Ubuntu -- login, then, a blank screen

[GKChesterton]

I am such a total newbie that I have reinstalled Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty only eight times. You may say, "If that's all your reinstalls, you have NO business using Linux!" Maybe so, but here is my issue anyway.

When I boot, the system shows a login prompt which I am able to complete. Then the system goes to a screen that does have a background color (it's brown!) and has a controllable cursor arrow. Besides moving the cursor around, I can Ctr-Alt-F2 to command-line. That has let me poke around, but my trouble shooting skills run out pretty quick.

My general experience is that when I fresh install things work well, but at some point while installing applications I have some kind of failure. (I try to handle the installations incrementally but haven't been able to identify problem spots.) After that I can reboot up off my CD of course, but can't resolve the issues.

I am running
Chip : AMD Athelon 1200 MHz, 1.5Gig RAM
Board : ASUS KK266 plus
Vid Card : Nvidia MX400 64MB
Monitor : NEC AccuSync
I am running Dansguardian - I know it
enters early in the boot routine.

I had 3D video enabled during "round 1," the first of my two installs that seemed to get anywhere. But have put off attempting that during round 2. (I did not use Envy . Trial-n-err got me to nvidia-glx.)

I have edited xorg.conf -- for "depth 24" I deleted some higher res levels. This made my screen sequence happen in a better res, but no difference otherwise. I also specified H/V synch.

The monitor is working so I think video settings are okay. Seems more like gnome is failing to launch, or a sys logon issue.

QUESTION, what about a log file where I can see what I installed (using Synaptic) on my last install round? Where is that, and would it lead to a method to let me roll back the last set of installs?

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[geirendre]

From what you describe it sounds like Gnome has started,
but the gnome-panel has not.
Good places to look for error messages are:
.xsession-errors in your home-folder, and
/var/log/messages

You can try and start the gnome-panel manualy by hitting
Alt-F2 and type gnome-panel and then hit enter.

Synaptic is just a GUI-frontend to apt,
the: Advanced Package managemenT Tool.
Here is a good site to look at:

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

HTH

 

[GKChesterton]

geirendre -- thank you very much. Due to out-of-control circumstances I have not been able to boot up and try your solution. Have a wonderful Semana Santa and I will let you know how it goes as soon as I can.

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[GKChesterton]

Sorry for neglect of this post. Only a few fitful pokes at the Linux. gnome-panel produces "cannot open display: X." Which to me suggests the issue rests once again with my nvidia card. The error logs don't seem to offer much.

I am going to reinstall and work on fail-prevention methods of installing applications; preserve the ability to roll back when necessary.

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[geirendre]

If it's X itself that is the cause off problems,
you might check the X-log
Maby like this:

egrep '(EE|WW)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log

HTH

 

[GKChesterton]

Ah. This log is more interesting than the other ones. The significant line would seem to be

 AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable.

This suggests I should modify xorg.conf by perhaps commenting our the dri line. I'll try that.

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[GKChesterton]

geirendre said, check xorg.0.log. When I did that, I received:

(WW) The directory ".../X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
(II) Loading extensions MIT_SCREEN-SAVER
(EE) AIGLX: DRI module not loaded
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom 
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom 
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom

So I changed Xorg.conf -- under "Section 'Module'", I changed

Load   "DRI"

to

# Load   "DRI"

I rebooted and had same experience as first reported. Now the log says:

(WW) The directory ".../X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
(II) Loading extensions MIT_SCREEN-SAVER
(EE) AIGLX: DRI module not loaded
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom 
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom 
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom

Suggestions? Is MIT_SCREEN-SAVER a problem?

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[GKChesterton]

CORRECTION:

First I got

 AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable

then I got

 AIGLX: DRI module not loaded

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[GKChesterton]

Update! I commented out "Load glx" in xorg.conf. No change in the way computer appears to boot up. Now the Xorg.0.log reads:

(WW) The directory "[i][omit a bit][/i]/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
(II) Loading extensions MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom

Google searches on xf860OpenSerial and wacom not yielding fruit so far ...

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[geirendre]

You don't have to worry aboute the "wacom" entries,
those are for wacom-touchpads (those you draw on with a stylus)
They are enabled/configured in most instanses of xorg.conf
even if theyr not present on the computer.
You can safely ignore this.

I'm not sure this has anything to do with your card/monitor
not beeing DRI-capable.

Try stopping the X-server and then manualy starting it,
and look for telltail errormessages.
To stop X hit Alt-F2 and type:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

This should stop X and leave you at the commandpromt.
Now try starting X with eighther:

sudo startx

or

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

HTH

 

[GKChesterton]

No success as I see it. Here are the results:

(A) startx

took me to a screen familiar from some other episodes -- a supremely primitive version of the blank screen, with a moving mouse cursor. Sort of a gray big-pixel event, like it's trying to dither the brown color but only has White pixels to work with. Ctl-Alt-F2 takes me out of there and I can read some messages, but there is no command prompt at all so I can't go rummaging. (I don't know what mode that is; keystrokes do show on the screen, but there is no command prompt and Ctl-Alt-F2 doesn't bring one on.) The messages are about wacom again and also some font files not being found. My only way past that seems to be a hardware reboot.

(b) gdm

This lets me logon on again, same inert brown screen as usual. Ctl-Alt-F2, go to the Xorg.0.log file and it reads precisely like my March 3 entry.

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[GKChesterton]

Sigh, my post of the last hour was both ambiguous and inaccurate (wrong date). I mean that after a manual gdm restart, I get this logged result again:

(WW) The directory " ... /X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
(II) Loading extensions MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open ...wacom
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open ...wacom
(EE) xf860OpenSerial: Cannot open ...wacom

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[GKChesterton]

Currently on a reinstall. Will put off enabling 3D. Will learn to interpret the logs for successful routines. Will learn a Linux back-up routine. Will try a non-nVidia card when I can. Will continue to be thrilled because it is not Windows!

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​

 

[geirendre]

The new Ubuntu 8.04 is due out anytime soon now.
You might consider downloading it when it's released.
It will be a LTS (LongTimeSupport) edition.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Generaly nVidia-cards have been the prefered videocard for
Linux users due too better drivers, but your experience
might differ...

 

[GKChesterton]

Good, and thanks for the tips, including 8.04. My biggest misgiving on a new version is how to get to Internet filtering. Maybe apt-get for 8.04 will include Dansguardian. (I hate seeing the topic switched on a message thread, so feel free NOT to respond at length.)

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​