nomodeset booting issues

**dondiego2** · October 24th, 2010

I had another thread that seemed to die. So I'll try again.

I tried to upgrade from 10.04 to 10.10 and killed my computer. I have windows xp on a 320gb drive and ubuntu 10.10 on the 25ogb drive. I got windows going again. I could not get 10.10 to boot - grub was missing. So I decided to reinstall 10.10. I downloaded and burned a disc with the iso file but I could not get it to run - it just put my monitor to sleep. I finally stumbled upon nomodeset and set it to that and it finally installed 10.10 on my 250gb drive. It then asked me to reboot.

That takes me to tonight. Rebooted, went to grub, chose linux and my monitor went to sleep. Rebooted, at the grub screen hit "e" to bring up an editor. I added a space and "nomodeset" behind the no splash remark.

It booted but it booted into a full screen terminal asking for my username and password. I typed startx after entering the username and password and got a boatload of errors. In essence it couldn't find any drivers.

How do I fix this and get back to my desktop and a regular boot without having to edit the grub screen every time?

**Harvil** · October 24th, 2010

Just edit the /etc/default/grub and save it.
I believe the code is.... " gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub "
After you change it update it: " sudo update-grub "

**dondiego2** · October 24th, 2010

Originally Posted by Harvil

Just edit the /etc/default/grub and save it.
I believe the code is.... " gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub "
After you change it update it: " sudo update-grub "

Code:

gksudo gedit/etc/default/grub

returned

Code:

(gksudo:1604):Gtk-WARNING **:cannot open display:

How do I load drivers and start my display and get into the desktop from the terminal? If that's what I need to do.

**akand074** · October 24th, 2010

To start the graphic user interface use this command:

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

And also the command you got before won't work because that runs the GUI text editor, you'll have to use a command line text editor. Try this:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Edit: Also about loading drivers, in Linux, unlike windows, the drivers are built right into the kernel (though you could still install different drivers like proprietary drivers). Your only problem is that your user interface is not running.

How did you install Ubuntu? I don't know how you managed to cause such a problem. If you installed Ubuntu manually, I would suggest you let the auto-installer do it for you if your having trouble.

**dondiego2** · October 24th, 2010

Originally Posted by akand074

To start the graphic user interface use this command:

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

And also the command you got before won't work because that runs the GUI text editor, you'll have to use a command line text editor. Try this:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Edit: Also about loading drivers, in Linux, unlike windows, the drivers are built right into the kernel (though you could still install different drivers like proprietary drivers). Your only problem is that your user interface is not running.

How did you install Ubuntu? I don't know how you managed to cause such a problem. If you installed Ubuntu manually, I would suggest you let the auto-installer do it for you if your having trouble.

Thanks I will try you suggestions after I finish typing my reply in Windows and reboot my computer.

I was running 10.04 and just used the upgrade manager to update to 10.10. I remember telling it not to change my grub (maybe I shouldn't have). Anyway, after it upgraded I rebooted my machine as required and I got grub missing prompt or something like that and could not boot Windows or Ubuntu. I ended uo getting Windows going and downloaded the 10.10 iso file and tried to reinstall 10.10 from the live CD. I have Windows and Ubuntu on two separate hard drives.

The only way I could get the live CD to run was to hit hit F6 at the menu screen and check the nomodeset menu item. Anything else I did just put my monitor to sleep and would not run. So I installed 10.10 on the same drive I already had it on but did not wipe the drive clean (maybe that was another mistake). It installed everything looked great, then it asked me to reboot to finish the installation. That is where I am at now. It will reboot and put my monitor to sleep or it will reboot to the terminal if I edit the grub screen to include the nomodeset command.

That's how I got here.

**kansasnoob** · October 24th, 2010

Ultimately it would be very helpful to know the specific graphics card info, so if you have some other, older Linux live disc that will run on that machine please post the output of:

Code: