Ubuntu
xorg package

Desktop aborts back to the login screen

Asked by LEGOManiac

I have installed Ubuntu 9.04 on yet another PC at home and this one has turned into an adventure:

Initially, I wasn't able to find my 9.04 disk so I used the 8.10 version and installed Ubuntu.

This kept failing so I installed it using the safe graphics mode. I should point out that while the motherboard is brand new, the video card is ancient (circa 1998). I'm not surprised it's giving me problems but I went ahead anyway.

Ubuntu 8.10 installed correctly in a low-res graphics mode (800 x 600) and I immediately ran the system update and updated it to Ubuntu 9.04.

That appeared to go well and I can get to the login screen and type the username and password and start to get to a desktop. In detail, here's what happens:

The desktop comes up, I get the standard background and the menu bars at the top and bottom appear, as do the menu items on the top-left (Applications, Places, System) as well as the default icons for Firefox, Evolution, Help, etc.

Then there's a pause.

On the right-hand side, there's nothing yet but the moment my name and the shut-down icon appear, I get bumped back to the login screen. No matter how many times I log in, I never get to a desktop.

I have tried:

- Run Session XClient script - same results
- Run Session Remote SSH Connection - connects successfully to another Ubutntu workstation and displays desktop in a 800x600 format.
- Run Session Gnome - same results
- Run SessionFailsafe Gnome - same results - there's also an error message that displays in a window on the desktop but I can't read it that fast.
- Starting a terminal session using CTRL-ALT-F2 and running sudo Xorg yields:

"Server is already active for display 0. Remove /temp/.X0-lock and restart."
Then there's a reference to the Xorg webiste.
Last, there is the line that says "ddXserveGiveUP Closing log".

 - After deleting /temp/.X0-lock the results don't change.

- Run Session Failsafe Terminal - this gets me a terminal. Typing sudo Xorg yields the same results
The difference is that *sometimes* when I'm in this terminal, I get a window appearing that reads:
"An error occured while loading or saving config information for evolution-alarm-notify. Some config settings may not work properly."

Now, this appears to be a black and white graphic terminal on an orange background screen but since it's supposed to be a terminal in safemode, I wouldn't expect Evolution to be loading anything.

At any rate, the Details tab reads:

"Failed to contact config server; Some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information.
Details: 1:Failed to get connection to session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-2sk4SuJaHy: connection refused"

What a mouthfull.

TCP/IP is obviously working since I could make a successful SSH connection to another PC.
I could possibly see where a file lock might be preventing the server from completing the startup but I don't know how to check which file(s) or how to correct it.

In desparation, I'm downloading 9.04 again and will burn it to disk and re-install if no one has posted a helpful suggestion in the next serveral hours.

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LEGOManiac
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Revision history for this message
Tom (tom6) said : 		#1

Hi :)

It's usually a good idea to try out a version of linux as a LiveCd first before installing it. There are plenty of versions so if one doesn't work easily another might work better on that machine.
http://distrowatch.com
I would recommend Wolvix Hunter 1.1.0 or Knoppix as LiveCds
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=knoppix
as they both have quite a high standard of hardware detection and support, being from different families of linux (slackware & mandriva respectively) they might bring something new to the mix.

However it does sound very specifically related to the graphics cards so i was wondering if you tried the boot-options?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

Also have you been able to find a good driver for the card, what graphics card is it? Another options is to try using Xvesa instead of Xorg - although i have no idea how to find out about doing that, i would use the search tool at the top of that boot-options link ;)

I suppose trying out different DE's might be worthwhile. Xfce is much lighter on resources than Gnome but OpenBox and plenty of others are even lighter, only KDE is heavier so there's plenty of choices there. I'm not sure i would go that way without having a lot of time for re-theming the basics. If you do make any then it might be great to save them somewhere handy, perhaps for others to use - again i'm not sure how to do that.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Revision history for this message
Tom (tom6) said : 		#2

I'm not sure but it sounds like you might be able to help with this question?
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+question/79420

Revision history for this message
LEGOManiac (bzflaglegomaniac) said : 		#3

To answer some of your questions, Tom:

Yes, I did try the live CD and it failed to produce a display. I decided I had nothing to lose by trying it in the graphics failsafe mode and that did work, albeit at 800x600 resolution. I had had similar problems with a laptop some months ago and found that installing a basic system, then going online for updates eventually caused a correct video driver to be located and my problem was solved. I had hoped it would be the same this time, but no such luck.

In the last few hours, I decided to have another look at the system and found that the video card I had grabbed out of the closet was an ancient 1994 model by a company I'd never heard of. I decided it was time for a major upgrade so I dug deeper into the closet and came up with a 1997 ATI RAGE card. All my other, more modern, cards are AGP and this new motherboard only supports PCIExpress. Actually, it's the first motherboard I've bought in a while that didn't have an AGP port. I hadn't expected that and didn't pay attention when I bought it yesterday.

At any rate, the RAGE is now working, albeit at an odd screen resolution. I'll have to hunt down a cheap nvidia graphics card. While the RAGE works, the frame rate is too poor for neverputt.

Revision history for this message
Tom (tom6) said : 		#4

Lol, i was slightly afraid you were going to say Ati as their legacy driver just seems so badly broken that you're "forced" to buy a new card - i probably will be and this time, for the first time ever, it might well be an nVidea card as their new ones seem to have good support from both OpenSource drivers, proprietary ones and the weird hybrid the nVidea calls OpenSource but really isn't lol, but at least it works. On my 1650 ati card it seems that all the drivers available for it just break the whole system - sometimes "forcing" me to reinstall (because i'm not an expert at sorting out graphics)

Anyway, i'm glad to hear you've found a temporary fix for this!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Revision history for this message
Tom (tom6) said : 		#5

Oh the newest range of ati cards do seem to be absolutely fantastic, a bargain even tho they cost quite a lot. My issue is with the lack of resources ati put into OpenSource - the old line "Oh, it's the least i could do. A quantity i specialise in" seems to be an appropriate tag-line for them at the moment, unless things have changed radically in the last few months or perhaps they are doing something in secret??

Anyway, good luck and regards again from
Tom :)