[wplug] ubuntu install - dies on X
Jason Carr
jason at flacid.org
Tue May 10 10:31:37 EDT 2005
Have you tried pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace? That will usually kill
your X session.
- Jason
On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 10:39:44PM -0400, Brandon Kuczenski wrote:
> I am working on getting my friend across the hall running on the latest
> Ubuntu disribution. He's never used Linux before and he has an old
> computer (a P-III 667-MHz) that he would like to use for mundane computer
> tasks. The only unusual thing about his system is the fact that he has
> two graphics cards: the integrated card in his motherboard, and a Voodoo 5
> PCI card.
>
> I installed the latest Ubuntu from its installation download ISO. It took
> quite awhile to chunk through all the packages it had to install, but then
> the big moment came when it started GDM -- or, as it happens in this case,
> failed to.
>
> No clue what went wrong. It just goes to a blank screen and sits
> indefinitely. Reboot leads to the same thing: normal startup process, and
> then a blank screen.
>
> The thing is, it boots from LILO (for some reason, the installer could not
> successfully install grub, with no explanation given -- but installing
> LILO worked okay) straight into Runlevel 2, and never gives me a chance to
> interrupt the boot process to specify a text-only runlevel.
>
> When it starts GDM, the screen just dies. Alt-F1 or Ctrl-Alt-F1 do
> nothing (nor any of the other function keys). It just sits there. I have
> no idea what to do.
>
> I can boot into Knoppix just fine, and I guess that will be the tool I use
> to debug the problem... but I don't know what to look for. It seems like
> if the X server failed to start, it would at least fail verbosely and kick
> me back to a console login, but it doesn't. The system becomes totally
> unresponsive.
>
> My friend has been very forgiving, but I feel like this will be a black
> eye for Linux if I can't get it fixed. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
> Brandon
>
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--
Jason Carr
e: jason at flacid.org w: http://flacid.org
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