Viewing Terminal from Linux Recovery Menu
 

I dont know if terminal is what im after, but here is my situation:

This is a follow up to this thread on not some graphics issues with my linux install:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...issues-868935/

I have finally managed to get a full install complete, but im still getting this screen on boot (prior to this screen i DO get the kubuntu loading screen)

http://img27.imageshack.us/i/20110319143614.jpg/

So in the GRUB at start i have choosen Linux - recovery mode, to see what options that gave me, and i tried FailSafe mode, but i get an error and it just goes back to the recovery menu.

My question is how do i get to the terminal style screen as its too quick for me to see the error, and i cant photograph it as its too fast.

Any ideas also on what the hell is going on here? i cant see it being an issue with the graphics because of the properly displayed kubuntu loading screen beforehand

Do I understand correctly that graphics worked during the installation, and graphics work on boot up to the grub screen? If so, that rules out a hardware problem.

Things to try:
1) boot your kubuntu install cd as a liveCD. Once booted, mount your hard drive. Then navigate to the /var/log directory. Inspect the boot logs and messages log, looking for error messages that explain what's going wrong.

2) boot kunbuntu as you normally do. At the grub screen, press "e" on the keyboard to edit the grub boot command. A boot prompt will appear at the bottom of the screen. Enter "init 3" (without quotes) to boot into runlevel 3 (text mode).

Do you still get that weird screen? If not, (you can log in at runlevel 3), then give the command "init 5" or "startx" to boot to runlevel 5 (graphics mode). Do you get the weird screen again?

If you can successfully boot into runlevel 3, but still have the problem at runlevel 5, inspect those logs once more. There may be more information to help solve the problem.

thankyou for the quick reply, i will try these things shortly.

1) I have booted as liveCD already, and i get that screen

2) I have looked at editing the options as you state, but had no idea what the ones there meant, i will try adding init 3, to the bottom? or do i remove all the ones in the list and just have init 3 ?

EDIT:

I added 'init 3' without quotes above the other 8-10 items, first being 'recordfail' and booted (ctrl + X) but get the same screen. I removed all options from the list and added 'init 3' but get the error 'init' is not recognised

is there anyway i can see some sort of error log here? im using Alt Gr + SysRq + REISUB each time to restart

in the grub command line, i am looking at the record fail which i googled and found should be writing the error to GRUBENV in /boot/grub/

however the contents of that file are just 'recordfail=1 followed but lots of ############

Contents of GRUB

recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set cdfca33e=7c3e=4f2a=9b79=eb8c14bad\41a
linux /boot/vmlinux-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=cdfca33e=7c3e=4f2a=9b79=eb8c14bad\41a ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic

checked th GRUB contents against my working install on the PC im using now. and its exactly the same apart from the UUId obv

how am i supposed to install or use different drivers for hardware if i dont know what the offending hardware is?