Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

[zuz]

Hey guys, im new to the community and fairly new to Linux, I cant say i am an expert in windows but i know my way around pretty well. Anyway, Kubuntu will not start, Ive had it for 3-4 weeks Version 9.04, not a problem at all, networked files, used the net fine (wireless and cable) played some movies on it last night.

The biggest things i did on that machine in the past 24 hours was to upload codecs for IDJC which i restarted multiple times after i installed that without error, turn on firefox network pipelining and I restarted a few times after that and it was normal, and I tried to run BackTrack through a USB card (which gave me errors about not finding the location of BT3, the card was my phone) I dont know if that messed it up or not, this morning it was all working, the last thing i did was try BT3 again and then when I rebooted, it was like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ031dAHZf0



I think it has something to do with trying to load backtrack, BUT I would get a small color distortion once in a while during boot, but once the desktop appeared, it would go away. One thing i did and im not sure if it has something to do but its possible is that since I have an ati integrated graphics card i thought that downloading ati program through adept was going to make it better but seems like it just told me it wasnt compatible so i removed it with adept from the pc but im sure i restarted it after.

Another thing too that you might consider is that I had the laptop on downloading backtrack 4 and some torrents overnight so the laptop screen was almost fully covered for the first time using Kubuntu.

Kubuntu boots on the dvd ok... (im going to do more tests with the live cd on.)

I have a dell inspiron 1501 service tag: 6pcb5d1 (I added 1 GB ddr2 ram stick to it and it recognized it fine, all test on ram went fine) link for the pc http://support.dell.com/support/down...&catid=&impid= in case anyone has a question about the specs... I didnt update any firmware because I dont have windows and Ive been trying to find a way to do this in DOS but i cant seem to get them right and I wont mess too much with it where I dont know where im going.


Thanks in advance
Zuz

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

BT3 is not an application -- it is an operating system, special purpose as it may be. It sounds like maybe you tried to install or run BT3 on top of Kubuntu -- that won't work. You should be able to boot BT3 on a USB stick and run the computer with it, and not touch the hard drive -- I have done that before.

I dunno about your codecs -- I don't see how that could affect video. Only the video driver should affect video -- so I'd say go back to the basics of video -- what is your graphics chip, what driver are you running, etc. etc.

[zuz]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

My main problem is that I dont have access to Kubuntu OS anymore, I just get that screen, only with the live cd and it wasnt just a codec pack, it had video, flash, java, all the essentials, i dont think that broke it.

I understand that Bt3 is an OS but this problem started pretty much after i tried to run BT3 on the live USB

[zuz]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

I dunno about your codecs -- I don't see how that could affect video. Only the video driver should affect video -- so I'd say go back to the basics of video -- what is your graphics chip, what driver are you running, etc. etc.

This is what the laptop came with, add another 1 GB of DDR2 ram

Service Tag: 6PCB5D1 Change Service Tag
System Type: Inspiron 1501
Ship Date: 7/1/2007
Dell IBU: Americas


Quantity Parts # Part Description

1 FP368 Processor, System Management Solution3500, 1800, 512K, 1C
1 DF771 CORD..., Power, 125, 1M, C7, 2P Dual, United States
1 NC929 Keyboard, 87, United States ENG, SINGLE POINTING..., D Plus Series
1 HN662 Assembly, Adapter, Alternating Current, 65W, Cost Reduced, Hipro2P
1 RY347 Hard Drive, 60GB, Serial Ata 9.5, 5.4K, T080
1 Y5522 Dual In-line Memory Module 512MB, 533, 64X64, 8K, 200
1 DF056 Liquid Crystal Display 15.4WXGA, Video Elec. Stds. Assoc., GLARE WIDE VIEWING ANGLE..., SAMSUNG...
1 PM853 Assembly, Cable, Coaxial, Liquid Crystal Display, 15.4, Extended Graphics Array, KA
1 UW738 Bezel, Assembly, Plastic, Liquid Crystal Display, 15.4, 1501
1 JW351 Kit, Documentation On Floppy Disk, Powerdvd, 7.0, Digital Video Disk Drive
1 PN182 KIT..., Software, Works, 8.5 English
1 TT848 Kit, Software, Overpack, VHB32 A01, Digital Video Disk Drive England
1 PY961 Battery, Primary, 29WHR, 4C Lithium, Dynapack InternationalTechnology Corp
1 MK723 Assembly, COMPACT DISK READ WRITE/DIGITAL VIDEO DISK DRIVE COMBO..., 24X TSST, SULLIVAN/TOBAGO...
1 PC559 Card, Wireless, Minicard, DW1390 Broadcom Corporation
1 UW744 ASSEMBLY..., BASE (ASSEMBLY OR GROUP)..., NOTEBOOK..., UNIFIED MEMORY ARCHITECTURE..., 1501
6 H5904 Bumper, Liquid Crystal Display Rubber, ARCTIC SILVER..., 6000
1 UW737 Assembly, Cover, Back, Liquid Crystal Display, 15.4, Notebook 1501
0 01322 INFORMATION..., FLYER, DELL HOME SYSTEMS..., INSPIRON
1 TM686 PLACEMAT..., GETTING STARTED..., 1501, DAO/EMEA
1 YK181 Guide, Product, Information Client, DAO/BCC
4 2864D Screw, M3X3, K SCREW HEAD..., MICROSOFT..., BLACK OXIDE...
1 UW523 Heatsink, CPU/MCH, Notebook 1501/131L
1 UW533 Assembly, Cover, Hinge, Plastic 1501
2 XH819 Cover, Screw, Mylar, Inspiron 6400

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

When you try to boot Kubuntu, can you hit the "Esc" key? This should take you to the boot menu, and there you can choose "Recovery Console". Boot Recovery Console, and choose "Fix X" to correct the video problem.

[zuz]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

did that, didnt work, I also tried every version, and recovery mode there after that, one of the versions the bottom half of the background showed but no buttons, menus, icons appeared.

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

I'm still not clear on whether you have a booting problem or a video problem. When it gets to the messed up/locked up display, can you press Ctrl-Alt-F1 and get a tty console login? If so, log in there.

Do you know which driver you were using for your ATI chip? Was it fglrx or the ATI driver? I have nVidia and IBM graphics, so I'm not expert on the ATI graphics -- maybe someone else can help, if we can get you booted and logged in.

If you can log in to the console, you could try a

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

-- I haven't tried that with the new X.org version, so I dunno if it still will let you restore a VESA display, or not.

[zuz]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

I will try this when I get home from work later, I hope that helps me, if anyone else has some ideas please post them.

I was told in IRC that was ctrl+alt +F2 and that didnt do anything, i didnt try it with F1.

but I think i can get there with the live CD as well.


Question is, am I supposed to see my real files (music, documents, pictures) through the live cd using dolphin? if so can someone tell me the path? because the home/music... folders are empty on the live cd but im assuming that its making another path somewhere.


Thanks again for the help.

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

Ctrl-Alt-F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, and F6 should all work the same. If that's not working, then perhaps the system isn't even booting.

To rescue your data, boot the Live CD. I'll assume your data are in your user home directory, in the first partition of a single hard drive system, using an ext3 filesystem. You have to mount the partition to copy the data off -- let's assume you have a USB stick that pops up when you plug it in, while running the Live CD. So, open the Konsole and issue

sudo mkdir /media/hdd

to make a mount point, then

sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /media/hdd

to mount the Kubuntu partition.

Now, you should be able to (a) stick in your USB memory stick, and (b) open Dolphin and browse to the /home/zuz folder on the hard drive. Copy the data files to the USB stick, which should also show up in Dolphin.*

It sounds like your adventures with BT3 somehow borked your Kubuntu system -- and you're therefore doomed to reinstall it. Good luck!

*I assume you prefer to operate in the GUI -- there is, of course, a copy command "cp" in the Linux shell, which will also do a perfect job of copying your data, with the right syntax.

[zuz]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

Ctrl-Alt-F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, and F6 should all work the same. If that's not working, then perhaps the system isn't even booting.

To rescue your data, boot the Live CD. I'll assume your data are in your user home directory, in the first partition of a single hard drive system, using an ext3 filesystem. You have to mount the partition to copy the data off -- let's assume you have a USB stick that pops up when you plug it in, while running the Live CD. So, open the Konsole and issue

sudo mkdir /media/hdd

to make a mount point, then

sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /media/hdd

to mount the Kubuntu partition.

Now, you should be able to (a) stick in your USB memory stick, and (b) open Dolphin and browse to the /home/zuz folder on the hard drive. Copy the data files to the USB stick, which should also show up in Dolphin.*

It sounds like your adventures with BT3 somehow borked your Kubuntu system -- and you're therefore doomed to reinstall it. Good luck!

*I assume you prefer to operate in the GUI -- there is, of course, a copy command "cp" in the Linux shell, which will also do a perfect job of copying your data, with the right syntax.

Thank you so much, I hope i can do all that. and I prefer to operate in the Konsole, its more fun and It helps me become less dependable on the OS, besides thats the whole fun in Linux.


Backing up my data is very important, lets hope it works because I really want some of the work i saved there.

I still want to save the os, is there a way to do something equivalent to the REPAIR INSTALL from windows, where you put the installation cd on and just install it on top and update it again?

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

is there a way to do something equivalent to the REPAIR INSTALL from windows

No.

where you put the installation cd on and just install it on top and update it again?

Yes (it's not an "update", it's just an "install-over", that doesn't erase anything, only overwrites).

However, because we don't know what else is in your Kubuntu system that wasn't deliberately installed there, I'm going to recommend the conservative (but effective) approach of reformatting the partition and doing a clean new installation. Sorry. I would rather do that than risk spending an hour installing and configuring, only to find out that whatever is borking the boot process is still causing problems.

[zuz]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

is there a way to do something equivalent to the REPAIR INSTALL from windows

No.

where you put the installation cd on and just install it on top and update it again?

Yes (it's not an "update", it's just an "install-over", that doesn't erase anything, only overwrites).

However, because we don't know what else is in your Kubuntu system that wasn't deliberately installed there, I'm going to recommend the conservative (but effective) approach of reformatting the partition and doing a clean new installation. Sorry. I would rather do that than risk spending an hour installing and configuring, only to find out that whatever is borking the boot process is still causing problems.

thanks for the input, ill reformat for the 3rd time as soon as I get the files backed up (hope i can do that), the first time I reformatted because i wanted to change as much settings i could to see what each thing did...

One thing I noticed is that the SD card that I was using to attempt to book BT3 wont read anywhere anymore...

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

By the way, speaking of borked partitions and media, there is an outside chance that your partition table (on the MBR of the hard drive) could have been corrupted, I suppose. I would advise you to re-format that partition to ext3 or ext4, and do the basic installation, and then test it for booting before you invest any further time in it. If it turns out that it has some further problem, start a new thread with that, and prepare to learn all about "dd".

[zuz]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

none of the suggestions worked, so I reformatted all, made a couple of extra partitions(1 for home and 1 for me to learn how to dual boot kubuntu and another linux OS which can be BT3 or BT4)

What scares me is that when i boot it still shows a distortion of image really quick right before it gets to the desktop. Is that normal? if you need a video let me know and ill show you what i mean.


Anyway, thanks for the help and ill be trolling around alot

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu wont boot (video included)

when i boot it still shows a distortion of image really quick right before it gets to the desktop. Is that normal?

Yes, that is not unusual -- it has to do with the memory onboard your graphics system. Sounds like your booting problem is fixed.