Console screen disappeared!
 

I have installed Ubuntu 7.10 on a Packard Bell AMD Turion laptop and have been getting on ok. I have been trying to improve the console display (it always seems to use the whole wide screen and distorts pictures).
Anyway, I have lost the console totally (I am pretty sure I had selected a second screen in one of the System options).

Does anyone know how to restore the console - at bootup I am faced with a blank screen! I can get into a system prompt at bootup, using Recovery Mode from the Grub menu, and I am happy using Unix like commands, but I haven't been able to discover how to set the default console so the normal boot uses the laptop screen.

I don't want to have to reload Ubuntu, so any help is much appreciated!!

I'm pretty sure you just need to add the correct vga= option to your kernel command line in menu.lst. What does you menu.lst look like now?

/boot/grub/menu.lst has a kernel line for the normal boot and the recovery mode boot. Both are the same:-

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=d268c13e-75b3-4ab0-81cc-11feb01f2beb ro quiet splash


There is a second file, /boot/grub/menu.lst~ , which is identical.

Could you tell us what did you EXACTLY do with your computer, or we should guess it?

When people claim to tell you, by memory, EXACTLY what they did, you should worry!

I can't bring up the Ubuntu screen, so I am going on memory; and I have only been using Ubuntu for a few days so I can't really recall the screen layouts.

But - I selected System>Preferences (or the other option)>Screens & Graphics?

I then looked at the screen resolutions displayed, and selected a second screen at a different resolution, thinking I would be able to toggle between the two screens to attempt to improve the display. On reboot, I have only a blank screen.

Sorry I can't be more specific. I assume that I need to find the file that determines the default screen at startup and change the parameters for the startup screen.

As I said before, any help is much appreciated.

See "Kubuntu Boot Help" below at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...t-help-610427/

You first need the bit that says

"From the command line try to reconfigure the xserver. At the command input:sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

This should start a text based wizard. Answer questions that you can. If there are any you can't then go with the given default answer. If at first you don't succeed then try again.If all else fails choose VESA of the driver."

"I don't want to have to reload Ubuntu..." This should be uneccessary

Thanks arochester

Your suggestion "sudo dpkg------ ......." worked and the screen has been restored.

Thanks also to all other suggestions.

I hope to be able to assist others in the fullness of time, as I get to grips with Linux properly.

Good. I'm glad.