ubuntu 8.10 stuck just after boot
 

Hi there!
I've just intalled Ubuntu 8.10 on my laptop(Sansui style note, 1.8 Gb cpu, 512Mb ram,VIA S3 garphic chip).For some reason I decided to wipe my previous OS out and use only ubuntu. I did the installation on simple graphic mode(the one in normal mode failed) and it went through succesfully, then when I was asked to restart the system the desktop faded in colour and got funny things like a mistuned monitor. I switched the laptop off manually and switched on again.It did the boot and loaded ubuntu, but instead of the log in page it was the same blurry screen and I can do nothing.I checked the Bios set up and it gives me the option to state the OS(Windows or other)and I chose other.
I asked an IT tech on what it could be and he said that maybe is a graphic chip issue,and suggested me to browse a forum so Here I am!
Thanx for your help!
Marco

Sounds like you had an attack of sanity.in what way did the normal mode fail?It sounds ominous that you even have an os selection in BIOS. I've never heard of this before. What happens if you try it on the "windows" setting?It certainly sounds like it.
Your graphics card uses a VIA S3 chipset?
It can help to know the exact laptop model - can you point to a web page featuring your machine?

Can you run Ubuntu as a live distro (you may need to use safe graphics mode - explore the function-keys from the bootup menu of the live disk)?

I ran ubuntu in live cd mode and a msg appeared: Ubuntu is ruuning in low graphic mode and is not compatible with the graphic card. I have a Via S3 chipset. At the boot also appeared this msg: error 8254 timer not connected to I/O apic.I tried to find ouy about my laptop but I didnt find anything on the web.Funny eh?
Thanx for your hel[p and yes finally I ad an attack of sanity and I am very proud of myself!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

Hi Simon!
I did what you suggested and I ran Ubuntu in live mode(in a safe graphic mode), and it's been very useful. A notice window popped up saying that ubuntu is runing in low graphic mode and cannot recognise my graphic card.Then it faded to black screen and i cannot take aby action.My graphic card uses a Via S3 chpset.Unfortunately I cannot find my laptop's specs.
I also saw an error at the boot:number 8254 Timer not connected to I/O APIC
The Bios installed in my laptop is a Phoenix Bios M550SE/M540SE Revision 1.00.11, I changed the option for the Os and nothing changed.

I used to have a Gateway MX6436 that poped that "timer not connected" message, and found that adding the enable_8254_timer option to the GRUB kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst fixed the problem. Others have suggested the more drastic noapci option.

As to your display problem, as a temporary "work around," try booting in rescue, command line, mode and using nano to change the display driver section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf to specify the vesa driver instead of the via one. vesa doesn't support any fancy graphics, but it usually works. (You could uses nano to fix /boot/grub/menu.lst at the same time.)

If the vesa driver works, your chip is probably OK. So see if you can find a different via driver (perhaps an older one?) to try.

I ama fraid you must very patient with me!I am in in grub,pressed c forcommand line but nano is not recognized and I dont know almost anything of linux and its commands.Has anybody a chance to guide me thru this command line, I think that giving my miserable graphic card something very simple to do could work :)

Ah, that's not the "Linux command line," that's the "GRUB command line."

However, you can try a few things from there or, rather, from the GRUB prompt screen.

First, either go back to the GRUB boot screen from the command prompt (by pressing the "Escape" key) or don't press "c" in the first place.

Now, using the arrow keys on the keyboard, highlight the Ubuntu boot line and press "e" to open the boot stanza in the editor. (Note that the GRUB editor only changes the RAM copy of the boot stanza, so any changes you make will be lost when it read the menu.lst file during the next boot. This is, actually, a "good thing" because you can try various settings 'till you find one that works, just rebooting if a change doesn't work.)

When you press the "e," the whole boot stanza should be displayed. It should look somewhat like this:Use the arrow keys to highlight line in the stanza that starts with the word "kernel." and, once again, press the "e" key to open that line in the editor. Note where I've emphasized the kernel option nohept in that line. That's where kernel options are normally placed, although they can be placed anywhere after the compress boot kernel image (/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic in the above example) location.

When the editor opens the line, your cursor will be placed at the end of the line. So you need to use the left arrow key to move back to the ro in the line. (The displayed line will shift as needed to keep the cursor approximately centered.)

Once you've got your cursor located after the ro you can enter the enable_8254_timer option and/or the noapci option. Then press the return key (anywhere in the line) to accept the changes you've made and redisplay the boot stanza.

At this point you can press the "b" key to boot from the modified stanza and see if the change you made makes any difference.

--------------------------------

To address your question about the "real" command line, you can access that be opening a terminal (which is an option in the "System" menu) or, as I suggested above, by booting in "rescue" mode and selecting the "Root terminal" option at the bottom of the list of recovery options displayed. (You may need to scroll the window to see that option.) Once Ubuntu has booted, the nano command should be available. If not, you'll need to connect to your Internet service provider and issue the command apt-get install nano. (By the way, if you're using a wireless connection and you've initialized your connection parameters, the command dhclient wlan0 will often establish the connection for you to use.)

PTrenholme is saying what I would have - try the vesa driver. It will, at least, get you a screen you can use to do stuff with.

If you get to a terminal, you can enter lspci and copy over the line which talks about your graphics card. Googling this card with your distro can tell you what needs to be done. Probably a matter of upgrading.

@PTrenholme: thanks - when one person goes to bed another wakes up ;)

I've just tried to insert the new commands you suggested(both of them) but didnt work.I pressed ctrl+alt+del just after the loading of ubuntuand a text mode window appeared saying that couldnt open the x server due some internal error. Should I try to open in recovery mode and enter "try to fix x server"?

Why on Earth did you press ctrl-alt-del after Ubuntu started? "Crtl-alt-del" is used to reboot the system.

Just make the change in GRUB before Ubuntu even starts to load, from the same place where you got the GRUB command line.

Then let the Ubuntu boot finish, if it does.

<edit>
Oh, you should try the changes one at a time since the noapci option will, I believe, disable the enable_8524-timer option -- as well as lots of other functionality. (That's why it's a "drastic" option to try, but it might get the VIA driver working.)
</edit>

You need to be explicit - did you edit the kernel line of the installed menu.lst as advised?

If so -
then how did you determine that it did not work
(note ctrl+alt+del will erase the changes - so it won't determine anything.)

If not -

Boot off the hard drive (no live disk).
Follow the instructions to edit the kernel line.

Sorry guys I realized right now I havent been as explicit as I should. Now I have just edited the noapci command on the kernel line.The error message(error 8254)is stll there and a screen with no option and absolutely useless and then it fades to black.I am waiting ten minutes and then I will reboot the system.Irebboted an edited the command enabel_8254_timer,but nothing has changed.I can see in Ptre's quote the last command is "savedefault" which is not in mine, maybe it does not make any difference,but I need to give you all the details I can find.Grub is the only place I can do something!

marco v.:

Boot again the live cd installer, and as instructed above, use Esc or Tab, then "e" to edit the kernel line, try adding this after the "ro" switch -- <remember put space, just space>

noapic vga=normal

hit Enter

then, press "b" to boot, find out what comes and check back.

Goodluck.

I exactly did what you malek suggested. the error msg diappeared but the screen freezes as soon ubuntu is loaded the log in page does not even appear

First, I should have noted that the GRUB boot commands I showed, above, were copied from my Ubuntu menu.lst file. Some of those commands are not, strictly speaking, part of the GRUB boot stanza, so GRUB doesn't bother to show then in it's "Edit" screen. When you get your system running and look at your "real" /boot/rub/menu.lst you'll probably see similar lines in it. Specifically, all the "savedefault" line does is tell GRUB to save the number of the stanza from which you're booting, and use that as the default the next time you boot. It (and any other "hidden" lines) are of no significance to your problem since the "hidden" lines control GRUB, not the system being booted by GRUB.

Now, to return to your problem:

If the enable_8254_timer kernel option had no effect, your laptop may not have the timer chip installed or the laptop's BIOS may need to be upgraded.

If the noapci option didn't fix the display problem, your technical guru may have been correct when he suggested that your laptop's main board may be damaged. Or, again, you may need to updated your BIOS.

Check on the website of your laptop's manufacturer to see if there's a BIOS update available for your system.

---

Apparently your GRUB menu doesn't have the "(Rescue mode)" option showing, since you haven't mentioned trying it.

To boot in "rescue" mode, add the word "single" at the end of the kernel line (with a preceding blank, of course) in the GRUB boot stanza.

That should give you the various "rescue" options again. If I recall correctly, you did manage to try the vesa mode once, and got the "fade to black" behaviour, but (if the "rescue" options are shown) you could try the "boot in low resolution mode" option again to see if that helps.

Anyhow, once you get to the command line in rescue mode, you can check what's in /etc/X11/xorg.conf to see what's in the driver section for your display. Here's the command I'd use (in bold) and the output I get on my laptop:(The three grep commands after the cat command that actually types the file's contents does this:

1. grep -v '^ *#' - Remove all comment lines
2. grep -v '^ *$' - Remove all empty lines
3. grep -A 5 '"Section "Device"' - Print the line containing Section "Device" and the next five lines.

)

If you can get to the point of seeing that section (which will, of course, be different from what I have since my laptop uses a nVidia video chip set), you can see if you have the nano editor installed and can try various drivers by changing the Driver line the the Device stanza. We've already suggested the vesa driver, but you could also try s3 or vga16, or, perhaps, savage.

After you save any change to the xorg.conf file, you can try it out by issuing the command startx to (try to) start the X-server. Note that, if the server fails to start, you should see a few error messages and then a pause of several seconds before the command input prompt is displayed. (The pause is the X-server waiting for the display to start, which it won't do because of the errors.)

Please keep us posted with your progress - if any.

I have some vague riminiscence of dos(I know it's very different)and I am changing directory with cd /. Now: it goes into /etc but when i do cd/x11 the msg is No such file or directory. Is x11 a sub directory of/etc? I also tried to find the file/etc/x11/xorg.conf in nano environment and the answer was file not find, but I used the same command to find menu.lst and it found it. Maybe we are finally into something?????????????????????

No, if what you typed in your message is the command you used, the problem you have is that commands and command arguments on Linux systems are all case sensitive. So "x11" is not "X11." Also, the slash (/) denotes the root directory unless it's proceeded by some other symbol. Thus cd /etc means "change the working directory to the directory etc as a sub-directory of the root of the whole file system," and cd /x11 tells the command interpreter (bash) to change your working directory to "x11" directly under the root of the whole file system. For a relative path, use cd X11.

Anyhow, there is no need to change your working directory to /etc/X11 unless you're a really poor typist. And, by making that directory you working directory whilst running with "administrative" privileges, you have "opened the door" to the possibility of making catastrophic mistakes. So, if you are a poor typist, being in a directory containing system control files is not a "good idea."

So, my suggestion is to try again, and just type nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf to see if nano is installed and if the configuration file even exists. (Sometimes it doesn't exist, since that - it not existing - tells the X-server to ask the system what hardware you have, and to use its "best guess" of which driver will work for you. And we know already how good that is for your system, eh?) By the way, the last two lines of the nano screen list the available commands (the hat (^) means "ctrl-"), and you use the arrow key so move the cursor around. (There is no "mouse" since it's not a "window" editor, just a simple "retype the screen every time" editor.)

Some other commands that are nice to know:

1. ls - List the contents of a directory. (E.g., "ls /etc/X11/" to list the contents of the X11 sub-directory of /etc")
2. mv - Move or rename a file
3. pwd - Show the current working directory
4. exit - Close your current terminal session
5. man - Display a brief description of a command. (Note: man -k something will list all command with description containing "something.")

Oh,dont worry man, I know I am a very very poor typist :) . Anyway I hope I havent done anything so catastrophic...
But I think I found something new.I tried to use all the drivers you suggested(via,vesa,vga16 and savage) editing the xorg.conf with nano and this happened: the log in request appeared as a "command line"(not as a window) and a dialog said ubuntu found an error and has to start in low graphic mode.I press ok then it gives me different options, and i saw the error review.These are the results: from vga 16 the msg was the module does not exist; with savage the msg is no device detected; with via the msg was the module does not exist. In one of the error reports(cant remember which was of the mentioned three) there was a comment saying: Device "openchrome",Vendor"VIA technologies, Inc."BoardnameCN896/VN896. IT S THE FIRST TIME SINCE I HAVE THIS LAPTOP THAT I SEE THIS SPECS!!!I always saw S3graphic. So I googled the open chrome and the boardname and I popped in the openchrome Trac site. these guys suggest to type this source code:http://svn.openchrome.org/svn/trunk openchrome .Since it doesnt mean anything to me I will wait for help.Thank you for all this great support!!
Here is your xorg.conf Device section
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7150M / nForce 630M"
EndSection
Mine is slightly different
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "vesa"(this is the default driver
EndSection.
Maybe it is not relevant,I just let you know

According to that site you should get back to the command line and:

1. Connect to the Internet
2. Use the command apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-openchrome to install the openchrome driver from the repositories
3. Change your xorg.conf file to read Driver "openchrome"

(I'm not on my Ubuntu system right now, so I can't verify that the openchrome driver is in the Ubuntu repositories, but that site states that it's in the Debian ones, and the Ubuntu repositories are, generally, copies of the Debian-Testing ones.)

You may need to use the sudo prefix to the the apt-get command, and the installation may automatically change the xorg.conf for you. (After asking your permission to make the change, of course.)

Note: The above is my interpretation of the line stating "Official package: xserver-xorg-video-openchrome" under the "Debian" heading here.

Ubuntu packages nvidia drivers - System > Administration > Hardware Drivers ... enable the card.
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/58947

Oh - I'm messing up arn't I? This is a VIA chipset card. The xorg.conf is trying to use nvidia driver ... that won't work.

I need my evening whiskey...

I am very apolegetic, I know, but I feel absolutely useless. I promise I will get into linux commands as soon as my laptop will work again!!
Do I have any chance to connect to internet from the command line? I looked for it and I only found the command ifconfig eth0(I have an ethernet connection)but I dont know if i am on line.Then I typed apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-openchrome , I was answered xserver-xorg-video-openchrome is already the newest version. 0 upgraded,0newly installed,0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. then I checked if the openchrome was in xorg.conf and typed startx and finally I see the ubuntu page for the first time!!!!!!!!!!I am almost in tears but then an error msg appears: User switcher has quit unexpectedly. and freezes. Better than nothing, I suppose........ I have just done the boot from grub(first it was from recovery mode) and it appeared again this msg and the scren goes again in fade.I am more confused than before and I have to ask again for help!

When that happens, there is a crash course for Ubuntu here [pdf].

yesYou can test your connection in a number of ways - popular is just to ping something -

ping www.google.com

googles servers probably get hammered by pings....sudo apt-get update

first - but this usually means that you are online.Check that your changes apply to the main mode as well as rescue mode.

Quote the exact error.

If the problem remains - - -

dmesg
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log
cat /var/log/messages
Also the contents of your /etc/rc.local file. Please do use the code tags
Can you please confirm that you have enough space on your partition? In a terminal:
df -h

I doubt the user switcher error is related to the video problem. The video is probably just the main xorg.conf not having the driver reference.

Note: Please read this whole message before trying anything suggested. Some of these suggestion might take a long time and not help at all. And, once started, can't be stopped without (potentially) damaging your system.

OK, from that it seems that the openchrome driver is the one to use, and (since apt-get didn't complain) that your connection to the Internet is working.

Now, since you installed from a CD (or DVD), it's likely that your system does not include the most current versions of the software you're using. That might explain the "user switcher" error message.

For this part, I hope your Internet connection is both fast and high-bandwidth since use of the command I'll suggest may trigger a massive download - perhaps as much as two gigabytes. Anyhow, go back to the command line and try an apt-get update. That should, if all goes well, update most of our programs to the "most current" versions.

Then, after that finishes (hopefully, before next week), verify that the driver is still listed in xorg.conf. Either open the file with nano and look, or just run this command: cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep openchrome (cat types the file, and | "pipes" the output of cat into the grep command, which only passes on strings containing, in this case, "openchrome.") If you don't see Driver "openchrome", then the "helpful" Ubuntu boot manager has removed it, which sometimes happens, and you need to put it back in.

Finally, try, once again, the reboot.

But, since you once again report the "fade to black" symptom, I'm beginning to suspect that you may have a real hardware problem.

<edit>
Please disregard Mr. Bridge's comment to "Check that your changes apply to the main mode as well as rescue mode." Whether or not you've booted in "single user" or "multi-user" mode does not change any software of system files, and changes to /etc/ will apply to either mode.

Note that this comment is intended to avoid confusing you with irrelevancies, not as a "dig" at Mr. Bridge.
</edit>

Ubuntu uses a different xorg.conf file for failsafe mode.

We are seeing a change take effect in failsafe which does not take effect in the normal use. From this, we cannot rule out that whatever worked was not persistent across modes.

No, he was running from the command prompt option, not the "failsafe" one since that option uses the vesa driver - which did not work for him (with the same symptom he has with the "correct" driver).

When, from the command line, you change xorg.conf that is, in fact, the file you change. The file used when the failsafe boot mode is selected is xorg.conf.failsafe, but that's not, as far as I know, the file he edited.

Anyhow, as I noted above, the same symptom with two (or did the vga16 driver also"fade to black?") different drivers suggests one of those fairly rare not-immediately-fatal hardware problems. Clearly his system is working in simple text mode, and even VT100 mode since nano is working, but the VGA and EVGA modes seem less stable.

Perhaps someone could suggest a method to test the SIS chip set functionality. I haven't a clue. :scratch:

New post new issue.
Just because I was curious I checked xorg.conf.failsafe and driver was still vesa.
I switched it into openchrome and edited startx. Again I see the ubuntu wallpaper and just the background of a dialogue box. then it freezes.
Internet connection from command line: I tried to ping something but the answer is unknown host. I did man ifconfig and according to to it I typed ifconfig eth0 to activate it.I did ping www.google.com again but the answer was the same. The line is up and running.

Oh I forgot to say that I tried anyway apt-get and the system said it couldnt fetch the addresses it was looking for

Just so you're clear on this: When you boot the (Recovery Mode) entry on the GRUB menu, after the system starts you will be presented with a menu offering solutions to several common problems. One of those offered solutions is to boot in "failsafe" mode. The only time the xorg.conf.failsafe configuration file is used is when you select that option from the menu. (Well, to be "technically correct" you can use that file - or any other configuration file - by passing the file name as an argument to the startx command. That's what happens when you choose the "failsafe" menu item. If you're interested in the details - which I hope you're not, but other people may read this thread - look at man startx.)

My WiFi connection failed for a while this morning, and I noticed that apt-get returns the "No updates ... Most Current" message when the connection is down, but doesn't tell you that it was unable to connect to the repositories.

So, I misspoke when I said that the message you got from apt-get suggested that your connection was working. Sorry. :cry:

When you did the ifup eth0 did you receive any error messages? Does netstat -i show any activity for eth0? (If it looks like the red line below, eth0 is not working on your system.)Actually, the more common command used to see if an interface is working is the ifconfig command which, for a non-working connection, looks like this:So, if your Internet connection is not working, there's not much we can do.

Sometimes a dhclient eth0 will "revive" a non-working connection.

dhclient worked and I downloaded upgrades with the apt-get command and then checked xorg.conf.
my screen does not fade to black anymore but still freezes. I see now a blurry screenshot of the desktop, the image is not loaded but I see the taskbar on the top of the screen,then the system gets stuck.
Maybe there is another problem? it seems it cannot go further than the log in.

Well, that's somewhat better. With the dhclient getting you connected you can add a few helpful programs and, perhaps, move forward.

And the "no longer fade to black" is also perhaps a good thing.

First, though, boot again to the command prompt and use nano to change the xorg.conf.failsafe "Driver" entry bach to vesa, reboot in rescue mode, and pick the "Failsafe" option to see if you can, at least, now use the vesa driver without it doing the "fade to black" thing.

What I'm suspecting is that Ubuntu may be defaulting to using 3D graphic effects, but that the openchrome driver may not yet support those modes. In the failsafe mode, Ubuntu may not attempt to use those effects.

Anyhow, if the vesa driver now works, you can use the "failsafe" mode login to try to fix things using a GUI, and, if it doesn't work, that will tell us something interesting as well.

So, please try the vesa mode and let us know what happens.

I've just rebooted the system and it stuck on a white page with the timer icon(the ubuntu icon for the window's on. I saw this same page on another laptop when I installed the ubuuntu live cd mode. It appeared just before entering the ubuntu desktop. I hope I.ve been explicit enough.
Something new. According to this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=334220&page=2 this issue is still related with that f*****g I/O apic. I tried to follow their instruction but apparently they dont work. I know this is another version of ubuntu and maybe I must act differently.

There's another suggestion in that thread that might help: Boot to the command line, connect to the Internet, and run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg. Then check that the Driver setting in /etc/X11/xorg.conf is still openchrome and the one in xorg.conf.failsafe is vesa.

Then reboot and try the failsafe boot option.

After you bring up your Internet connection, before running the dkpg-reconfigure, you might consider an apt-get install mc to install the "Midnight Commander" package. Then the mc command will bring up a semi-gui, dual pane, "file manager" that I've found "nice to have" when I'm stuck in a terminal session for some reason.

Hey Ptre you know what?
I am writing this post from MY LAPTOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally with your precious help,and mr. bridge too, I got my ubuntu up and running. I still dont know if the sound card is working or not but I dont care, I am too happy. THANX THANX THANX THANX.
Ifollowed your last suggestion and finally it worked. I stiil dont know if the apic is involved , but I think I havent modified the kernel on my last reboot!
I am very glad to have joined the linux community and thanx again!:D

Great!:D Do note the "thumbs up" in the bottom right of a post where you can flag a post as having helped you. (Eventually, Jeremy will look at posts ranked by "number of times flagged" to see if that information can be used to identify common problems and solutions.)

Very bad news!!!
Hope somebody is still reading this thread. Last night I had a very nice session with my ubuntu:a great feeling. Ptre is maybe right it does not seem that openchrome drive support the 3d. Anyway: today ubuntu is till stuck.Ichecked the kernel: the command noapic is still there, and xorg.conf is not changed.
Itried again to boot ubuntu but it sticks just before the log in.
Ptre suggested to open ubuntu from recovery mode but I cannot see that option. These are the options I am offered in recovery mode menu: Resume normal boot, Try to make free space,Repair broken packages, File system check, Drop to root shell prompt, and try to fix x server.
I really dont understand why last night I coud run ubuntu and today I cant, with the same settings.The difference is that I started but not completed to download all the upgrades.

Ah, the problem may be that you've got incompatible programs installed, which can happen if you interrupt an update after the files are downloaded but before the installation of those files is complete.

Anyhow, the first thing to do is get you up in "rescue" mode so you can finish the update. The "secret" to the list of options you quoted is that that's not the whole list. The list you see will scroll up if you use the arrow key to move the highlight down the list or, if it works, the mouse to move the scroll bar, on the right of the window, down.

Then you should be able to select the "Terminal" option to get to a command prompt. (I've forgotten the exact wording of the option, but it should be obvious.)

After you get a command prompt, connect to the Internet (dhclient) and then do an apt-get update followed by an apt-get upgrade.

If you want to learn more about apt-get, the command man apt-get will show you most of the details, and, for example, explain the difference between an update and an upgrade.

You might also like to look at the aptitude command which provides a "semi" GUI for the apt-get command. A man aptitude will provide details of that alternative.

Unfortunately my recovery mode menu is all there. I tried already to scroll down but there arent other options. I completed the upgrade in command line(in the menu is open a command shell prompt) and upgdated and upgraded. The only knew thing I noticed is that in xorg.conf the comment driver with the specific one(openchrome) is no more there and editing it again from nano does not change anything.
This the situation in my kernel line after the "ro": noapic quiet splash. First there was the xforcevesa command that I removed, I put there again with no difference(and I think tehere is no point to force ubuntu to load vesa is my chipset does not support it).I also tried to fi omit noapic, with no effect.
Now this is the situation when I load aptitude after upgrade: there are several packages not installed, among teose there are 423 GNOME desktop system packages 549 graphic packages and 549 graphic package still to install.Not to mention taht after atp upgrade ubuntu upgraded a lot of packages I really dont know what to do with this stuff.My laptop still freezes just before the log in. Just for the record I checked the disk for errors when I installed Ubuntu for the firdst time and it was ok. another info: when I type start x from the command in line with this setting(driver of choice openchrome)it doesnt see any error as it did when I was starting the system with other drivers.I am sligthly desperate but I will win at last!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:rolleyes:
P,S. I also tried to disactivate apci with nohpet in the kernel with no efffect

If the noacpi makes no difference, leave it out since disabling the ACPI when you don't need to do so will make your system work harder than it needs to. And, likewise, disabling the HPET will unnecessarily slow down your system if it can, in fact, use your HPET.

Many graphics packages and GNOME packages are for special situations, and there's seldom any need to install, for example, everything that has "GNOME" in it's description.

When you say that aptitude shows "423 GNOME and 549 graphics packages still to install," I suspect that you're looking at the list of available packages, not the ones with problems.

At this point, I'm not clear about the state of your system. It seem to me that you can start a command line session, but can you then run startx and start a GUI session as "root?" If you can, can you instead issue the command su marco to log in as "marco" at the command prompt? (I'm assuming that you created your Ubuntu login name to be "marco." If it's something else, you should, of course, use whatever you used when you installed the system.) If you can't log in as "marco," then there's something wrong with the way your login has been set up, and we'll need to start over. (This is fairly easy to do, but there's no point in describing the process if you can log in as "marco," so I'll assume that you can do so until you tell us otherwise.)

Once you've logged in a "marco," the "#" prompt should change to a "$" and you can then try a "startx" to start a GNOME session for "marco." Hopefully, one of two things will happen: Either you'll see some error messages in the terminal window that will give us some clue about the "freeze" problem, or, instead, your GNOME session will start.

So, try the above and let us know what happens.

Now I need to go cook a risotto for supper, but I'll try to check back in a few hours.

I can trade linux lessons with italian cuisine lessons! :) :) :)
I did what you suggested in the last post(hitting startx in $) and ubuntu still freezes, but every time(I tried three times) it freezes in different ways:once I could see the ubuntu wall paper and a piece of upper task bar and the other times something not clear. Browsing man xserver I found out you can start a session with xinit and Xorg. Itried both options in order to gather more info and this was the error msg for Xorg and xinit:
(EE)[drm] drnOpen failed ; (EE) CHROME (0):[dri]DRIScreen Init failed.Disabling DRI.Isuppose this is the same msg appeared when I tried to open startx but the msg disappeared too fast and I couldnt read it. Hope these pieces of info have been useful.

Hey, the risotto was great: An asparagus risotto (using American-style green asparagus), but: (1) The broth was enriched by pureeing the lower (excluding the tough part) part of the stalks into the broth, and (2) I replaced half the grated hard cheese with soft goat-milk cheese. Much richer asparagus flavour, and smooth and creamy for my one-year-old grand daughter. :D

So, to return to your problem:

I'm wondering if the GNOME window manager is attempting to use display features which are not supported by the openchrome driver. Perhaps you should try the XFWM "light weight" display manager to see if that might work.

To do that, you need to use apt-get to install the XFWM, so boot to the terminal window, do the dhclient to start your Internet connection and then run the command apt-get install xfce4 xfwm4* to install the alternative display manager.

When that finishes, there are two ways to proceed. The simplest is to try a normal boot to see if the standard log-on screen is displayed. If it is, there should be a "menu" button somewhere on the screen. Press that and select the "Session Type" option. Then check XFWM, enter your password, and see if it works.

If that doesn't work, well, post here again. I was going to describe how to start the XFWM from the command line, or, at least, set it to be the default, but I can't figure it out. I though all I'd need to do was change /etc/X11/default-display-manager, but that had no effect when I rebooted my system. (I'm typing this from a XFWM session, so I know that that the apt-get command, above, installs the alternative display manager, but startx /usr/bin/xfwm4 -- :1 just gets me a black screen with a mouse cursor.)

Anyone else viewing this thread have any ideas? :scratch:

<edit>
Oops! The /etc/X11/default-display-manager file is the display manager, not the window manager. (I'd forgotten that I hadn't rebooted when I claimed, above, that changing the value had no effect.) Possible values for the file are:

1. /usr/sbin/gdm
2. /usr/bin/kdm
3. /usr/bin/xdm

To use either of the alternates to gdm, do an apt-get install xdm or kdm. When you do so, you'll get a pop-up where you can select the one to use as your default, and you can change the default by editing the file.

The combination of xdm and xfwm4 probably places the least demands on your display hardware.
</edit>

Yumm! your risotto must be great. Are you also a senior member in cooking forum ? :) :)
I found the way to start the xfce window manager from the command line and is as simple as startxfce4 , but it happened the same thing that happened to you(blank screen and a mouse arrow).I managed to come back to the command line and the error msg was the same with DRI. (check my previous post).Haven't checked the part you edited yet but I'd like you to have a look at this two threads, because maybe the solution of my problem is there but I really need advice. http://www.mepis.org/node/13367 and http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=54950.0 . I dont know if it s rude to qoute posts from other forums, but i think the more info we put together the best is for the solution of this issue.

Well, your problem appears to be with the DRI, and the first thread suggested that the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file should contain a stanza like this:So, again, boot to the command line, do a nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add that block at the end of the file. Then reboot, and a normal login to see if it helped. (The "mode" is just setting access permissions for users to invoke the direct rendering. Basically, "666" means "let any program that needs DRI use it." I would have thought that was the default, but maybe it's not.)

This is now my xorg.conf

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "openchrome"
Option "XaaNoImageWriteRect"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

and the ibex is now up and running!!!!
I found out that a lot of users with other distros have the same issues with Via chipsets, and somebody suggested to edit that option beneath the driver line, and it worked!
Thank you Linuxquestions.org community!
A special thanx to ptrenholme, without his/her patience I could have never solved this problem!!!!!!!!!