Strange booting problem

[n3phi1im]

Ok folks, I am new to both Kubuntu and Linux in general so I am not really sure if this problem relates to Kubuntu, Linux, the dual-boot combination with Win2k, the laptop hardware (IBM T21) or something I haven't even thought of yet.

Any way here is what happens. I have got Kubuntu set on on a laptop to dual boot with Windows2000. When I cold boot the laptop into Kubuntu, it seems to run through the startup sequence but fails to load the GUI - it just stops on a blank screen with just a dash at the top corner. I have removed the 'quiet' and 'spalsh' enties in the grub menu and tried again but this time it stops on a totally blank screen.

Now this is where it gets strange. If I boot Win2k first then do a soft-restart, Kubuntu loads ok. But there is more! Just before the Kubuntu GUI starts, a corrupted image flashes on screen - its the Win2k boot screen!!

I really don't know what is going on here but I have seen similar posts about the blank screen problem and the offered solution is always 'try booting with the switches 'noapic' and 'acpi=off'. i have tried both these (in all combinations) and they don't seem to make any difference.

I have tried searching but I only seem to find a lot of short threads that don't seem to have any resolutions to them. I am hoping someone on this forum might be able to explain what is going on.

Tanks.

[sproot]

Re: Strange booting problem

Seems to me like it might be a problem with corrupted video/shared memory, the fact the w2k splash screen is still there after a soft reboot points to this.

Do you know what kind of vid card you have?

I was reading this earlier and the troubleshooting steps might be some assistance if you have ATI.
There's probably something similar for nv also.

When it doesn't start, have you tried ctrl-alt-F1 to see if you can get a console login?
You can then run dmesg | more to see if there's anything obvious.

[n3phi1im]

Re: Strange booting problem

I am not entirely sure what the graphics are. Its a Thinkpad laptop so the graphics are 'onboard'.

[edit] I have just checked out the ThinkWiki - the graphics is S3 Savage graphics. Is that ATI?


I will try the console trick to see if that works.