Ubuntu 9.04 with dual boot (Windows XP) my Ubuntu screens freeze up
 

Hello. Im running Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope (9.04) with a dual boot to Windows XP. I prefer running in Ubuntu mode.

Recently, while in Ubuntu mode, the screens have started to freeze up. Sometimes it freezes up immediately upon boot-up and sometimes it freezes after some time has gone by. My mouse clicks do nothing and I can't change anything on the screen or even minimize a window. I have to push the power button and reboot.
When in windows mode, everything runs fine without any problems.

Does this call for a reinstallation of Ubuntu and, if so, how is this done? I could go back to square one and reinstall everything including windows but I'd rather fix whatever is wrong.

have you tried
 

OK, have you tried pressing <Control><F1> through <Control><F12>... I forget if this does the same thing in Ubuntu as it does in Debian... It basically takes you to a console mode where you can log into a terminal. I recover a hung gui all the time... especially getting games to work and it hangs the interface... Control F1, type user name, type password... top to find the PID of the offending process, kill PID to solve it...

Ubuntu freezing up
 

Hello. Thanks for the advice. I will try it the next time I get hung-up.

A couple of stupid questions.. what does PID stand for and how does one kill a PID.

thanks for the help.

I think it is Process ID but I've seen it called Protocol ID. You can find out what processes are running with the PID in the first columns by running the command: ps aux from a terminal/konsole. Here's a site with a brief explanation of the use of kill command:

http://linux.about.com/library/cmd/blcmdl_kill.htm

Ubuntu 9.04 GUI Freezing Up
 

Thanks for the help. I now understand what PIDs are and how to kill one.

The shortcut to go to a terminal is supposed to be CTRL+ALT+F1 but once the screen locks up I can't enter any commands.
The other issue is that I tried CTRL+ALT+F1 (before the system froze up) and what I got didn't look like a terminal at all. What I saw on the screen was some gibberish in a very large font and running off the edge of the screen. I tried typing "top" and hitting ENTER but this did nothing. So I pressed CTRL+ALT+F7 which returned me to my GUI.

To summarize, my GUI is freezing up and it won't accept any commands; not even the CTRL+ALT+F1 command. If I try pressing CTRL+ALT+F1 before the GUI freezes, I get what looks like it could be a terminal screen but the resolution appears to be wrong and it won't accept any commands.