I am an Ubuntu novice and last year bought a new computer without an operating system. I installed version 10.04 (I think!) as my only OS and was using that without problem. At some point I might have upgraded to version 11.04, but I'm not sure.

What I do know is that the other week I tried to upgrade to version 11.10. The download and installation went fine and I clicked the instruction to restart the computer. After I did, the Ubuntu logo appeared as normal, but then there was a screen of technobabble and nothing else happened. I pressed the keyboard keys but I couldn't move beyond that screen. The screen says things like "Checking battery state... [OK]" and "Stopping Failsafe Boot Delay [OK]". The last line is "Stopping GNOME Display Manager [OK]". The only thing that looks like it might be wrong is "Stopping automatic crash report generation [fail]".

After several attempts to get the computer working, I discovered ctrl+alt+F1. At the top of that screen it says Ubuntu 11.10. I've tried to login using my username and the only password I'm aware of, but can't. When I type the password, the cursor doesn't move on the screen.

I partitioned the drive when I first installed Ubuntu, so maybe reinstalling it would be the easiest thing? I shouldn't lose any of my files if I do, is that right? I don't remember if when I first installed Ubuntu I chose the 32-bit or 64-bit version. If I re-install, would it make a difference if I chose a different bit version?