Botched dist-upgrade to 13.10, screen is wonky

[1clue]

Hi,

I have Xubuntu 13.04 and just did a dist-upgrade. Now my login screen is normal but my desktop is all messed up.

Any idea what happened?

247923

Thanks.

[Bashing-om]

1clue; Hi !

Proprietary drivers installed ???
Try booting in recovery mode ( with networking)-> Additional Drivers and install the recommended driver ( preferably open source (??) ).



hey it's a thought

[1clue]

On a lark I uninstalled all the proprietary drivers, reinstalled xubuntu-desktop and all the packages it installs, and at this point I get that instane zebra desktop with nothing on it.

No cursor either. Just the desktop.

[oldos2er]

Hi,

I have Xubuntu 13.04 and just did a dist-upgrade. Now my login screen is normal but my desktop is all messed up.

Any idea what happened?

247923

Thanks.

If the dist-upgrade included a kernel upgrade, try booting to an older previously working kernel. It would also help to mention details of your video hardware.

[1clue]

Booted back to the older kernel (again) and get the same zebra screen.

07:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT200 [GeForce GTX 260] (rev a1)

I've been using the nvidia driver.

[Bashing-om]

1clue; Well ...

Let's look and see if we can get an idea of what is not going on.
Boot to the GUI -> ctl+alt+f1 to get a console.
What graphics card and driver are recognized ?
Terminal codes:


lspci | grep VGA
sudo lshw -C display
lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga ##better info/confirmation

My output, ATI card and open source (radeon) driver:


sysop@1304mini:~$ lspci | grep VGA
06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV515 [Radeon X1300/X1550]
//
capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=radeon latency=0
//
sysop@1304mini:~$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga
06:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV515 [Radeon X1300/X1550] [1002:7146]
Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Device [1002:2342]
Kernel driver in use: radeon
06:00.1 Display controller [0380]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV515 [Radeon X1300/X1550 Series] (Secondary) [1002:7166]
sysop@1304mini:~$


Depending on the outputs, might try booting with added boot parameters (say, nomodeset) and see what can be done to load a different grphics driver.



ain't nothing but a thing

[1clue]

07:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT200 [GeForce GTX 260] (rev a1)

sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password for ken:
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: GT200 [GeForce GTX 260]
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
version: a1
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
resources: irq:24 memory:f2000000-f2ffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:ac00(size=128) memory:f3c80000-f3cfffff



07:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GT200 [GeForce GTX 260] [10de:05e2] (rev a1)
Subsystem: Device [196e:064b]
Kernel driver in use: nouveau

[Bashing-om]

1clue; OK,
Nvidia card and nouveau (open source) driver loaded ...

Let's see what results with the boot option "nomodeset" see if the default FB driver gets us a graphics display.

grub boot menu "e" key for edit mode -> arrow down and across to "quiet splash" insert the term "nomodeset";
ctl+x to continue the boot process.



we be try'n

[1clue]

Nomodeset got me a low resolution screen.

I just tried adding the nvidia-driver again

[1clue]

So does nomodeset have to stay in there, or what? I got the driver loaded and it's working full resolution.

Thanks.

[Bashing-om]

1clue; Nope !

That "nomodeset" disables kernel mode setting, not an action we want on a permanent basis.

At this point, activate "Additional Drivers" - 3rd party sources enabled in Software Sources - and install the "recommended" driver.



finer than a frog's hair ?

[1clue]

Cool. Removed the nomodeset and rebooted, I've still got everything. Thanks, thread solved.

[Bashing-om]

1clue; Great !

Glad things are "looking" up !



keep on keep'n on

[1clue]

Reading it again, I'm not sure if I got my appreciation through clear enough. Thanks everyone.