks for all your help. When you mentioned graphics issue, I recalled a minor graphics issue when running UBUNTU from the CD. After running UBUNTU from the CD and switching back to Microsoft XP I noticed that the XP ran at a lower resolution display and I had to manually switch back to the higher resolution display that I normally used. So after reading up on the ThinkPad I learned that the BIOS allows automatic switching between the 2 displays which confused UBUNTU. So what I did in the BIOS was to disable the automatic switching between the 2 displays and select the higher resolution display as a permanent setting. This solved the problem.

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#10

Wow!! Well found! Thanks for posting the answer back in here :) I've not heard of this issue before so it's great to have it in the "Solved" Answers knowledgebase.

Thanks for that and welcome to linux-land, especially the Ubuntu corner of it :)
Regards from
Tom :)

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#11

Aaargh Jim! Please re-post new questions separately!
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion

Often people hunt through "Solved" answers to solve their problem rather than bothering to post their own new question and now this one looks all messy and confusing! lol

Launchpad is being slow and sticky right now but still please use the link to ask new questions separately so they get sent to the front-desk where people might be able to help you

Thanks, good luck and regards from
Tom :)

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#12

The "root@name" prompt shows the name of the computer rather than the username on that machine. The user shown (before the @ symbol) is the standard "roto user" or "super user" as it's worth avoiding doing anything as root because ti can really stuff things up later.

However, from the "root@name" prompt type

cd /home
ls

where "ls" is lower-case "LS" and this should show you a folder for each of the main normal users on your system, which is worth noting down so you can login properly on a reboot. Then from the same command-line just type in

reboot

and that should reboot your machine ;)
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)