Can't boot into Kubuntu

[Guest]

Hi guys, I'll try to keep in short.

I originally had a dual boot of xubuntu and Windows 7 except I wanted to move to kubuntu so I put it on a usb key and wanted to just install it over the xubuntu partition except it seemed a little more complicated than just "install over this partition" (as has been my previous experience before) so I asked on the IRC and the guy there suggested i look over at psychocats to see his guide. So I installed KDE-desktop from within xubuntu and log in and everything is working seamlessly.

Though, the problems start when I shut down and try to load up kubuntu again. At first it stopped at the splash screen with a lightDM fail and I inquired on IRC and a person told me to uninstall lightdm and install kdm from the tty(? I think it was - the command prompt area you get to by pressing alt f1) so I did that and restarted my PC.

Next the same thing happened. It stopped on the splash screen, except this time it failed on "load fallback graphic devices" (if it helps at all I have integrated intel graphics 3000) and now I have no idea what to do next.

Anybody have any ideas what I should do short of complete re-install?

[The Liquidator]

Hi and welcome to the forum

I wonder whether during the removal of lightDM there has been a removal of an important xorg component. It may also be that removing lightdm and installing KDM is not the right way to go about this.

Start in recovery mode, by pressing the shift key immediately after the Bios post. Ensure you have an ethernet cable connected. Select command prompt -it might be described as root shell. Then type

sudo apt-get install xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-video-intel

If you have any of these key components missing they will be selected and installed.

Then to ensure you have a proper installation of the KDE system it may help to type

sudo apt-get intstall kubuntu-desktop

If there are any key KDE components missing they ought to be installed as well.

Hope this helps - good luck

[Guest]

Hmm thanks for the advice Liquidator but I don't actually own an ethernet cable so I can't do this. Nevertheless, I could just reinstall Kubuntu over my old installation however I'm not sure how to do this because the partition part of the installation is a bit more confusing than it in on the Xubuntu/Ubuntu equivalents in that it presents me with a quite daunting partitioning toolish screen with info that I can't interpret at all - which one is my linux partition? why is it allowing me to resize a partition? is it wanting me to create a new partition? these kind of things, you know?

Any ideas?

[The Liquidator]

What the installer seems to presume is that you only have 1 operating system already installed. You can either install them side by side (in which case it will resize for you) or replace the incumbent with kubuntu.

If you need to overwrite a 2nd system then you need to do it manually (I think this is now known as "something else"). Sounds scary but it's not in reality. When you select it you will see the partitions. The NTFS one will be windows and the xubuntu installation will be ext3 or ext4. I am assuming you don't have a separate /home partition so we won't discuss this here in detail but if you have you will have 2 extxx partitions.You can select each one and give them attributes - assuming there is just one select it and set it to ext4, give it the identifier / (the root partition) and select "format". You are then good to go forward. In the ideal world you will have a swap partition and a separate home partition and can configure them at the same time in the same manner. If not I would suggest we leave it for a future date as it involves manually creating new partitions.

WARNING - DO NOT TOUCH THE NTFS PARTITION - this may delete Windows.

Hope this helps