9.10 Karmic - Desktop Crashing

[Chromatica]

Well, I'm not entirely sure if saying my desktop is "crashing" is proper, but it's probably the best way to describe it. Initially, I went through the upgrade process from 9.04 to 9.10 and everything seemed to be working. I boot into gnome (as I prefer it over KDE) and what do I see? A black, non-existent desktop. Literally, the menu bars, applications, everything. It all worked fine, but the desktop was just black, no icons or anything. After trying to restart as most tech support would tell you to do, I finally saw on one instance an error message in the top right with the other alerts and little icons. I can't recall it's exact contents but it basically said my desktop was crashing. Then, I assumed that the upgrade process had gone wrong somewhere so I got a new CD and burned it on Windows 7 using ISO Recorder and did a clean install. Well, boot into gnome : what do you know... still happening. I tried booting in the other environments I had as well. KDE worked fine but... well... I don't like KDE, personally I find it bloated. Failsafe Gnome actually worked fine too, but failsafe had/has no internet. I also tried booting into xterm but that isn't really relative. Afterward, I tried booting into recovery mode and attempted a fix I saw with a somewhat similar problem that involved removing and then reinstalling my graphics module. Sadly enough, it didn't work. I recently attempted booting into a Live CD but it happened to do the same thing. I'm not sure what the problem is. I got a dmesg | tail but it didn't return anything useful. Here's it's contents just in case :

[ 17.218768] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 17.431502] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[ 23.124392] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: AGP 2.0 bridge
[ 23.124416] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: putting AGP V2 device into 4x mode
[ 23.124458] pci 0000:01:00.0: putting AGP V2 device into 4x mode
[ 23.364955] [drm] Setting GART location based on new memory map
[ 23.364968] [drm] Loading R200 Microcode
[ 23.365025] [drm] writeback test succeeded in 2 usecs
[ 28.180040] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[ 235.283236] lib80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'WEP'I'm doubting it's an issue with my hardware though since failsafe displayed the desktop properly. However, if it is of any concern : my laptop (the machine it's running on) is perticularly old but 9.04 worked beautifully. I'm aware I can go back to 9.04 but I'd like to try to get 9.10 working properly.

[Chromatica]

bump :S

[darkod]

How about video driver problem?

I spent three days troubleshooting why Karmic was rebooting my PC just when it reaches the login screen until I tried new driver trough Ubuntu (recovery mode).

[Chromatica]

Well, I thought about that but there's a slight problem. I haven't the slightest clue what the graphics card is. Also, it's ATI I believe and I don't want CCC because it isn't exactly good. Also, if it was the video driver, why did it work perfectly on failsafe?

[darkod]

I am new user and I don't know too much about Ubuntu but some of my problems are replicated in your post, in a way.

1. Kubuntu worked for me, but Ubuntu not.
2. Live CD was doing the same as the installation, same error. You have the same situation.

Plus, I also have integrated Radeon HD3200, ATI chip, if that means anything.

PS. Don't worry, you don't need exact model. It finds itself. Beauty of Linux. :)

[Chromatica]

I am new user and I don't know too much about Ubuntu but some of my problems are replicated in your post, in a way.

1. Kubuntu worked for me, but Ubuntu not.
2. Live CD was doing the same as the installation, same error. You have the same situation.

Plus, I also have integrated Radeon HD3200, ATI chip, if that means anything.

PS. Don't worry, you don't need exact model. It finds itself. Beauty of Linux. :)

I'm well aware of linux's ability to find drivers, I've been using ubuntu for quite some time and I've always loved that of the 9-or-so distro's I tried to install on my horrible laptop, it was the only one that worked. To give a perspective, Debian (which you probably know is the basis of ubuntu) didn't work, Linux Mint (a derivative of ubuntu) also didn't work. I haven't the slightest clue why, but ubuntu was the only one that worked. Anyway, it's still not fixed... need some ideas.

[darkod]

Well, ubuntu was rebooting my pc just when it's about to show the login screen.

What helped me was:
1. Boot into recovery mode
2. On the menu you get select "root with networking"
3. Install EnvyNG package for video drivers
sudo apt-get install envyng-core envyng-qt
4. Start it in text mode
envyng -t

I guess you know what to do from there. :) Don't know if it helps but you can try.

[Chromatica]

Well, ubuntu was rebooting my pc just when it's about to show the login screen.

What helped me was:
1. Boot into recovery mode
2. On the menu you get select "root with networking"
3. Install EnvyNG package for video drivers
sudo apt-get install envyng-core envyng-qt
4. Start it in text mode
envyng -t

I guess you know what to do from there. :) Don't know if it helps but you can try.
Well, I went to eat dinner but when i came back to try this, the oddest thing happened. I tried to install it, it says package not found. I try the command, it says to install the package. I've got internet, in fact : I'm running the regular terminal in ubuntu, like i said : my desktop is the only problem.