https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FrameBuffer

gives an explanation of setting the frame buffer permanently in ubuntu, and i imagine it would be the same with debian.

also you dont need to go to single user mode, to change the frame buffer, you can edit the grub menu option on the fly (but temporarily) by pressing "e" and changing/adding/removing the vga= part of the boot options, then pressing "b" to boot the system with the changes made.

Puppy and Slitaz are probably using the vesa driver by default. I know Puppy does that on my desktop PC. Placing nomodeset on the kernel line in your grub configuration file (or editing that line temporarily at boot time) forces use of the vesa driver. On my system, I still get the graphical login; no sure why you're not.

Hi guys, thanks for replying. I tried, but when i enter vga=normal and nomodeset in grub edit for the 'normal' ubuntu startup, i still get the flashing screen, also, it is peculiar that when i supply these flags to 'recovery' mode startup, it boots into recovery mode. It also happened in ubuntu live installer but it was overcome easily by replacing 'vga=768 --quiet splash' with nomodeset. I was too primitive in linux terms when i tried fedora to even think about boot options so i generally assumed my GPU waasn't compatible.

No, Rock, i have always used openchrome in puppy, also, ubuntu used vesa driver also before i chose openchrome as default driver.

Thanks, would be gratefull if you can walk me via this mess.

P.S: I don't know the root password at all. When i type sudo in CLI, authentication always fails, but in ubuntu's recovery mode's 'root' option, it doesn't ask password at all!

A bit OT, but I do not have fond memories of dealing with the openchrome driver of the day on one of my former laptops. I typically ended up using the framebuffer driver with Fedora or Ubuntu; not as fast, but worked for me.

Unless it's changed, Ubuntu defaults to not allowing a root login in runlevels 2-5. However, the installation process sets up the first user as a sudoer. The password should be that user's password. Of course, you still have to get to that point. Basically, it means booting in single-user mode, editing the appropriate grub config file in /etc, and running the script that regenerates the grub config file in /boot/grub. The Ubuntu docs could (or perhaps someone familiar with the process reading this thread will) explain how to do this. I still use legacy grub (which is not what I'd recommend for someone just starting with Linux).

Hi. i disabled framebuffer completely but didn't work-out. Then, i tried RockDoctor's suggestion and swithed to fbdev, didn't work as well After doing a lot of research, i stumbled upon this page: http://www.yellowdog-board.com/viewtopic.php?t=823

It seems this same thing happened to someone using yellow dog linux, with the problem being the identification of monitor.
tony_k gave this reply
"1. boot YDL as single user mode. When you see "boot :" prompt, type "linux single [enter]"
2. when you see root command prompt "[something] #", type the following command:
cd /usr/X11R6/bin; ./Xautoconfig [enter]
3. reboot the computer. Type "reboot [enter]".

But ubuntu does not have a folder /usr/X11R6. I'm using Natty 11.04. Is there a way to do this in ubuntu?

Thanks

Instead of as root:
. This will create /root/xorg.config.new. Copy that file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and reboot. If it doesn't work, you'll need to tweak xorg.conf.

A couple of other thoughts:
1. Did you run the configuration script to update /boot/grub/grub.cfg after making your changes to the config file in /etc?
2. Did you try nomodeset without a vga= parameter in grub.cfg?