Hey all.

I was recently watching an avi file, when suddenly, my tower (the computer) got really, really noisy. That's pretty normal when I'm on my Windows side, but very unusual for Ubuntu Linux. I knew something was in the wind then and there.

So I exit my Dragon Player to discover that ! gasp ! KDE is down, replaced with the default wallpaper for GNOME, and no bars anywhere. I reset the system only to find that it refuses to boot into either KDE or GNOME. Having been in something similar to this situation before, I decide that Xorg.conf must be broken somehow. In an effort to get to the GUI where I can safely edit it, I try reinstalling KDE and GNOME, which both failed.

So I try installing xdm...which results in only being able to access the login screen for XFCE. Whenever I try to log in using the correct credentials, it simply refreshes the log-in screen.

So my questions are as follows...

1. Is this, indeed, the sign of a broken Xorg.conf, or a broken Xserver in general? Or is there something larger that was changed?

2. How do I fix this? (I've already tried using Ubuntu 10.10 64 in rescue mode, but I can't seem to change anything in the system itself.)

3. Is this possibly a result of upgrading straight from 10.04? Is it possible that having both KDE and GNOME contributed to this?

(This was on Ubuntu 10.10. This is a copy of a post I made on the Ubuntu Forums.)

Thank you very much for your time.

Based on what you've written.. It doesn't sound like a software issue, but rather a hardware one. xorg.conf doesn't just "break" by itself right in the middle of happily computing along.

And, this "noise" you describe coming from the tower-- what sort of noise?

It sort of sounds like you are using the computer, then this noise starts, and after that, you change some wallpaper and fiddle around a bit, and reboot but now the machine won't boot?

Maybe you better describe this "noise" a little more, and help us determine if you have a hardware problem (like a failed cooling fan on the video card or in the power supply) or a software problem of some sort..

1. If you can get to your login screen, the xserver is working, so no broken xorg.conf and no broken xserver. By the way, I never heard, that the xserver changes from KDE to Gnome in the middle of his work.
2. I don't know Ubuntu's recue mode, so I don't know.
3. How should noises from your hardware have their cause in a software-update (and you have the noises in Windows too)?

As GrapefruiTgirl already recommended, check your hardware.
As I recommend, backup your data, if you have not already done.

Pardon for the lack of clarity.

What I meant by "noise" is just your average computer sound. The sound of the processor humming, the fans blowing, etc. Windows tends to need a lot more resources, and changes are happening frequently without your knowledge. In Ubuntu, almost nothing happens without your knowledge of it, or you activating it.

I had also forgot something...KDE (or whatever it's bug handler is) reported a couple of bugs related to Dragon Player just before the entirety of KDE crashed. I'm not sure what sort of hardware issue would cause KDE to crash, or what sort of software issue would cause things to break suddenly, but I'm having trouble with it nonetheless.

Check if you can run normally your PC with LiveCD. If no, this means you have hardware problem.

You can hear your processor humming?

Anyways, any kind of hardware-failure is able to crash nearly any kind of software, and nearly any kind of software bug can break things suddenly down (you are reffering to Windows, remember the BSOD).
What couple of bugs were reported, before your system crashed?

With wich problems/error messages? How did you reinstall them? (By the way, you don't need the GUI to edit textfiles)

After a bit more experimentation, I find that freeing up some space using Puppy Linux to access my hard drive seems to allow X to function once more. That's somewhat odd.

Anyway, I'm currently writing this from my Linux side...only one problem remains.

Upon startup, Ubuntu is stuck at a purple loading screen which says "Loading 10.10", with four dots beneath it which turn off and on to show that it is loading. Only when I open a terminal and type in "startx" does the rest of the system load. What's wrong now? Why won't it auto-load?

Maybe you will find something in your /var/log/syslog.