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pantherace
October 19th, 2012, 02:01 PM
I've seen several similar threads, so I'm sorry if this is repeating anything, but everything I've tried hasn't worked and I could really use some help. So I upgraded from Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10 yesterday. Install seemed to go fine, once I rebooted I got to the login screen no problem, but once I logged in problems arose. Originally I could see my desktop wallpaper, although nothing else (launder, top menu, icons, etc), but now after having rebooted it's only black screen with a mouse cursor.

I have already looked at this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1743535 (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1743535)and tried numerous suggestions and still stuck with a black screen after log in. I have used ctrl alt f1 to try to purge old nvidia drivers and reinstall them, I have tried reinstalling lightdm, I have tried to reinstall linux headers, I have tried booting with nomodeset and nvidia.modeset=0, nothing has worked.

However I was able to use grub to boot the old kernel, but it's like the screen is off center and I can't see either the launcher or the top menu bar, and the cursor is constantly fading in and out, but I can at least see windows and icons. But I'm still at a loss to how to fix anything (I think my brain is fried from reading forum threads for 24 hours).

It seems graphics related. I have a nvidia GeForce 6200 512mb, 4gb ddr3 memory, and intel atom D525 1.8Ghz if that helps.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

safarin
October 19th, 2012, 04:45 PM
I've seen several similar threads, so I'm sorry if this is repeating anything, but everything I've tried hasn't worked and I could really use some help. So I upgraded from Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10 yesterday. Install seemed to go fine, once I rebooted I got to the login screen no problem, but once I logged in problems arose. Originally I could see my desktop wallpaper, although nothing else (launder, top menu, icons, etc), but now after having rebooted it's only black screen with a mouse cursor.

I have already looked at this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1743535 (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1743535)and tried numerous suggestions and still stuck with a black screen after log in. I have used ctrl alt f1 to try to purge old nvidia drivers and reinstall them, I have tried reinstalling lightdm, I have tried to reinstall linux headers, I have tried booting with nomodeset and nvidia.modeset=0, nothing has worked.

However I was able to use grub to boot the old kernel, but it's like the screen is off center and I can't see either the launcher or the top menu bar, and the cursor is constantly fading in and out, but I can at least see windows and icons. But I'm still at a loss to how to fix anything (I think my brain is fried from reading forum threads for 24 hours).

It seems graphics related. I have a nvidia GeForce 6200 512mb, 4gb ddr3 memory, and intel atom D525 1.8Ghz if that helps.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Hi pantherace,

I got the same issues as you...1st and 2nd I install fully with update retriving from the server... but got the black screen with cursor like you... the 3rd attempt I reinstall without retrive the data from internet (online update).. my problem solved.. but.. have weird style to login into this Ubuntu 12.10...

What I mean weird is...
I need to press Ctrl+Alt+F1... then Ctrl+Alt+F7... to get the login screen... hahaha... I don't know why... but for now.. I will stick to this weirdo login... before somebody find the real solution...

pantherace
October 19th, 2012, 10:33 PM
That is strange, does that mean an update is corrupting the install somehow? I'm definitely tired Ctrl Alt F1 from trying so many different things to get this working, I'll be glad when I can just log in normally. I have resorted to just using Gnome Shell classic until there's a way to get it working properly, I should have stuck with 12.04.

ctmcgrew
October 20th, 2012, 02:01 AM
I'm having this problem too.

My video card is an AMD ATI Rv770 Radeon HD 4870.

The above workaround doesn't work for me. Anyone know where a fix can be found?

scloopy
October 20th, 2012, 09:42 AM
Yup I have a similar issue. 12.04 worked fine with NVidia drivers. I did a clean install of 12.10, which worked well until I switched to nvidia-current. After doing that and rebooting, my monitor is stuck at 1024x768 (i think).

When I log in, my desktop wallpaper greets me, but nothing else. I can't switch resolutions either.

I tried ctrl-alt-1 and removed the nvidia drivers. That gets me back to native resolution, but causes the login screen to not appear on boot.

Argh. Super frustrating. I think I may just downgrade to 12.04 again :(

Edit: GTX 690 GPU here.

stephenlamb
October 20th, 2012, 12:31 PM
I have just upgraded to 12.10. Everything seemed to go well with the upgrade but when Ubuntu loads, I just get a blank desktop. I cannot find a way of accessing any programs. Right Clicking on the desktop does bring up a system menu but that is all.

pantherace
October 20th, 2012, 12:44 PM
I'm having this problem too.

My video card is an AMD ATI Rv770 Radeon HD 4870.

The above workaround doesn't work for me. Anyone know where a fix can be found?

Did you see this thread? http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2073212 I don't know if it is the same for yours, but this person has had success reinstalling Radeon proprietary drivers.

oldfred
October 20th, 2012, 06:06 PM
Seems to be a missing kernel headers issue and any proprietary drivers.

Fix for nVidia with 12.10 missing kernel dpkg reconfigure:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2072862

Has most bug reports:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-updates/+bug/1068341

https://bugs.launchpad.net/fglrx/+bug/1068456
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1068488
https://bugs.launchpad.net/fglrx/+bug/1068661

Has what worked for me, install headers & dpkg update.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-updates/+bug/1068942

pantherace
October 21st, 2012, 12:40 PM
Seems to be a missing kernel headers issue and any proprietary drivers.

Fix for nVidia with 12.10 missing kernel dpkg reconfigure:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2072862

Has most bug reports:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-updates/+bug/1068341

https://bugs.launchpad.net/fglrx/+bug/1068456
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1068488
https://bugs.launchpad.net/fglrx/+bug/1068661

Has what worked for me, install headers & dpkg update.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-updates/+bug/1068942

Thanks for the suggestion but this has not resolved the issue. I had already tried purging nvidia and installing headers, but I tried again using your suggestion. Still black screened after login.

oldfred
October 21st, 2012, 03:29 PM
Have you tried recovery mode.

Or at grub menu, press e for edit and on linux line remove quiet splash and monitor boot process?

One recent thread, the user was sure it was a video issue, but monitoring boot found it was two other drivers that he had to work around.

mc4man
October 21st, 2012, 03:39 PM
When you say you 'upgraded' does that mean upgraded from 12.04 to 12.10 or a fresh 12.10 install?

If the former try creating a new user, then login to that user & see if unity/compiz will load

bobbybiceps
October 21st, 2012, 08:09 PM
Hi pantherace,

I got the same issues as you...1st and 2nd I install fully with update retriving from the server... but got the black screen with cursor like you... the 3rd attempt I reinstall without retrive the data from internet (online update).. my problem solved.. but.. have weird style to login into this Ubuntu 12.10...

What I mean weird is...
I need to press Ctrl+Alt+F1... then Ctrl+Alt+F7... to get the login screen... hahaha... I don't know why... but for now.. I will stick to this weirdo login... before somebody find the real solution...

I tried a fresh install of 12.10 (I had 12.04 before). The system kept crashing, was slow and sluggish when I was able to login. I finally gave up and reinstalled 12.04. I was trying to install on a Dell Latidude D620.

sephiroth_slash
October 23rd, 2012, 08:51 PM
I have this issue too, I upgraded from 12.04 to 12.10, & when I installed Nvidia drivers & rebooted, all I could see after login is my desktop wallpaper and the mouse cursor, no menu bar no unity dash

My Nvidia is GT 320M

Can anyone fix this ?

Axxon95
October 23rd, 2012, 09:04 PM
I have this issue too, I upgraded from 12.04 to 12.10, & when I installed Nvidia drivers & rebooted, all I could see after login is my desktop wallpaper and the mouse cursor, no menu bar no unity dash

My Nvidia is GT 320M

Can anyone fix this ?

I had this issue as well(I believe it is caused by unstable drivers). I just reverted back to 12.04, and are going to wait for Stable Ubuntu-X drivers for 12.10.

flavouride
October 23rd, 2012, 09:35 PM
I had this issue as well(I believe it is caused by unstable drivers). I just reverted back to 12.04, and are going to wait for Stable Ubuntu-X drivers for 12.10.

Please check if linux-headers-generic-3.5.0-17, which is needed for regeneration of vmlinuz after installing nvidia drivers, is installed properly, as it is mistakenly removed by the Ubuntu installer in 12.10.

oldspammer
November 24th, 2012, 10:00 AM
Happened to me too. :( Was running the latest downloaded proprietary
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-310.14.run
drivers. I used the "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-310.14.run --uninstall" option on this to get it to remove itself fairly cleanly :), then tried running with the open source nvidia drivers, etc, it was as bad or worse :confused:.

A lot of the solutions found via Google that were offered prior to ubuntu 12.10 are inapplicable, and usually referred to gnome-panel, etc, instead :(.

I uninstalled whole bunches of stuff when the GUI wasn't running by using the character based aptitude application.

As an ordinary logged in user in a ctrl-Alt-F1 or similar character mode screen:
$
sudo su -as root:
#
aptitudedo other root tasks, then
#
exitnow back to ordinary user stuff...
$

I had concluded that I had a mix of wrong configuration file contents vis a vis which window manager should have been used so that the system ended up NOT using any window manager at all. When in the GUI with this happening windows that are the wrong size or on top of other windows can't be adjusted at all, except for just moving them around. Their overlap ordering could not be changed at all. Shutting the windows was done via Alt-F4.

I got out of this by right-clicking the desktop, creating a new folder, double clicking the folder to put me into a file manager (nautilus?). I navigated the file manager to /usr/bin then opened the gnome-panel.

It turned out that that panel's configuration for menus was screwed up too.

A user has a YouTube video and a tool to fix such things using a gnome script or whatever, but it did not work for me because of the lack of a window manager, improper configuration, the gnome-panel launching manually, etc.

So luckily I went to ctrl-Alt-F1 screen, logged in,
sudo su - , to become root, then visited a mounted Linux system partition that was from ubuntu 11.04 or similar such, then copied the user's .gconf folder contents via

As a root...

cd /mnt/otherLinuxSystemPartition/home/[username]
tar cf - ./* | tar xvf - -C /home/[username]/.gconf
cd /home/[username]
chown -R [username] .gconfAs a regular user I created a symbolic link inside the ~/Desktop/newfolder to the /usr/bin/gnome-panel so that I could start it up more easily next time with its menus somewhat restored to normal operating mode via the tar copying (above).


cd ~/Desktop/newfolder
ln -s /usr/bin/gnome-panelNote that the normal unity / compiz menu bar with system menu is NOT the
/usr/bin/gnome-panel, but just looks somewhat similar, and occupies the same position on the screen. This had confused me for a few hours until I reasoned that the top-left-hand most cog shaped icon on the gnome-panel behaved NOTHING like the way I had seen the compiz / unity top-left-hand most cog shaped dash board launcher home behaved.

When working in this primitive mode for a while to get things done using the GUI using the open source nvidia drivers and using synaptic package manager:

/usr/bin/synaptic-pkexecI removed all of the window managers (since, apparently, I wasn't using one any way), by using the PURGE-remove (Mark for complete removal) right-click option. I determined that by adding back just one good window manager after removing all else, that it should have no choice which one to use, then use it. Turns out lightdm was installed as part of some main larger package, and also my selected gdm, so when a configure installation screen came up, it asked me to select my primary display manager: gdm vs lightdm. I selected gdm.

I tried to set the options of the apt front end programs that I was using to NOT clear the download cache of .deb files, but the system seemed to re-install stuff by re-downloading it all over again--ignoring the cached .deb files already there from prior activities. I'm using a 2 Tbyte partition and it is using less than 100 Gbytes, so with all that empty space, the cache didn't need to be cleared--EVER.

Then installed the prior proprietary nvidia 304.xx driver, one or so versions back than I had originally been using. I reinstalled all the stuff that I had purge removed, excepting _ANY_ display managers that would conflict with my prior config selection made. In so doing, it insured that a proper set of dependency settings would be observed so that newer version configuration files would have to be written to the right places with the up-to-date default information in them (after all, the purge remove [Mark for complete removal] apt operation would have erased these bad / outdated config files).

This wasted a huge amount of my time. So I tried to occupy myself by doing various odd jobs where I was, reading the newspaper, watching TV, preparing and eating snacks. Hours went by doing all of this because the software did not check and use the cached downloaded stuff. My download speeds varied from 300 kbytes to about 700 kbytes/second (very slow CD and floppy diskette speeds), but we're talking about hundreds of packages being removed, then reinstalled, etc.

Now I have a proper window manager, auto login, unity / compiz, etc, running and working.

The thing that I found out was that the menu bar at the top of the screen that holds the system menu cog icon on the far right hand corner of the screen contains only
=============
About This Computer
Ubuntu Help
System Settings
Lock
Suspend
=============
but does not have Hibernate, Log Out, Shutdown, Switch User, etc.

For these missing functions, I open that symbolic link to gnome-panel, then click on its Main ubuntu icon menu which does have those items available to click. Since the gnome-panel is / was in auto hide mode, I can't click around accidentally on the unity / compiz menu bar, or else the gnome-panel will remain auto-hidden behind it--in which case ctrl-Alt-T gives me a terminal where I switch to super user then issue a


sudo su -
shutdown -r now
or

sudo su -
shutdown -h nowcommand depending on what I want to do.

If more of the system is working correctly, I found that I could stop and restart the gnome-panel only if I killed it as root since it would not terminate if I was in task manager, right clicked it, tried either to terminate or kill it--the gnome-panel just kept running. Another way to find its PID is to do the following


sudo su -
killall gnome-panelwill kill the gnome-panel if it was running.

Re-launching the gnome-panel got it to reappear, but auto-hide itself, but above (or on top of) the compiz / unity menu bar so as to be mouse accessible again to reveal itself to be used.

Its far right-hand side cog system menu also did not have the logout, hibernate, shutdown items either.

According to
http://askubuntu.com/questions/67927/how-do-i-get-restart-option-in-the-shutdown-menu-in-unity

the 'brilliant' decision to do this was taken by developer 'design.' Quite a number of people are looking for where this stuff has been put?--including me because accessing it is no longer simple.

Another post gives a solution from a number of years back:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1147295

The solution should be amended to use

/usr/bin/gnome-session-quitwithout any command line options. According to the documentation, this has exactly the same command line options as used in the proposed solution but when I tested these, they nullified any working functionality of the command. But when options were left off the command line, the operation worked for logging off the user to a screen that had a top right hand side cog icon button that did have a shutdown / power off button.

The trouble that I've found with these upgrades is that developers break a lot of configuration settings, then there is little way to get these developers to clean up after themselves. Packages like ubuntu 11.04 Rhythmbox 0.3.x with shoutcast plugin got broken badly in the new version of Rhythmbox for ubuntu >11.04 (or so) so that the same plugin no longer works so that alternatives must be Googled, Eg., streamtuner2 that is not available in ubuntu 11.04 (just version 1).

Developers have determined that a huge number of config files are needed in all sorts of scattered folders. Should one upgrade see an existing config file, they might not re-write it after making a backup copy of the old one--they might just leave the wrong, outdated settings config file sit there to be used and fail miserably when the user tries to use their system. That is, I'm sure, what had happened to me in this case still with the remaining issues that I described above.

This last upgrade had the syntax change slightly for fstab for mount.cifs. There is no example given in the man page for fstab entries, so some trial and error testing had to be done to determine the nature / cause of a parameter error 33 that was causing the samba share not to mount.


//192.168.0.101/c /mnt/johnpc/c cifs noauto,rw,user,iocharset=utf8,username=johnpc/Administrator%somepassword,domain=WORKGROUP 0 0When trying to solve that issue of the missing system menu items, I read about compizconfig Settings Manager. When I have unity / compiz launcher find and identify this program and hit the enter key, nothing happens!

I try to view this program launch using the task manager listing of PIDs and running task names, but if the entry happens, it disappears instantly.

Configuration testing of compiz shows all yes answers to compatibility tests. WTF? :confused:

So some obstacles remain for me to solve... I use the help system only to find missing URI files being referenced, so I reinstall that package--life goes on. The help system at least tells me the names of things, how they should work and appear so that I know when things still are not working correctly.

oldspammer
December 7th, 2012, 02:10 PM
I wanted to change my previous post to have the tar command have slightly different source directory specifications, but the option to edit, or delete, or replace the post was unavailable even though no quotations or replies happened. Seems a certain number of configured hours had elapsed that forbid the post from being edited.

The cd command should have visited the .gconf subdirectory within the [username] subdirectory so that the entire user's directory would not have been tar copied to the destination .gconf folder.

Sorry for any confusion.