10.10: Works fine with GNOME(failsafe), but have problems with GNOME(default)

[jiangbei.wei]

I'm using a Ubuntu 10.10 on a Barton 2500 + MX440 legacy box, and I'm using Nvidia driver 96.xx.

If I login with GNOME(default session), the task bar(the bottom bar) and the system bar(the upper bar) do not show up. If I start applications like firefox from desktop shortcut, the application can work normally.

If I choose GNOME(failsafe), the whole desktop shows up as it should.

Where can I find a log to tell what is wrong? How can I possibly fix the problem?

[Frogs Hair]

Hello and Welcome

10.10 is no longer supported and its package repositories closed. I suggest you install a supported release for security reasons . I can tell you that the 96 driver may not be in the repository on newer versions. If you have old hardware consider Lubuntu . If you want play around with 10.10 to activate the old releases repository see the link, but keep in mind there will be no updates. This repository is intended for upgrading EOL versions of Ubuntu. . If there is another kernel available in Grub you could try booting into a different kernel.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades

[buzzingrobot]

Logs are in /var/log.

[jiangbei.wei]

Hello and Welcome

10.10 is no longer supported and its package repositories closed. I suggest you install a supported release for security reasons . I can tell you that the 96 driver may not be in the repository on newer versions. If you have old hardware consider Lubuntu . If you want play around with 10.10 to activate the old releases repository see the link, but keep in mind there will be no updates. This repository is intended for upgrading EOL versions of Ubuntu. . If there is another kernel available in Grub you could try booting into a different kernel.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades

Hi Frogs Hair,

For compatibility between my video card and X server, I have to stick with ubuntu 10.10 or earlier releases. And I have to use nvidia driver since nouveau driver is too slow on my old PC. I only want the PC to show a desktop and be able to display simple html pages.

Well, old lubuntu is good alternative to consider. I'll try to use it if I cannot fix my GNOME finally.

[buzzingrobot]

Hi Frogs Hair,

For compatibility between my video card and X server, I have to stick with ubuntu 10.10 or earlier releases. And I have to use nvidia driver since nouveau driver is too slow on my old PC. I only want the PC to show a desktop and be able to display simple html pages.

You might look at using CentOS, from the same era as 10.10 and which is a straight-forward rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The desktop is Gnome 2.28 so it's essentially the same as 10.10 minus the Ubuntu themes. The current release is at 6.5.

The requirement to use the Nvidia driver means you are dependent on Nvidia to maintain a driver for your card. That will apply to any distribution you choose. (Does Nvidia maintain an archive of outdated drivers?)

Also, this (http://http://elrepo.org/tiki/tiki-index.php) independent support repo for CentOS, I believe, still makes available an "nvidia-detect" package which, if executed, will detect your card and display the name of the driver it needs, which can then be acquired at the same repo.

[mörgæs]

Related but separate thread here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2191522

The MX 440 was a weak card even at the release date ten years ago. I would recommend to get some stronger hardware.