Random text has grey background in Ubuntu 9.04
 

Hello all,

I haven't been on here in years as I gave up playing with Linux in '03 or so. Recently decided to get back into it so I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my Dell C-400 laptop. Works great except I am having the same problem outlined here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/369275

At the end of this thread, someone posts a fix to this problem. As I am still very new to Linux, I just dont know how to copy that text into the files listed. Heck...I've even forgoten how to log in as ROOT. A very helpless feeling when you've forgoten all that you learned (granted I didn't have much to forget). I don't even know if that is the right fix for this problem.

Any help would be great,
freezinbutt

Hi, and Welcome back!

With Ubuntu, you don't need to log in as root. In the terminal, type:

Enter your password, and gedit will open the file as sudoer (same as root).

Copy and paste the text into the file, save, then exit.

Cheers

Thanks
 

Thanks for the help. I'm not near that computer right now but I'll try it tonight and let you know how it works out.

freezinbutt

Didn't work
 

Hello again,

Your advice worked perfectly. No problems at all.

At first I thought the problem was fixed. Things seemed to get better, but as I used the computer more...especially when I had multiple windows open...the problem returned. It looks just like the screenshot in the link I provided in my first post. Any ideas???

I just downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 and will try to install it (clean install) this weekend. Maybe that will fix the problem.

Thanks again,
freezinbutt

Hmmm...

Checking your specs here, you're running Intel graphics/830M chipset, so that shouldn't be a problem, unless someone knows something I don't. (I'm running a PIII Gateway w/Intel graphics/810 chipset which is slightly older, and I've had no issues, including after Kernel upgrades.)

The one problem I have is that most distros like to set my monitor refresh rate at 50-60Hz, which leaves my display grainy. Setting that to the monitor's max of 75Hz fixed the problem. You might check that out.

You might also try booting into Recovery Mode from the Grub menu and run xfix. Something might have glitched during installation. (it still happens. ;))

Cheers

Will do
 

Ok...I'll try that as well. Thanks again for the advice.

I installed it using WUBI so I could play around with it. My plan this weekend is to flush the hard drive clean and then do a fresh install of 9.10. If that doesn't work, I'll again try everything you've suggested to see if that fixes the problem.

Thanks,
freezinbutt

It Works!!!
 

Hello again,

This weekend I did a clean install of Ubuntu 9.10 and it works like a champ. No more issues with the text. I couldn't be happier with how it is performing on this little laptop. Windows has been liberated from it so it is now a dedicated Linux machine.

Thanks for all your time and advice,

freezinbutt

Great!
 

Glad to hear it. Sometimes, reinstalling is the easy way to fix a problem.

You're welcome, and thank you for letting us know you got it working. ;)

Cheers