I have just gone through the process of installing Ubuntu. My computer rebooted with a red screen which has now turned black. In the top left hand corner I am asked to log in?

What do I do now.


Thanks for your help

Type your username and press <enter>; it will ask for password. Type it (you will not see anything, just type it) and press <enter>.

To shutdown, type sudo shutdown -h now.

Did you install Ubuntu server or the normal version? If it's the latter, Ubuntu might have some problems with your video card because you should end up with a graphical login screen.

Not sure if I can help you further if this was a normal install.

It is a normal version.

A couple of items:

I rebooted and chose the recovery mode. It allowed me to enter as a guest. I had a look around and it appears that my username is user and the password has 5 stars. I never had the opportunity to enter a username or password during the install process so I have no idea what the stars represent.

I again rebooted and started in normal mode. I was told that I was in low graphics mode and chose to continue. I ended up with the same black screen. I typed user at login and then enter, the word password appeared the curser is flashing but it will not let me type any text. I tried enter but it just came up with the same login request??

Should I uninstall and try again.

The password does not show stars when you type, all you have to do is to type the password and press Enter.
You will be logged into the system.

Try this after that -

As I said in the first reply

I think that some additional information is needed, so that we can better help you to get your system running:

1. Which version of Ubuntu have you installed?
2. What are your hardware specs?
3. Where there any errors during installation?

The full description of the ubuntu ISO file is ubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386
Windows Vista Home Premium
CUP Intel Pentium Dual T3400
2GB RAM 32bit operating system
There were no reported errors

Please note my comments above i.e. at the black screen with username showing I typed user then enter. The word password appears with flashing cursor but I am unable to type anything at this point. There is zero response to my key strokes

This is the default behavior. Just type in your password blindly and press the Enter-key. After you logged in try to launch the graphical environment with and post any error-messages here.

Your machine should be able to handle Ubuntu 12.04 without problems, as far as I can see.

Please note my comments in post #2 and post #5

Thank you all for your assistance. I'm still not understanding. I don't have a password, I never had the opportunity to create one. Is there a default one that I can use?

During the installation of Ubuntu, you are prompted to create a user immediately after setting your time zone and keyboard layout. Here you are asked to choose a password. The screen is labelled "Who are You?". If you didn't see this during the install, something major went wrong and I expect you will have to reinstall. When your installation finished, did you get a pop-up window indicating so and prompting you to reboot? I've never seen a login screen in the upper left corner, they are usually in the center of the screen but who knows.

The info above is actually from an installatin of Ubuntu 11.10 but I doubt if it has changed, maybe? I would be really surprised if you were not given an opportunity to create a user/password.

My question is have you installed Ubuntu on your machine?
Or you are booting from live CD?

If you are booting from Live CD,
try Username and passwd

Username: Ubuntu
Don't type a passwd, press enter at Password.

Thanks Kedarp & Yancek

I decided that radicle action was necessary. I uninstalled the software then reinstalled it. In doing so the first screen that appeared gave me the opportunity to enter a user name and password. Perhaps missed it last time.

During booting up I saw the word ubuntu in the centre of the screen with five red dots tracking across the screen. It booted to a reddish/bluish screen, white in the middle with a white band across the top about 5 mm wide with no symbols. The cursor worked but there was nothing to do. Right clicking my mouse provided no options. I had to disconnect the mains power and battery so I could reboot.

Rebooting provided the same screen with a black band across the top, same width and in the top right corner where was a symbol that looked like a gear wheel, to the left of that was a symbol like a volume control. To get out I again had to pull mains and battery.

1 chose the option to hit ESC during booting ubuntu and selected Safe Graphic Mode. I felt I was on a winner as it then installed files and system.

To cut a long story short it’s now working but needs updates of 330 MB. When asked for my username it defaulted to user (not the one I gave it) and the password I choose could not be authenticated.

I will no doubt reinstall in again using the default user and a new password.