HH8.04 boots to text prompt....no Gnome..:(

[lestrade]

I installed v8.04 on my new Toshiba Satellite and, I think it was when I told Synaptic PM to "completely remove" Python and Glade developement stuff that I started having problems. Now it boots to a login prompt and then a command line. Everything "looks" intact in that mode....but no GUI.
StartX gets me to an X cursor and "graphical" background, but nothing else, no icons, nada. So I guess that that is XServer, without the Gnome desktop? (I am a noob, obviously).
I tried getting help from other similar posts, but they mostly assumed that you could run Synaptic PM to remove old kernels, e.g.
I did try booting to the other 2 kernels (and their restore options) to no avail.
Any help would be appreciated. I would rather "hang in there" and fix this than re-do the OS from scratch, as that seems the weinie way out. :)
thanks
JP

[iaculallad]

Had you tried re/installing ubuntu-desktop?


sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

[lestrade]

thanks for the reply. When I try that it has a lot of "Failed to Fetch"..yadda yadda. Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'. I guess that it is trying to install it from the internet?
JP

[lestrade]

hmmm.I noticed the -m switch which "tries to continue despite caca happening" and that seemed to finish.
now rebooting...
[edit] Nope. Stil "no resume image, doing normal boot"
JP

[DBrocks]

Yes you have to have it on the internet. :lolflag:

Do you know how to get it online from CLI (Command Line Interface)

[lestrade]

no, but if it is difficult to explain, I can probably find it on the net...
jp

[DBrocks]

Are you using CAT5 cables? Or, in lay-mens terms, are you using comcast? DSL? Fios? or Dialup?

[lestrade]

Cable modem.

[DBrocks]

Well it should be as easy as plugging it in, and entering:


sudo ifup eth0 If that doesn't work, post the contents of the "/etc/network/interfaces"

[lestrade]

sudo ifup eth0 If that doesn't work, post the contents of the "/etc/network/interfaces"[/QUOTE]

plugged in. Results are "Ignoring unknown inerface eth0"
/etc/network/interfaces:
_______________________________
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
____________cut here___________
thanks
JP

[DBrocks]

Okay. Add the following 2 lines to your "/etc/network/interfaces":


auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Now restart the network devices:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

now try again:

ifup eth0

[lestrade]

I added those two lines to interfaces (btw, that is eth(zero) not the letter "oh", right?)
The result when I try to restart is:
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
SIOCSIFADDR: No such device
etho: ERROR while getting interface flags: no such device.
.
.
Bind socket to interface: No such device.
Failed to bring up eth0.

thanks again,
JP

[DBrocks]

do you have an ethernet card?

[lestrade]

do you have an ethernet card?

99.9% sure that I do and that it is working -- although I only have used the wireless connection. I went to the Toshiba page here:
http://explore.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/P300/P305-S8820
and it also claims that there is an ethernet card....and the cable I used to connect to the internet is a good one.

I would have thought that the gnome-desktop could be found on the Ubuntu cd and that I would not need to start the network from a command line to install it. no?
thanks
JP

[lestrade]

In the end I had to reinstall the os.
A local linux guru helped me to understand all of your suggestions.
However, he said that the problem appeared more serious and that it was simpler to bite the bullet. Done, but I learned a lot on the way.
JP

[rwynns]

Lestrade, I too am having the same problems. Are you saying that the Toshiba P305-S8820 is not supported by Ubuntu?

You also said that you had only used the wireless, did you get the wireless to work under Ubuntu?

When you said that you reloaded the OS, did you mean Vista?

I just got this laptop this week. Should I take it back and get something else?

Thanks,