[SOLVED] Install Ubuntu 14.04LTS bad

dfiggy · 10-15-2014, 06:01 PM

After accepting the offer to upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04LTS, my emachines monitor, E181HV, Ubuntu starts up, but loses sync. The only way to exit is to turn the computer off.

everest40 · 10-16-2014, 01:59 PM

Does it lose sync immediately, or do you have some time to do stuff before it becomes unusable? What about running from a live CD/USB; are you able to try that?

c0d3d · 10-16-2014, 02:07 PM

Are you using Unity or a custom desktop environment?

Try pressing Control+Alt+F1, logging in and running a "sudo apt-get upgrade". Report back what happens.

dfiggy · 10-16-2014, 02:58 PM

Thanks Everest40. When I start Ubuntu, it begins by asking for the user password. I enter the user password and it brings up a screen with icons in my case on the left. The image displayed seems correct to fill a 1366X 768 screen. If I select any icon or just wait for over a minute sync is lost and I have an un-synced diagonal screen (~7 diagonal bands starting at lower left).
dfiggy

everest40 · 10-17-2014, 12:46 AM

The fact that it doesn't lose sync immediately seems really strange. I'm afraid I don't know what to do except try c0d3d's suggestion if you can.

Do you know what graphics card your computer has?

dfiggy · 10-17-2014, 11:03 AM

Thanks c0d3d. I tried your suggestion, and the computer went through a number of actions to upgrade. A number of lines indicated failure to connect a number of times. When it was completed I ran sudo get-apt update --fix-missing . It made a second attempt, but there were lines that indicated some items could not be obtained. I restarted the system, and now the system starts with a login screen, I login, but then the display loses sync after a 10 second delay without ever showing the column of icons that had been seen before the update.
dfiggy

dfiggy · 10-17-2014, 11:15 AM

To answer c0d3d's other question, my system is a custom system with a MSI motherboard and an AMD processor. It also uses a Gateway keyboard and USB mouse. The disk also contains an old XP installation that works fine with the e-machines monitor. The system worked well with earlier versions of Ubuntu before 14.04 LTS.

c0d3d · 10-17-2014, 04:27 PM

I think that last command you tried probably should have been "sudo apt-get upgrade --fix-missing". Try running that, and if it fails again, try running "sudo apt-get install xfce4". If that works, try to boot into that and tell us what happens.

dfiggy · 10-17-2014, 06:32 PM

c0d3d
"sudo apt-get install xfce4" was run and I rebooted the system. xfce4 was not an option, so I chose Ubuntu (14.04 LTS). After the sign in screen, the display lost sync as before. Was there another start sequence I should have used? How do I uninstall the xfce4 if there was no other sequence to follow.
dfiggy

c0d3d · 10-17-2014, 06:48 PM

In that case, try:

Code:

sudo su -
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get remove xfce4
apt-get autoremove
apt-get install lxde
reboot

Now check to see if lxde is an option. If not, run:

Code:

sudo apt-get install lxdm
sudo reboot

Now try to login into LXDE.

Did you have any additional PPAs or software sources before upgrading to 14.04?

dfiggy · 10-21-2014, 09:56 AM

I have tried every suggestion c0d3d has provided. Now it seems my system is in no better condition, and I am unable to restore it to the condition that existed before I started! My system starts and after login, loses sync and the monitor displays diagonal stripes rising from the lower left. I am not happy about believing the upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS would be good. If there is a way to just start over, I would try with an earlier version that works. I started using Ubuntu back at version 9.04 and was up to version 12 or so when I received the offer to upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Ubuntu has not worked since!

yancek · 10-21-2014, 10:15 AM

Quote:

If I select any icon or just wait for over a minute sync is lost and I have an un-synced diagonal screen (~7 diagonal bands starting at lower left).

If I'm reading the above correctly, you have a series of dashes which look like horizontal lines running from the lower left to the upper right of the screen. If that's the case, it is probably the graphics drivers. I've seen posts of users with this problem on initial boot and also after logging in. You need to try the recovery option on boot and if that doesn't work, try recovery and add "nomodeset" (without quotes) to then end of the linux line on the Ubuntu menuentry for recovery. If you are able to boot, go to System Settings, then Software and Updates and in that window there is a tab "Additional driver", click that and let it run.

You were asked above for the type of graphics card but you never posted back. If you can't get it to work on 14.04, use 12.04 which will be supported until April, 2017.

c0d3d · 10-21-2014, 01:01 PM

Oh, sorry about that! If you're willing to continue trying, I would recommend remove lightdm completely ("sudo apt-get remove lightdm; sudo apt-get autoremove") and rebooting.

If you are going to reinstall, I would recommend trying Linux Mint.

dfiggy · 10-22-2014, 09:53 AM

yancek asked about my graphics device. I believe it is part of the MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 (Model MS-7309) motherboard and not a separate card. It uses an NVIDIA chip. If I still have discs with anything for this board, I will have to do an extensive search, or go online to download software. I would think it unlikely for Ubuntu software to modify the system.

dfiggy

dfiggy · 10-22-2014, 10:21 AM

At present after c0d3dsuggestions: "Oh, sorry about that! If you're willing to continue trying, I would recommend remove lightdm completely ("sudo apt-get remove lightdm; sudo apt-get autoremove") and rebooting.
I cannot see a Linux screen. All I get is a window with Syslog at the top which if selected presents a box asking for a password (not my password!) which I do not know. I am going to try another computer to try to download a linuxmint version. Hopefully, I can make a bootable disk to load a new system into the malfunctioning computer.

dfiggy