First off, MAFoElffen, thank you so much for your support and help here. I've read through all 94 pages of this thread... maybe twice... I feel like I'm calling into a radio show and need to roll off one of those "long time listener, first time caller" lines.
Secondly, I'm new to ubuntu and linux in general, though i'm not completely helpless... i've just messed with windows boxes most of my life - started with DOS systems... blah blah blah.
long story short, i built this box and used it in about 2 years in grad school and it's been sitting in my closet the past 2 years since i got married - pulled it out recently - decided to give linux a shot - heard ubuntu was "user friendly".
here's the specs on the hardware:
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 6000+ 3.0GHz
Video: PNY NVIDIA GeForce 6600
HD: WD Caviar 300GB 7200RPM SATA
RAM: 4x1GB DDR2-800
The hard drive isnt new, but i did give it a fresh format and tried installing 11.10 (64 bit) from a LiveCD. Had to use the 'nomodeset' option - won't load otherwise. No apparent problems running the installer. reboots and gets a black screen. appending the kernel boot line with "nomodeset" still gets to me a black screen. if i put "single" in the kernel boot line, i actually get a command line prompt and can do a little bit... like updating apt-get, installing nvidia-current, etc... but it still black screens on reboot.
i tried looking up and appending the kernel boot line w/"vga=xxx" after looking up some modes my video supports... though i had to drop to the grub CLI and use "vbeinfo" to do it. in a text session, "hwinfo --framebuffer" doesnt return anything. yes, i installed hwinfo and i get an extensively long report if i just run the command "hwinfo"
i tried following the directions in post #280 to cleanup, but when i go to edit the blacklist.conf it won't let me due to permissions (it's read-only)... and i dont know enough to go changing those comfortably - don't wanna royally hose things yet.
somewhere along the way, i was able to boot into recovery mode, but i think i installed the wrong drivers (nvidia-173, which i understand doesnt work with the 6600) and couldnt ever get back into a GUI. after flailing for the better part of a day trying to do so, i tried a fresh reinstall with intentions of retracing my steps... and have been unsuccessful. i know i'm close... and i'm at least comforted by the fact that i can run a LiveCD (what i'm using right now to type this), but i'd really like the installed version to work.
so here's where i am now: i can get to a usable text console, but only if i append "single" to the kernel boot line. if i try appending "text", i think it gets there... the text is garbled and unreadable, but i can enter commands and it responds. i can't boot all the way into recovery mode - the graphical menus come up, and i can drop to a command line there, but it doesnt go all the way when i tell it to continue loading.
i'm really not quite sure where to go from here. i know there's other stuff i've tried along the way, but i can't remember it all - been working on this about 2 days/week over the past month or so. thought i'd finally ask for some hands-on help... and any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks in advance,
i'm going to go spend some time outside for a few hours - maybe replenish some of my lost vitamin D.
~Ben
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