Only failsafe terminal session works w/Ubuntu 8.10 on Compaq EVO
 

I installed Ubuntu 8.10 on a used small footprint Compaq EVO D51S workstation computer with a pentium 4 processor. The computer has 1024 mbytes of ram and 160 gbyte hard drive with Ubuntu being the only OS installed. All other peripherals are intergrated into the motherboard. Ubuntu works until I reach the log in screen. The only session that will work after loggin in is the Failsafe Terminal. All other sessions will result in a blank screen with an operational mouse cursor.
I am new to this OS so please be specific if you can help. Thanks

I'd say that there's something wrong with X configuration - either the EVO has some exotic hardware on board that's not fully supported, or the display doesn't work well with the video adapter's output or some of the peripherals.

From the terminal, use lspci to find out which chipset(s) are used, then use dmesg | grep err and dmesg | grep video to check if there's some error or some other problem with video configuration.

You can also use sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg to manually correct settings or get information about what's configured how, but beware that using this has been discouraged for Hardy and Intrepid, and from my experience, for a reason (it's not as potent as it was and leaves out some major parts of the configuration).

Anyhow, after all that, you'll have a lot more specific information people can comment on, and maybe the last step has even enabled you to fix the problem.

M.

Thanks for the help. Here is the info as per your suggestion:

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL{Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM controller/Host Interface (rev01)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Intergated Graphics Device (rev01)

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev01)

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev01)

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev01)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev81)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface Bridge (rev01)

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller (rev 01)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M SMBus Controller (rev 01)

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH5-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)

05:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VM (LOM) Ethernet Controller (rev 81)



dmesg | grep err

[0.000000] ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
[0.000000] ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.

[0.000000] ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
[0.467725] ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing

[0.475352] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
[0.475704] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.HUB_._PRT]

[0.482276] ACPI: PCI Interrrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 14 15)
[0.482444] ACPI: PCI Interrrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 14 15)


[0.482609] ACPI: PCI Interrrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 14 15) *0,disabled
[0.482777] ACPI: PCI Interrrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 *11 14 15)

[0.482941] ACPI: PCI Interrrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 14 15)
[0.483106] ACPI: PCI Interrrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 14 15) *0,disabled

[0.483273] ACPI: PCI Interrrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 14 15) *0,disabled
[0.483438] ACPI: PCI Interrrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 14 15)

[1.364343] pci 0000:05:08.0: Firmware left e100 interrupts enabled; disabling
{17.161409] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).

dmesg | grep video
[1.364273] pci 0000:00:02.0: Boot video device


Does this help? Thanks again for you time.

I did some more digging and found a xsession-error file. It appears gnome-vm is missing. See text of error message below:

cat .xsession-errors
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
Setting IM through im-switch for local=en_US.
Start IM through /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/all_ALL linked to /eetc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/default.
gnome-session[5007]:WARNING: Unable to find provider 'gnome-wm' of required component 'windowmanger'
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Detected PCI ID for VGA:
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: not present.
Trying again with indirect rendering:
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Comparing resolution (1152x864) to maximum 3D testure size (2048): Passed
Checking for nVidia: not present.
Checking for FBConfig; present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
gnome-session[5007]: WARNING: Application 'gnome-wm.desktop' failed to register before timeout

I think this is my problem, but I have no clue as how to fix this. Any suggestions? Thanks for you time.

Good find! I've found (on the web) that some people had indeed issues with the integrated chipset your machine has on board, but theoretically, it should be supported by the xserver-xorg-video-i810 package, which is perinstalled.

The error you found in .xsession-error appears to indicate a very basic problem with GNOME (the desktop environment Ubuntu ships with) - if you didn't experience any errors with the live CD, you could try either reinstalling GNOME entirely (but that's not so easy to accomplish since there's a lot of packages involved) or at least gnome-session, which is a key package, but that'll involve all kind of complications if you do such a thing for the first time (for instance, you'll probably asked to remove a lot of additional packages you have to reinstall afterwards - while this is not too difficult, it's worrying). So it's not really recommendable - if you don't want to spend some time learning and considering, which might be rewarding in itself.

Anyhow, if the live CD did work properly, I'd say try to reinstall Ubuntu entirely - if something got botched on installation, maybe by a partial download of updates, it's probably worth it.

M.

I was scanning the Ubuntu forum page and another person had the exaact same problem that I experienced, but with a different type computer. He reported that he installed updates and the problem went away. I sent him a message, but haven't gotten a response yet. How do I install updates and where can I get them? Is it possible to download from the web via Ubuntu's terminal session?

Thanks for identifing the problem with the chipset. I installed another VGA card in the computer and restarted Ubuntu. It came up into the desktop with out any problems. I then downloaded 192 updates and removed the new VGA card and rebooted the computer. Ubuntu appears to be working correctly even though the computer is back running with it's old integrated VGA. Thanks again for you assistance.

Great result :) And good thinking and action, too - in fact, for all that can do a hands-on, it's a great example to follow.

M.

i can also confirm that the above work around worked perfect for me. I followed the instructions given here and no longer have any issues.

Thanks

And for those of us who don't have spare video cards lying around, is there any other option? I tried using doing the following from the failsafe startup:

But that didn't work, unfortunately (and it was mentioned earlier in this thread that packages such as that one come pre-installed, anyway). I also tried modifying my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, which had been blank, in order to put in Driver="intel" or Driver="i810", but neither of those worked. Lastly, as if to compound the issue, apt doesn't seem to be able to connect to any remote server in order to download packages, even though there's no reason it should not be able to connect to the internet. (Perhaps the network drivers haven't yet been loaded by the time the failsafe startup window displays?)

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

Sorry, I should've provided more details, as I'm not using a Compaq EVO.

Hardware:
home built PC using an Intel Brookdale-G SV/VV motherboard (I forget if this is 82845GL or what, and I forget where to find that out) -- I don't know what the SV/VV is for, but that's what it says when the bios displays at startup
512 MB RAM
WinTV PVR-250 (should I remove that? it's not really necessary)
120 GB HD (as if that matters)
PS/2 mouse and keyboard (as opposed to USB)

During boot, the screen flashes black a couple of times while X is trying to start up, and then screen just goes black. I think this is similar to the behavior reported earlier in this thread. And, as I mentioned earlier, for some reason during failsafe boot, apt is unable to access the internet to download packages (is it always like that during failsafe mode?).

Thanks again for any ideas...