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Old 12-31-2005, 12:23 PM   #1
dkbg
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Registered: Dec 2005
Location: Canada
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Ubuntu blank screen on startup


Okay, first of all, I'm a completely new Linux user and pretty unfamiliar with the command line so any step by step help would be the most useful.

I've just recently installed Ubuntu Linux (Breezy 5.10), I'm dual booting with Windows XP on my Toshiba M70 laptop, but I'm having some trouble. When I choose the Ubuntu OS in the Grub bootloader, everything seems to go pretty well, the Ubuntu logo appears along with various status messages which scroll underneath. The status bar reaches full and then the system just stops on a totally blank black screen after briefly displaying a blinking cursor in the top left. Nothing happens. I can use ctrl+alt+f# to reach a login, but I have no idea what to do from there.

I must also mention that I did not configure the network during Ubuntu's installation, and the status messages display a message stating that a connection to ntp.ubuntulinux.org has failed.

Thank you for any help you can offer! I would really like to get this working soon.
 
Old 12-31-2005, 01:37 PM   #2
mcmillan
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Registered: Jul 2005
Distribution: Arch
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It seems like something went wrong with getting gnome to run. Normally ubuntu starts that right away by default, but if it's not working it will take you straight to the terminal instead. It sounds like something with the xserver got started since you're having to switch to get the login. Try logging in and typing startx to see what happens. However it seems like a lot of times I've read about similar problems the solution seems to be reinstalling.
 
Old 12-31-2005, 02:34 PM   #3
dkbg
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Damn...well I did actually login and I used the startx command, but nothing of much interest happened, unfortunately I can't remember what exactly occurred. Anyway, I think I'll just try reinstalling fresh. I think the problem has something to do with my video card and the settings.
 
Old 12-31-2005, 03:22 PM   #4
dkbg
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Okay, I reinstalled clean and I'm having the same problem. This time I logged in and used startx and this is what I got:

x auth: creating new authority file /home/<username>/.serverauth.29876
x auth: creating new authority file /home/<username>/.Xauthority
x auth: creating new authority file /home/<username>/.Xauthority

Fatal server error:
server is already active for display 0
If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.XO-lock and start again

Please consult...bla bla bla

Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Invalid MIT.MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key
giving up.
xinit: unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (errno 3): Server error

And then I get a cursor.

Please help...!
 
Old 12-31-2005, 04:26 PM   #5
stress_junkie
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Registered: Dec 2005
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 10.04 and CentOS 5.5
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It looks like the GUI had created a lock file in the /tmp directory during one of the previous startups. Do this:

su -
<enter root account password>
ls /tmp/.X0-lock
rm /tmp/.X0-lock
<cntrl><d>

You will be back in your normal user account. Run the startx command.

Note that the name of /tmp/.X0-lock has a zero, not a capital "O".
 
  


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