12.04 install -- white screen(part) with unity

[Neill_R]

Further today I need to use the live CD to repair Grub menu but of course on this PC I can't. I there a way to get the live CD to use Unity 2D or even just classic Ubuntu gnome?

or have i got to wait until 12.10

Neill

I partially solved this problem by getting the Alternate CD. This installed no problems and as long as I select the Unity 2D rather than Unity ( UNITY is more advanced than Unity 2D which in my reasoning seems strange) then I can log in to the desktop.

How to get the option of Unity 2D to be the default rather than Unity is my question now?

plus can I load a device driver for my graphics card that will allow unity to work correctly.


Hi
i am running Linus mint 12 on the machine in question

neill@neill-desktop ~ $ sudo lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge (rev 80)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV36.2 [GeForce FX 5700] (rev a1)
neill@neill-desktop ~ $


if I install the live CD of Ubuntu 12.04 then all appears well until I select try Ubuntu. This causes unity to load whether or not I want it to and the display has the top line a unity left side bar uniform colour no visible icons and the rest of the screen is completely white

Dash appears to work (from the Unity side bar) in that it reveals a top left corner section of the background. but i don't know how to proceed as if i run terminal I can't see it

help please ....

[Neill_R]

bump

[2F4U]

Is it true that your graphics card is nVidia? If yes, what graphics driver are you using? As far as I know, with the open source driver, it is advisable to provide nomodeset as grub kernel parameter to prevent graphics related problems.

[jadtech]

as I recall from installing 12.04 from dvd, it boots in 2d mode by default when you boot . when you frist boot on screen you see the 2 small figures on the bottom at that point press any key then you get a list of options at that point press f6 and try the various options starting with nomodeset ..

its not unity 2d how ever it is ubuntu 2d the ubuntu choice gives you a 3d desktop its not a huge difference the unity desk top is Identical except when the Icon list gets longer the icons on the launcher drop to the bottom as if to stack up and when you mouse over they spring back up off each other one by one ..

in 2d the unity launcher bar move to out of view when programs are full screen until you bring the mouse over the right edge then the luncher bar moves back into view same action happens using the windows key ..

the working and not working has to do with if your video card is older it wont support it and if its newer the driver may not be supported or still have a bug mostly nivida is unstable for some ..

its mostly about eye candy the difference between the 2 the only other problem is if you video card is onboard and if you have the wrong driver or poorly supported driver it is possible you will have problems with wireless and sound for what ever reason ..

[Neill_R]

Following your instructions to press a key at boot from live CD I then selected my language and then pressed the F6 key and selected to nomodeset option

and it now works although i do not know what mode it is in here is the screen shot

as you can see the UNITY side bar remains visible and the Icons do not stack at the bottom but they do scroll up and down with the mouse movement


as for video

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge (rev 80)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
00:10.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation NV36.2 [GeForce FX 5700] (rev a1)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

So how to and where to get the nvidia driver ???

[jadtech]

dont worry about getting the nivida driver at this point just se if you can boot test ubuntu see if you can get your wireless working if all that is go try installing ..

you most likely will need the nomodeset put in again once ubuntu is installed to get it to boot the new install once booted to the desk top and wireless is working a notice to activate the driver should pop up for you to down load and install ..