Ubuntu 9.04 boots to blackscreen with mouse pointer
Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Ubuntu 9.04 boots to blackscreen with mouse pointer
I'm having trouble getting Ubuntu 9 to boot. Everything looks fine until the Ubuntu logo and progress line blank out, I think to go the GUI. All I get is a black screen with the mouse pointer in the middle. The keyboard and mouse are dead at that point. The only out is to power off and try again. I finally got fully booted this afternoon and everything seems to work fine, but I know if I shut down the problem sequence will start all over again. Can you help me diagnose what the problem is? I know nothing about linux, but I'm sure I can follow instructions to input command line commands.
Dell Optiplex with 1.7 ghz P-4
256 MB memory
20 GB drive, dual boot with Win XP and Ubuntu 9.04
Nvidia GeForce2 MX 100/200 Display adapter
Win XP works fine, albeit very slow, with no problems.
I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are telling me to do. Are you suggesting that I should break the boot process and enter those lines of code on the command line? Please forgive my ignorance-I'm completely new to this. Also, since I finally got the computer to the desktop, is there a way to check for errors from the GUI? I'm certain if I shut the computer down I won't be able to boot it again.
I'm suggesting that since you're still logged in, you enter those commands and have a look through them. Those are the logs for the X server, and kernel messages. Any problem will likely be in those somewhere, they should be easy to see.
The first command
Code:
tail -50 /var/log/Xorg.log.0|less
means "Take the last 50 lines on the specified file, then pipe that into less which means you can navigate up and down the file with the arrow keys"
The second command
Code:
tail /var/log/messages.1
Means "Show me the bottom ten lines of the specified file"
We're using these files, and not the upto date ones, because these should document the last file prior to the one in use, as in; the ones that failed.
Thanks James. I tried entering these two commands and I just get a blinking square cursor. Do these commands take a long time to complete? I tried closing Terminal window and I get "Close this window? There is still a process running in this terminal. Closing the terminal will kill it."
A little more history: After dealing with this problem for many hours, I tried to reinstall Ubuntu from the CD. It won't let me do that. I was able to boot into Live CD one time and I got all the way to the GUI. Then I shut down and tried again to reload from CD - no deal. It was several boots after that that I got completely booted to the GUI, where I am now. It seems odd to me that I can't just reload from CD. It makes me think Ubuntu doesn't like something in my hardware, but I don't know what.
I just opened a new Terminal window and reentered the first command. This what I got: "tail: cannot open 'var/log/Xorg.log.0' for reading: No such file or directory (END)
A blibking cursor... Neither of those should give you a blinking cursor, so that may point towards a different error all together. Whilst running those commands, run something like 'top' as well; see what happens on there, see what it is doing.
Perhaps some hardware background too, see if there is anything in there that we can pin
EDIT:
Sorry, thats my fault, I mangled the filename:
Xorg.0.log.old
Last edited by jamescondron; 06-13-2009 at 10:16 PM.
I don't think I know how to do the other thing you asked me to do ... sorry for my ignorance.
Also, I'm thinking maybe I have a bad CD for Ubuntu 9.04. I compared the md5sum from the Ubuntu communtiy website with the CD and they don't match. I used the checksum in the md5sum.txt file on the CD. Today I downloaded Xubuntu and I'm trying it on another computer before I try installing it on the problem pc.
When I try the "startx" command, I get a message "X: user not authorized to run the x server, aborting
I tried this command with and without redirection
michael
I had fun setting up video for linux on my old macs. I ended up downloading two precompiled modules and installing the xserver-xorg-......... from the repos. I chunked my notes after I donated our macs. but it took info from three sites to get it to work. I ssh'ed into the mac machine and cut and pasted code from the net till it worked.
----------------------------------------------
This may not work for you but this is what I did or close to it.
I did a network install with the minimal cd. Hardy does not do a good job of detecting the video card. The other distros might be having the same issue. When i did the reboot, the machine came up with a blank screen, I had to go into terminal 1 to see what was going on. linux actually loaded fine except for the video. I had to dl two kernel modules mach64 and drm (thank god someone had already compiled them). did a depmod -a. Then I had to sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati-dbg. Last of all I had to manually set the freqs and res in xorg.conf. I would not wish what I had to do on a new user (I consider myself a novice). Looking at /var/log/Xorg.0.conf and a lot of google research helped.
This is what someone else did:
# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
When I try the "startx" command, I get a message "X: user not authorized to run the x server, aborting
I tried this command with and without redirection
michael
I had fun setting up video for linux on my old imac. I ended up downloading two precompiled modules and installing the xserver-xorg-......... from the repos. I chunked my notes after I donated our macs. but it took infor from three sites to get it to work. I ssh'ed into the mac machine and cut and pasted code from the net till it worked.
----------------------------------------------
This may not work for you but this is what I did or close to it.
I did a network install with the minimal cd. Hardy does not do a good job of detecting the video card. The other distros might be having the same issue. When i did the reboot, the machine came up with a blank screen, I had to go into terminal 1 to see what was going on. linux actually loaded fine except for the video. I had to dl two kernel modules mach64 and drm (thank god someone had already compiled them). did a depmod -a. Then I had to sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati-dbg. Last of all I had to manually set the freqs and res in xorg.conf. I would not wish what I had to do on a new user (I consider myself a novice). Looking at /var/log/Xorg.0.conf and a lot of google research helped.
This is what someone else did: (I cut and pasted this into my xorg.conf)
# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.