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**dibl** · Apr 16, 2011, 02:47 PM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

The list of suspects would seem to be a short one:

- plasma-desktop
- kdm
- video driver

You can reinstall each of them, one at a time, and try to log in to your desktop. Since it is possible that KDM has been corrupted, I would advise doing each of these installations from a tty console with the X server shut down, then you can start it with

Code:

sudo service kdm start

and see if you can log in.

**Oceanwatcher** · Apr 16, 2011, 04:03 PM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

Sounds reasonable... If you have any quick tip on how to shut down the x server (has the X server started when you get to the log in of Kubuntu?) I would be grateful.

I will do some searching for how to re-install the nvidia driver from the command line as well as the other two. As I am not getting the desktop, it is in fact the only option :-)

**dibl** · Apr 16, 2011, 04:12 PM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

At the point when you are looking at the "greeter" -- the GUI screen with a place for you password -- X is not running has been started. Instead of putting your password in, you can mouse click on the little menu and choose "console login", and log in that way. Then enter

Code:

sudo service kdm stop

to make sure that KDM is not running.

Then you can proceed with your software installations.

**Oceanwatcher** · Apr 16, 2011, 09:30 PM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

Well - I have tried this, and no success :-(

Any other suggestions are welcome.

Is there a log somewhere that I can check to see what is going wrong?

**Oceanwatcher** · Apr 16, 2011, 09:52 PM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

Another question - I thought kdm was just handling the startup and then handed things over to something else? If so, it seems something goes wrong in that transition... Or am I wrong?

**Oceanwatcher** · Apr 17, 2011, 05:06 AM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

Could another possible solution be to install beta2 of Natty and hope it fixes the problem? I downloaded the alternative CD so I can upgrade from that if I have to...

**dibl** · Apr 17, 2011, 07:00 AM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

Originally posted by Oceanwatcher

Could another possible solution be to install beta2 of Natty

I would not call that a "solution" -- but, Natty Beta 2 is running fine here. Use the "daily build" ISO to get the latest version of packages.

KDM is the "K Display Manager", and it is the initiation of the X desktop. Another way to initiate X is to log in to a tty console and then to run

Code:

startx

You can try that, but I would suppose that whatever is wrong with your KDE session is still going to prevent it from running. The X error log is at /var/log/Xorg.0.log -- you should be able to review that and find the lines that show the failure. But it probably says "no display found", which isn't terribly helpful.

Another thing you could try, less drastic that installing a new OS, would be to start with a clean new KDE session. To do this:

1. Log in to the tty console, and issue

Code:

sudo service kdm stop

2. Make sure you are at your user's directory with

Code:

pwd

3. If so, then

Code:

mv .kde .kde_bak

4. Now you can

Code:

sudo service kdm start

and it should launch the greeter and let you log in to a default new KDE desktop. Depending on how important it is to reset "settings' to their previous configuration, you can open the file .kde_bak and find them there.

If this procedure does not launch KDE, then that would be evidence that your video driver is not installed.

**Oceanwatcher** · Apr 17, 2011, 07:06 AM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

Ok. The problem has been found. Now I need to figure out how to fix it a bit more permanently.

I uninstalled the nVidia driver as a test - could never hurt, right? After restarting. I got a lot of dialog boxes talking about needing to run in lower resolution, reconfiguring graphics etc. After a few rounds of this, the system came up!

Then I went on to re-install the nvidia-current and the problem is back.

I remember that there was an upgrade for nVidia a couple of days back, I am just surprised it did not create any immediate problems.

How can I find out what repository an upgrade is coming from? It could, of course, be that the nVidia driver I have now has a problem and it comes from one of the ppa's I have in my list. So I need to trace it...

The version that is loading is nvidia-current 270.41.03 and during reinstall it say 270.41.03-maverick~ppa1, so I am guessing it is from a ppa and not the main repository.

**Oceanwatcher** · Apr 17, 2011, 07:17 AM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

I am planning a full reinstall of the system to clean out a lot of problems that I got by accident, but I was hoping to wait until beginning of May, a week or two after Natty has been released to ensure I get as stable a system as possible...

**dibl** · Apr 17, 2011, 07:47 AM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

I must admit that I have not installed the packaged Nvidia driver on a Kubuntu system for long enough that I might not know the current detailed requirements to do that. But here are a couple of things to look at:

1. Answering your question,

Code:

sudo apt-cache policy nvidia*

will list the available driver versions, and their repositories.

2. That 270-41 version is very recent. I am presently running 270-30, which I believe is their latest released version. The very new versions for *buntu come from the x-swat repository, so probably you have that one enabled. If you were to disable it, then to (a) "apt-get update", and (b) reinstall nvidia-glx and nvidia-common, you might get back to a working video system. Do that from a tty console with X shut down, so you can start it and see if you get a desktop.

Hope this helps.

**eddieg780** · Apr 21, 2011, 11:17 AM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

I had this exact same problem with the Nvidia 270. driver. I had to go back to 260.19.06. I installed from console. It was the x-swat repository that the 270 driver came from so I disabled the repository.

**Oceanwatcher** · May 11, 2011, 07:39 AM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

I did it again...

And can say for sure it is not the x-swat repository.

I now have a fresh install of Kubuntu 11.04 and thought I would use the latest nVidia binary driver. Should work, right? NOOOOO!

Same problem. It boots, but the desktop does not appear even if the computer starts and play the boot-up melody...

Took me a while to find out how to get back to a working desktop, but this thread solved it.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1423210

Hope this can help others. I'll repeat the solution here in case the link do not work for anyone:

Open the terminal and type the following commands:

Code:

sudo update-alternatives --config gl_conf

(and select the alternative provided by mesa)

Code:

sudo ldconfig
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_old

and restart your computer.

**oshunluvr** · May 11, 2011, 08:39 AM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

The nvidia drivers also require dkms and the matching kernel headers to work.

In terminal mode, try

dkms status

If the output says "installed" next to your nvidia driver you're good. Anything else (like "built") is not good. Post back if this is the case.

**Oceanwatcher** · May 11, 2011, 08:55 AM

Re: Not able to get to desktop

Found another forum with a thread that describes the situation perfectly:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=160115

Also, someone pointed out a way to get the desktop working so you do not have to jump through hoops to get things uninstalled:

Disable desktop effects by pressing CTRL+ALT+F12

I did not try that part as I already have my desktop back, but it sounds logical enough... :-)

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