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**doctordruidphd** · Apr 30, 2010, 07:52 PM

Re: Garbled desktop

What is your video hardware?

One thing you might try is when you get to the login stage in the blind, hit CTRL-ALT-F1, and see if it takes you to a text console. If so, then login, do a sudo service kdm stop followed by sudo service kdm start , and see if that brings up your desktop.

Another idea that comes to mind is that it may be trying to run both gdm and kdm for some reason, which would surely mess up the screen. There is an old issue with that happening to upgraded systems, but I thought that was fixed. Maybe not...

**SteveTaylor** · Apr 30, 2010, 08:19 PM

Re: Garbled desktop

My hardware is a Dell Inspiron 1521 laptop. The video is whatever is standard for this computer. I am not sure what driver is being loaded. I rebooted and when I got to the login, I pressed ctl-alt-F1 and the screen immediately changed to very finer grained random color pattern. I typed in my user name, password and then the kdm stop and start commands all in the blind and it immediately came up with the normal KDE login screen. I was then able to login and everything is okay. It's either in some weird video mode or there is some initialization file that has something wrong in it, which is probably what is causing the weird video mode. How can I tell if it is trying to start both KDM and GDM?

**Snowhog** · Apr 30, 2010, 08:23 PM

Re: Garbled desktop

Now that you've gotten logged in to a visible and working Desktop, perform an normal shutdown. Then, restart your PC and see if the problem remains. If it does, you know what to do to get in to the Desktop, and the problem will need to be resolved. If however, you get logged in correctly, well ....

**SteveTaylor** · Apr 30, 2010, 10:49 PM

Re: Garbled desktop

The problem remains each time I restart the computer.

**Snowhog** · Apr 30, 2010, 11:02 PM

Re: Garbled desktop

What video card do you have - manufacture and model?

To be clear, do you experience the garbled screen from the very outset - when the Grub boot menu appears?

**doctordruidphd** · May 01, 2010, 08:17 AM

Re: Garbled desktop

Please post your /boot/grub/grub.cfg

**SteveTaylor** · May 01, 2010, 09:20 AM

Re: Garbled desktop

There is no grub.cfg file in /boot/grub/ or anywhere else that I can find.

Yes, the video is good through grub booting and for the first Kubuntu splash screen where the little white section of the progress bar is going back and forth. When it get to the point where it would turn into a normal progress bar, I get a single broken line a white dots across the screen below the Kubuntu and above where the progress bar would be. Then when it finishes the loading, the screen goes black except for a large underline cursor in the upper left corner. Then after a short time, I get a screen completely full or various colored character blocks which continues to change as the boot process continues. Finally it stops changing and that's where it is waiting for me to login.

I believe the video is built-in to the motherboard. I looked up my service tag number on Dell's support site and it didn't list a separate video card. I can run aida from the system rescue disk to see what video chip it detects if that would be helpful.

**Snowhog** · May 01, 2010, 10:10 AM

Re: Garbled desktop

No grub.cnf! That isn't possible, not with Grub 2. Or, was this an upgrade from Karmic that was using Grub Legacy? Is it even possible to run Lucid with Grub Legacy?

But, will go with your statement. Do you have a menu.lst in /boot/grub/ we can look at?

**SteveTaylor** · May 01, 2010, 10:52 AM

Re: Garbled desktop

Yes, this is an upgrade and it probably is running grub legacy.

Here is my menu.lst:
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 5

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=87cd968d-3172-4ccc-ae93-c3dad4d4861f ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=87cd968d-3172-4ccc-ae93-c3dad4d4861f

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## specify if running in Xen domU or have grub detect automatically
## update-grub will ignore non-xen kernels when running in domU and vice versa
## e.g. indomU=detect
## indomU=true
## indomU=false
# indomU=detect

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.31-14-generic
uuid 87cd968d-3172-4ccc-ae93-c3dad4d4861f
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=87cd968d-3172-4ccc-ae93-c3dad4d4861f ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.31-14-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 87cd968d-3172-4ccc-ae93-c3dad4d4861f
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=87cd968d-3172-4ccc-ae93-c3dad4d4861f ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid 87cd968d-3172-4ccc-ae93-c3dad4d4861f
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Dell Utility Partition
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda3.
title Xandros 4.1 (on /dev/sda3)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-dcc-smp root=0x0803 rw acpi=on
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-dcc-smp.gz
savedefault
boot

**SteveTaylor** · May 01, 2010, 10:57 AM

Re: Garbled desktop

Interesting, I just pressed ctl-alt-F1 to try something, and it gave my the same full screen of colored bits. I couldn't seem to do anything. Ctl-alt-F7 got me back into KDE. Maybe that information helps.

**Snowhog** · May 01, 2010, 11:02 AM

Re: Garbled desktop

Let's attempt to isolate the problem, which I believe is your vidio card/GPU.

Reboot. From the Grub menu, press the down arrow and then the up arrow once each. This stops the menu count-down timer.

Then edit the boot menu entry to add VGA as the boot time option. See Change Boot Options Temporarily For An Existing Installation for the steps. This is 'temporary' so no harm can come of it. If however, this results in a clean boot and login to your desktop, we have confirmed that it's a vidio card/GPU configuration/driver issue. That can be addressed.

**SteveTaylor** · May 01, 2010, 11:41 AM

Re: Garbled desktop

I edited the boot entry and added vga=771 to the boot line and it made no difference. When I got to the point of pressing Ctl-Alt-F1, I did the login, stop kde, and start of kde, nothing happened so I figured I must have typed something wrong. Just for the heck of it, I pressed Ctl-Alt-F7 and I was immediately brought back to a correct KDE login screen at which point I could login normally. Then, as an experiment, I rebooted and didn't edit the grub boot entry. When I got to the login, and the screen was still garbled, I pressed Ctl-Alt-F1 and then without even trying to login, I pressed Ctl-Alt-F7 and again I was at a completely normal KDE login screen. At this point I have not tried any other vga resolution codes as the first try made no change at all.
What's next?

**Snowhog** · May 01, 2010, 11:49 AM

Re: Garbled desktop

We can try and isolate this to a corrupted user configuration file. From the console login (Ctrl+Alt+F1), login. then rename your users hidden .kde directory, say, to .kde_GARBLEDDESKTOP and then, from the console, perform a normal shutdown/reboot - sudo shutdown -r now

IF the problem isn't solved, then it isn't a user configuration file problem. The system will have built a new .kde folder in your users /home directory, but that can be renamed and the original renamed back to .kde. You will have lost nothing, but we will have eliminated one more item from the list of possibilities.

**SteveTaylor** · May 01, 2010, 01:10 PM

Re: Garbled desktop

That was fun. I renamed the .kde directory and rebooted. I got the same colorful garbage. I did my normal work around to get to the kde login. When i tried to login, I got a small box that said "kstartupconfig4 does not exist. Check your installation." When I clicked on the Okay, I was brought right back to the login screen.
I couldn't login and I couldn't get to a visible console to rename the .kde directory back. So I booted my computer with a Puppy Linux CD, found the new .kde directory that the system had created, deleted it, and renamed the old one back to .kde. Now I am back to semi-normal with no change in the problem.
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[Solved, with work around] Garbled desktop

[Solved, with work around] Garbled desktop

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