My ubuntu installation failed, and I think I might be able to fix it if I could get to a terminal. I just need to be able to make the system use the most basic video driver so that I can at least see a terminal. Is there something I can add to the grub menu that will boot it in stone-age mode?
I used a fresh alternate, amd64 disk ran it and the installer worked, for certain values of 'worked'. It installed and now on the grub menu i can see my old system and boot it just fine. That's what I'm on right now. But the new system that I actually just installed is broken. It boots, but when it is supposed to switch to the login screen, everything completely breaks and the monitor is like a color test pattern of noise, and my monitor says "out of range". Nothing is visible. Clearly, the graphics are broken. I can switch to a terminal with ctrl+alt+F2, but that is a monochrome test pattern of noise, and I can't see anything.
Although my keyboard is not labeled, luckily, I can touch type, and entering my username+enter, then password+enter, then "sudo reboot"+enter, then my password, will reboot the system. So it's running, I just can't see anything.
I have no idea what to do; re-reinstalling is going to do the same thing. When I installed, I did NOT have tubes because I only have a wireless card. I figure there is a chance that if I plug my box in with a network cable, boot to an invisible terminal, and run "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo reboot", without making a keystroke error, that it will be fixed. But if I could see a terminal, at least I could run
Code:
dpkg --reconfigure xserver-xorg
or something? Is that the right command? and tell it to use the nv free driver or whatever.
Or any other suggestions? How can I make my system boot, but not run X and maybe just give me a terminal that I can see?