[wplug] ubuntu install - dies on X

[Mike Sussman]

> Message: 10
> Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 22:39:44 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Brandon Kuczenski <brandon at 301south.net>
> Subject: [wplug] ubuntu install - dies on X
> To: WPLUG <wplug at wplug.org>
> Message-ID: <20050509222924.U1905 at ocean.301south.net>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
> 
> 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
> 

Note that <ctrl>-<alt>-F2 or F3 or F4 or others will give you a
command-line login prompt.  You can change your login to not
use X that way.  You will also probably find F1 gives you the error
messages from the current attempt to start X, so you can see what
is happening.  From a non-X screen, <alt>-F? will move to another
login prompt, except that <alt>-F7 will get you back to your X
screen.

Good luck.
-- 
Mike Sussman
msussman at na-net.ornl.gov