Dear fellow Linuxers,

I am a complete to the whole Linux thing. I definitely DON't think positively about Windows, but that's all I know right now. I wanted to try out Linux and see it in action, so I did some searching around. Since I don't have ANY linux experience I decided to try out Ubuntu first since it's supposed to just load from the CD. Well here I am three days later and I still haven't been able to get it working.

The first problem I encountered was answered at:
psychocats.net/unbuntu/nox

I followed all the steps and that worked well until I got to the part where I am supposed to press Ctrl-Alt-F7. At that point an error comes up:

The X server is now disabled. Restart GDM when it is configured correctly.

I have reconfigured it four different times and it always stops at this point. What I have noticed is that I can't make the changes take effect b/c the part where I am supposed to press Ctrl-Alt-backspace doesn't work. Simply nothing happens at that point.

I just want to see in action!

I don't know if this is any help but as I am watching an online live demo of this process, I see that I am way ahead of what they are talking about but I never created a "swap" partition. I do have the GRUB part and I can select ubuntu or windows but I can't load ubuntu.

Any help will be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks

I also noticed that it says that the "wacom" module does not exist and therefore couldn't be loaded. I don't know where to find this module or even how to download and install in ubuntu at all, let alone in setup mode.

Thanks,

I can only open X server when starting Kubuntu in safe mode. After I insert Kubuntu installing CD into my DVD-ROM, If I choose the first item that reads "start or install Kubuntu", the process will always stop when it is about to load X server. What is it?

Configuring xserver covers a lot of territory and there's GUI functions, command line functions and the ability to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. There's no need to mess with xserver configuration unless something doesn't work. For example the screen resolution you want doesn't seem to be available. Wacom by the way is a tablet input device for which there are default xserver configuration for. If you don't have a Wacom, there's no need to change the configuration.

When you want help, please be specific as to what you're trying to achieve. As a newbie, I recommend you learn what the GUI offers first. IMHO, ease don't charge into the command line. Favor the GUI for making changes and experiment with command line to see the state of things. It's true that on occasion the command line is required but not anywhere near as often as its recommended in the forums.

I also had this problem this morning after upgrading to Edgy overnight using: 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade'.

It said that the xserver wasn't configured correctly. So, I did:
and said that it was reconfigured - but still no luck.
After trying 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade' again, I found out that all of the xserver-xorg components had been held behind, even though it swore blind that it had configured it correctly.

So I did and once it completed, I could now login to GNOME.

MY current issue now, is the login manager comes up with an error saying that the gnome login manager keeps crashing, and it tries an alternate(looks like the old x login window). This then works.

Don't know if you have the same exact problem, but it might be worth a look.

I had a very similar problem with a very old system-
Pent 1 133Mhz
256 MB
2 mb graphics card.

My particular video card is PCI and after some fumbling around
I found that the X configuration was picking the incorrect slot.
This particular system also has a video card system built in on the motherboard but I bought an external PCI card at the local Goodwill industies for $2.00!
The older hardware is slow, but you can sometime do cheapie upgrades I have it loaded with old hard drives and store files on it. It's fun for me to keep it running.

Ayhow, I picked the correct PCI slot and now X runs fine,
Hope that helps you.
Good Luck!

John