[ubuntu] 9.04 - black screen

[craigmarshall]

Hi,

I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro A120-140. I burned a copy of 9.04, ran it as a live cd, and it booted fine, but failed to show the gnome menu, so I haven't been able to test it at all.

I decided to go ahead and install anyway, splitting the hard drive between windows and ubuntu, because I had plenty of space on the hard drive. After all, the bug might have been in the config files, which I could easily tweak after install. BUT ...

I have booted from the new default ubuntu install, and logged in, but I can only see a black screen and a mouse cursor. I guessed there might have been a bug in the 9.04 release, so I plugged in a cable, Alt-F1'd, Apt-upgraded, and rebooted, but no improvement.

I have searched forums and google, and cannot find a solution. I am currently downloading 8.10 and will try and install that. This is not good! I have trusted and relied on ubuntu in the past, and I have more confidence and experience in this distribution than any other, perhaps excepting debian - which is harder work. Please don't let this be the start of the decline of ubuntu!!

What can I do now?

TIA,
Craig Marshall

[wpshooter]

Have you tried installing from the ALTERNATE (text based) CD version of Ubuntu ?

[craigmarshall]

Originally Posted by wpshooter Have you tried installing from the ALTERNATE (text based) CD version of Ubuntu ?

No - I haven't. How would this help? I'm just slightly skeptical that it would be worth doing. No offence intended, of course!

Cheers,
Craig Marshall

[StuartN]

Your PC has a Radeon Xpress 200M, in which case Ubuntu 8.10 is a better option with the fglrx ATI driver then 9.04 with the radeon driver. (see any thread on Jaunty & ATI for the problems with the new X server).

[ryanfx]

Craig,

If my memory serves me correctly one of the common issues with a black screen and cursor is caused by a bug with compiz and some video chip sets.

If nothing else is working, give this a shot

sudo apt-get remove compiz compiz-core

[craigmarshall]

Hi Ryan,

Originally Posted by ryanfx If nothing else is working, give this a shot sudo apt-get remove compiz compiz-core

Nope - sorry, that didn't help at all

Craig

[ryanfx]

Sorry then, that's the only thing I've seen with a black screen and black cursor. Best of luck.

You obviously did that and gave it a full reboot yes?

[craigmarshall]

Originally Posted by ryanfx Sorry then, that's the only thing I've seen with a black screen and black cursor. Best of luck. You obviously did that and gave it a full reboot yes?

Yes - did nothing.

I'm reaching the point of no return with 8.10 (just doing a full disk install), so I shan't be able to test 9.04 fixes from now on. I will keep my eye on the forums and see if any of the updates released in future fix these issues, until then, I'm stuck using the old version.

Cheers,
Craig

[dynomite]

newbie willing to help provide details to help with this problem

History Details:
on 8.10 64bit SE edition
upgraded to 9.04 64 bit SE edition with no problems

however, decided to reboot server and had the problem described above with graphical display

I know system is functioning as other workstations are able to access the webserver.

I have attempted to try the suggestions above.
CTRL-ALT-F2 -->
sudo killall gdm
dpkg --configure -a
sudo gdm restart

Log in --> same problem with black screen

If you need details on my system, will gladly comply, but will need a walk through on every step as I am a newbie.

I am on an ATI videocard built into the motherboard. If you want details, will need to know how to find that out through the terminal interface.

Appreciate any advice or help in advance!

Solution as pertained to my issue and hopefully helps others.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

sudo gdm restart

asked me to run a new xserv display rather than 0 that was running and I chose yes.
resolved the problem

woohoo!!