Please help... Kubuntu won't boot.

[Guest]

I have a brand new Compaq f500 that I bought just to install Linux on, and I am having a lot of problems so far. First I tried to install from the live CD, but it froze during installation, so I made an alternate install cd and installed from there.

The installation seemed to go fine (I wiped all the partitions out) but when I booted it up for the first time, it made it to the splash screen, the blue bar filled all the way up, and then some text flashed on the screen for just a fraction of a second before the screen went blank. Nothing happened after that, even if I tried some different keystrokes or left the machine alone for up to 10 minutes.

I reinstalled Kubuntu, wiping the partitions again, but without using LVA this time. Again, the installation seemed to go fine, but at first boot it did the exact same thing in the same spot.

Help?

[MoonRise]

Re: Please help... Kubuntu won't boot.

Once you get the Blank Screen, try CTRL-ALT-"-" (that's the minus key on the Number Pad. It will change the resolution that X is currently using and go to the next in the list (it rolls through the list). Hopefully that will get you a viewable screen where you can log in and tweak the settings in System Settings.

[sugarland2k]

Re: Please help... Kubuntu won't boot.

At worst case, you can reconfigure your xserver from a command line with
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Answer all questions as best you can, most defaults should be ok.

Kubuntu should install on most modern PCs with few problems. I use ReiserFS but no LVA even with my two 160gB hard drives. One gig of memory or more helps, I use 2 GB and it runs great.

Good luck. Friends don't let friends run Vista!

[dibl]

Re: Please help... Kubuntu won't boot.

At worst case, you can reconfigure your xserver from a command line with
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Answer all questions as best you can, most defaults should be ok.

That's a good approach, except on the first screen where it asks if you want to auto-detect the graphics chip, you need to say "no" (this is how you got in trouble in the first place!), and on the second screen choose "VESA".

At the end of the script, when it dumps you back to the text prompt, enter

startx

and you should get a tolerable GUI. Then you can start looking for the correct driver for whatever graphics system you have. :P