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**askrieger** · Mar 21, 2006, 03:53 PM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

I'm running on a slightly lower powered system than yours but of the same vintage (I have an Athlon64 and an evga 6600) and I'm running kubuntu with only minor difficulties. When your system hangs while starting x can you go to a pseudoterminal with ctl-alt-F4? The keystroke might be just alt-f4 before x starts. If you can get there, you can take a look at your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Try editing the "Device" stanza. If it says "nv" and you have the Nvidia drivers installed, try "nvidia". If it says "nvidia" and you DON'T have the nvidia drivers installed change it to "nv". In all other circumstances change it to "vesa". Then, still from the console, try "sudo shutdown -r now". With any luck, the system will come up and run.

If you need to get the Nvidia drivers, do it the Ubuntu way. Look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

**augestflex** · Mar 22, 2006, 11:31 AM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

Thank you for the information askrieger. Today I booted up the dapper drake flight 5 386 live CD. Like previously it went through the kubuntu loading screen, the only item that fails is the kernel log daemon.

Then X starts up and I got the light blue background (but no kde loading screen). The mouse still works.

I attempted ctrl-alt-f4 and alt-f4 as well as ctrl-alt-2 and alt-2 to try terminals, but I got nothing.

However, this did lead me to notice one issue. My keyboard is a Saitek Gamers Keyboard (USB) and I noticed that at the light blue screen where the mouse works, the num-lock, caps-lock, and scroll-lock keys on the keyboard don't work. Indicating that maybe linux isn't recognizing the keyboard. Also meaning that I have no way to go to a terminal.

The keyboard I have worked with ubuntu 5.04 and 5.10 and it works with SimplyMepis 3.4-3 so I'm not sure why it isn't working now. I'm also not sure if that would cause KDE to hang and not start up, I don't know.

**askrieger** · Mar 22, 2006, 12:00 PM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

Do you have one of those little USB to PS/2 thingies? See if that gets your machine up. When I buy a new computer, I always make it a point to accept their $10 throw in keyboard for exactly this type of situation. See if there are any available at your local electronics store.

**augestflex** · Mar 22, 2006, 12:06 PM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

I have a mouse usb->ps/2 adaptor. Not sure that I have a keyboard one. I've never actually tried to see if it works for a keyboard as well. I am assuming since it is really just usb->ps/2 it might be the same. I just recall that it has a picture of a mouse on it. Unfortunately I am at work all day so I won't be home until 6pm pst today to try it out.

**Calilasseia** · Mar 22, 2006, 12:09 PM

Hmm ... similar problem!

This thread caught my eye as i was waiting for replies to my own. It seems that the problem in this thread is related to mine - see here:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=4177.0

In my case, the screen is completely garbled (pixellated junk all over the place) when X starts up (which has only recently happened). The mouse pointer works fine, but my keyboard is COMPLETELY locked out, CAPS LOCK etc., fail to work, AND my keyboard is a PS/2. It would be interesting to find out if augestflex suffers the same keyboard lockout with a PS/2 - in which case I can possibly breathe a sigh of relief that it isn't my graphics card conking out piecemeal, and breathe a sigh of relief that my problem isn't unique and therefore what helps one of us here might help the other!

**askrieger** · Mar 22, 2006, 12:37 PM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

Try to login to rescue mode, which is the second option on the boot menu. The catch here is that you need at least the down arrow key and the return key to do that. I've never tried it, but see if you can start rescue mode with a mouse click. If you do manage to get a rescue boot, it will ask you for a root password. You don't have one, so just hit return, if you can. You will then start in rescue mode, with nothing but a black and white frame buffer that runs with just about any graphics card.

**augestflex** · Mar 22, 2006, 07:37 PM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

askrieger: I am about to head home and I will try the rescue option. I do want to point out that my keyboard WORKS during the bootup, it isn't until after X starts and the blue screen is the only thing seen that the keyboard does not work. The same keyboard works in SimplyMepis 3.4-3 and it worked (on my old system) on ubuntu 5.04 and 5.10.

I will try to distinguish when exactly during the booting that the keyboard stops responding.

Calilasseia: I read through the posts on your topic, did you try SimplyMepis (just out of curiousity), so that you could verify that your card is working. Your card might be just fine. My card is brand new and I can do intensive stuff with it in windows, and it works in mepis, however I am getting just a non-responsive blue screen in kubuntu after all the kubuntu loading and X starts, but before KDE shows up and loads items. My mouse is responsive, but the keyboard is not. The system appears otherwise frozen.

**augestflex** · Mar 23, 2006, 01:39 AM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

Ok, the good news is that I have done a little troubleshooting and have discovered that I can use the keyboard right up until the kubuntu loading/splashscreen disappears (if I am watching it like normal). As soon as X starts up the keyboard no longer responds (ie: I can't hit ctrl-alt-f4, or even use num lock/scroll lock/ caps lock).

The better news is I have found that during the kbuntu loading/splashscreen that if I hit ctrl-alt-1 or alt-1 to change to the first terminal, I can watch the actual boot up commands/initialization. In fact, I switched to another terminal and started top and watched everything load. The interesting point here is that X started and I still had access to the keyboard and could move around in the terminal. The bad news is that as soon as I hit alt-f8 (I believe it was on f8) where X was running, I lost the keyboard. The keyboard no longer responded to ctrl-alf-f4 or caps lock/scroll lock/num lock.

Also note that while sitting in the terminal and watching things be initialized (but not watching the kubuntu loading/splashscreen) I saw kmix start up on top and even heard the kubuntu audio file. I believe this means that kde started all the way up. Unfortunately when I went to the terminal with X, the keyboard became dead and the screen was the nice light blue screen with some display corruptoin. Also note that the mouse functioned fine, even thought he keyboard was no longer responsive.

**Calilasseia** · Mar 23, 2006, 04:34 AM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

Ah, that scenario differs from me.

In my case, even if I DO switch beforehand to one of the other terminals (and thus far, only the CTRL-ALT-F1 terminal is 'live' during boot - the others have yet to come into existence), then Kubuntu dumps me into the GUI whether I want it to or not. The moment that happens, bang - dead keyboard, garbled desktop but a working mouse pointer. Additionally, if i boot into it after I've run Windows, the garbage on screen is a scrambled version of my Windows desktop.

I did a reinstall last night and the SAME PHENOMENON occurred. Which puzzles me and annoys me. Puzzles me because the installation was perfectly sane and working for several months before this happened, and now appears to be IMPOSSIBLE to return to its previous state, and annoys me because I spent a lot of time tweaking the installation so that it suited me, and now I've lost all that and have to start all over again - always assuming that I will ever be able to resurrect a sane installation that doesn't go BOOM ...

**augestflex** · Mar 27, 2006, 11:41 AM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

Sorry for the belated response. I was gone over the weekend for a job interview. Tomorrow I will do some more experimentation and see what I can find out. I am still uncertain as to why it doesn't boot up automatically. Since it is a live CD I do not have any special drivers installed. Nor have I made any modifications.

Are there some specific error logs that I could take a look at that might point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Flex

**askrieger** · Mar 27, 2006, 02:58 PM

Re: hang with kde blue screen on new hardware

augustflex: Your problem is clearly related to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file not knowing how to deal with your keyboard. I too have a fancy keyboard, although not a gamer's board. Can you change the way your keyboard responds by changing little switches under a removable panel? If so, change them so that the keyboard looks like what the Xorg.conf file expects to find.

On my machine: the stanza in xorg.conf says:

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"kbd"
	Option		"CoreKeyboard"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc104"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

So, I have my keyboard set to emulate a 104 key us keyboard. The other 18 keys still do what I programmedthem to do.

Calilasseia: Did you follow Nirvana's advice in your thread?

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