getting GUI (after boot without GUI)

[col48]

I have a 64-bit Precise system with dual boot.

Occasionally, when switching on the computer, after choosing Precise it boots to a command line prompt for my username and password instead of taking the usual GUI route.

I can login that way with no problem but I can't find the command which would then give me the GUI I would get if I have logged in via the GUI route. Can someone enlighten me, please?

[zealibib slaughter]

I believe the command you need is service gdm restart (or maybe start). I may be wrong though as I haven't had any experience in unity beyond seeing that It won't run on my system. It may be service lightdm (re)start. Also the magic sys_rq key K will restart the xserver "alt + sys_rq(print scrn) + k"

edit

done some googling and the command seems to be sudo gdm start but service gdm (re)start should (re)start the display manager and x server too. Seems to me you may be having a crash of the xserver sometimes. you may want to check your logs in the directory /var/log.

[col48]

Thanks for your trouble, zealibib

Next time it happens I'll try it (them!) out.
A shutdown and reboot has always sorted it in the past, but this would be quicker.

I suspect the cause is a timing issue - something is taking slightly longer to complete than usual and a contemporaneous process which needs it done is not checking before assuming it has been done.

[grahammechanical]

Precise Pangolin does not use GDM. It uses Lightdm. You may try

sudo service lightdm start

Regards.

[col48]

The best way to make sure an intermittent fault does not happen is to ask an expert to watch it happening.....

This fault has not happened since I last posted. So it hasn't felt right to mark it solved.

[col48]

Precise Pangolin does not use GDM. It uses Lightdm. You may try

sudo service lightdm start

Regards.

Fault showed up for the first time for some weeks just now.

The service call did not do the trick. The response was something like "lightdm already running".

What should I look for in the logs, and where? I'm not a regular log reader!

[col48]

Precise Pangolin does not use GDM. It uses Lightdm. You may try

sudo service lightdm start

Regards.

The fault just recurred (that's twice today!)
As stated in my previous post (#6) this did not work. However

sudo service lightdm restart

did.