I upgraded an old Gateway PC (MFUBTX6TT LVPDX420X. It has 5.054 GB ram, 465.76 GB HDD (WDC5000AARX-08U6AA0), Nvidea GeForce 7300LE (64 MB, VESA VGA Version 3) video card, Intel Pentium Pro CPU (1865 MHz), Insyde Bios 5.31.DT MQ96510J.15A.

I first tried installing linux mint. It installed ok, but the screen was dark and numerous areas on screen were blacked out. Clicking on the blacked out areas would work, but It was impossible to guess what links would be activated, so I gave up on it. Recently I installed Ubuntu linux. It too installed ok. However, after entering the password it goes to a darkish reddish screen and no further. The mouse cursor can be moved around the screen, but nothing else works. I tried running it from the iso and it does the same thing.

The PC runs and displays ok with my boot disks and the HDD and ram test ok. Does anyone know what could be causing the incompatibility with linux?

Sounds like a graphics driver problem.

To help someone help you, please post the outputs of the following,

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, but I was out of town. I don't want to appear too ignorant, but how does one check the output codes for 1spci, dmesg and 1smod, especially when the computer hangs up just past the sign in screen?

At the login screen, does pressing CTL+ALT+F1 go to a terminal so that you can login on a terminal?

Hi...

Welcome to the forum

I'm kind of confused. How did you get 4 GB's of memory to work on a motherboard designed for a Pentium Pro processor.

The clock rate is off, too. Nothing came up with the numbers you gave for the system itself. Can you give us the model name and number of the system?

If it's the Pentium Pro I'm thinking, I would be surprised you got Ubuntu and Mint to boot up at all.

Regards...

I pressed CTL+ALT+F1. It went to (the name it gave the computer when I installed Ubuntu) login: I put in what I thought was my login name and pressed enter. It went to password: but I could type in nothing. I tried several different login names, but I can't type any passwords in on the next line. If I go through the usual bootup path, the password is accepted. Is this login name and password something different?

The computer is a Gateway Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, mfg 12/11/06. The Model is listed as (AK) MFUBTX6TTLVPDX420X. It has 4 slots for ram. I had two 2GB sticks and robbed another Gateway which had two 500MB sticks. The Hdd had failed and the original owners never made up a set of restore disks, so I thought I would try linux on it.

Hi...

I just tried this on my system. Make sure the login name and the password are the exact same.

Also, please look at my questions above.

Regards...

I copied the name just as it appears on the sign in screen at bootup, but when I try to type in the password on the second line I can't do a thing. The little bar just keeps blinking and nothing else happens.

When in console the password appears not to be entered but it is, just type the password & press enter.

Am I assuming correctly that the login name that appears on the usual bootup screen is the same name that I type in manually in the console mode? If it is I am entering the name just as it appears on the sign in screen. When I type in the password that I enter on the sign in screen and hit enter, it says wrong password entered. When I use that password on the usual sign in screen, it appears to be accepted. At least it does not say wrong password. Not much happens, except the HDD light flickers every once in a while.

I clicked on some of the icons in the upper right corner of the sign in screen and found out that the computer indeed has an active internet connection. I reset the computer's clock to the correct time in the bios, thinking that might have some effect, but nothing changed.

Hi....

Could you open a terminal and post the output of...

Thanks!

For user name just look in file manager under /home then you'll see your user name, or just open terminal the user name is displayed on first line that comes up.

I reinstalled ubuntu 15.04. It took a lot longer to finish this time. It still won't go beyond the splash screen just past the sign in screen, but I can now sign in to the terminal function. I don't really know what I am doing with it. When I type in sudo dmesg about 4 or 5 pages fly by in a little over a second. When I type in 1spci, sudo 1spci, 1smod or sudo 1smod it says that they are bad commands or they aren't found or something like that. What do I do next?