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**roshichris** · Dec 06, 2009, 06:07 AM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

First up, don't give up on linux/gnu just because of bad experiences with one distro. I find puppy linux and PCLinuxOS to be very reliable, if that's what's most important to you. PCLOS uses KDE (the older, more reliable version than Kubuntu 9.10 uses though) so i'd give that a go if I were you. I have it installed on a separate partition, because when all else fails, PCLOS doesn't.

To start your desktop try /etc/init.d/kdm start

**MAOexWimdows** · Dec 06, 2009, 10:38 AM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

Thank. roshichris, for your reply.

I ran "/etc/init.d/kdm start" and got the message:

" Rather than invoking init scripts through / etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility. e.g. service kdm start

Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the start(8) utility, e.g. start kdm "

I had already done that but I ran it again anyway, i.e. "sudo start kdm" and got the same message as before:

" start: job is already running: kdm "

**blobfish** · Dec 06, 2009, 09:53 PM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

are you using the nvidia proprietary driver? Did you by chance just do the kernel updates? Maybe there is a conflict between driver and kernel? Wouldn't be the first time! back at the command prompt maybe try sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nv. that is what I would try, but I am no expert.

**MAOexWimdows** · Dec 07, 2009, 03:48 PM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

I am using the proprietary nVidia driver. Unlike with 9.04 it was not easy to get it to install and I had to do a bit of searching before I found some instructions to get past the fact that apparently the hardware update doesn't work in 9.10.

I tried tanderson's suggestion but no luck. But I did notice that in the Grub loader screen I have 3 kernels listed instead of the 2 that were there the other day. Could it have added another without me knowing?

Looks like I will have to install Kubuntu again, the 5th time since I first tried it for a replavement for Windows less than 2 months ago. And I fear this will be the last chance.

**MAOexWimdows** · Dec 07, 2009, 04:27 PM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

The 3 kernels I have are:

Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-16-generic
Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-15-generic
Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic

With 16 and 14 I con log in to the CLI but cannot get to the desktop.
With 15 I an back to the 1st problem of getting the graphical login screen but it not accepting my password.

Help...?

**bryce203** · Dec 07, 2009, 05:58 PM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

you just need to reinstall the NVidia driver again this has happend to me 2 times

**MAOexWimdows** · Dec 10, 2009, 03:05 PM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

Thanks, bryce203. I reinstalled the nVidia driver and now I have at least go back to my original problem... I get to a graphical login box (even though I never used to get one at all) but when I put my password in it disappears for a few second and then comes back and I get no further. It knows the password is correct though, because when I deliberately put in a wrong one it all it does is change the text colour and nothing else happens.
Well if no-one can offer any more advice I'm off to reinstall Kubuntu for it's last chance. If it breaks again it's back to Windows for me I'm afraid, with the sad conclusion that Linux is still years away from being any serious threat to MS for those off us with no programming knowledge.

Bye folks

**GreyGeek** · Dec 10, 2009, 03:32 PM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

Originally posted by MAOexWimdows

....
If it breaks again it's back to Windows for me I'm afraid, with the sad conclusion that Linux is still years away from being any serious threat to MS for those off us with no programming knowledge.

Bye folks.

But you'll hang in there when you have problems with Windows, eh? Why is that?

Your NVIDIA configuration has been corrupted and the xserver doesn't start so the automatic login screen has nowhere to go but back to the prompt.

First, disable automatic login. Boot a LiveCD and mount your Kubuntu partition on your HD. Edit /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc with kwrite.

Beginning around line 553 (kwrite as "line numbers" under the view menu option) you'll see

# Enable automatic login. USE WITH EXTREME CARE!
# Default is false
#AutoLoginEnable=true
# If true, auto-login after logout. If false, auto-login is performed only
# when a display session starts up.
# Default is false
#AutoLoginAgain=true
# The delay in seconds before automatic login kicks in.
# Default is 0
#AutoLoginDelay=10
# The user to log in automatically. NEVER specify root!
# Default is ""
#AutoLoginUser=fred
# The password for the user to log in automatically. This is NOT required
# unless the user is logged into a NIS or Kerberos domain. If you use this
# option, you should "chmod 600 kdmrc" for obvious reasons.
# Default is ""
#AutoLoginPass=secret!
# Immediately lock the automatically started session. This works only with
# KDE sessions.
# Default is false
#AutoLoginLocked=true
# See above

My kdmrc has autologin features commented out ("#"), but yours won't. The lines uncommented are the ones changed in your GUI autologin settings dialog. Change the appropriate lines and save. Then reboot from your HD.
That will bring you to the login screen. Try to log in to your desktop. I doubt that you will be able to but it's worth a try. If you can't get a desktop then choose the console option from the login screen. Running the console in your home account you will be able to reinstall the NVIDIA driver using:

sudo apt-get install whateveryournvidiadriverisnamed.

or repeating what ever process you used when you originally installed it.

**MAOexWimdows** · Dec 12, 2009, 05:48 AM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

Thanks for your attempts to help me, I do appreciate it, but...

Firstly, "Change the appropriate lines and save." ( wanted to put that in a blue box like you did but after 5 minutes clicking "Insert Quote" I couldn't work out how to do it.)
I wasn't entirely sure which were the appropriate lines and what I should change them to. In the end I decided to first try just adding the hash sign (which I eventually found under the 'pound' sign key) in front of the 2 lines that didn't have it, 555 and 565. But I then got the error

The document could not be saved, as it was not possible to write to /media/disk/etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc
Check that you have write access to this file or that enough disk space is available

Right clicking on the file in Dolphin and selecting Properties Permissions tells me that "only the owner can change permissions". But clicking Advanced Permissions appears to show that the user has read and write access permission. Anyway I got no further with that.

Secondly, to answer your question;
Windows may be exceedingly annoying, and when using it, which I do at work a lot, I may be often heard shouting "Why would anyone write software that does that..?" (or words to that effect), and it is true that there is no help like this for Windows, and a reload is the first resort, not the last should anything go badly wrong. But at least Windows ALWAYS turns on. In all of my 16 years using it I have never been faced with the situation that I could not even turn it on. I have no programming training and like I suspect the vast majority of people who use a PC every day am not interesting in tinkering with it but just want it to do what it is supposed to. (I know some guys like to spend time with their heads stuck under the bonnet, but I just want my car to take me to where I want to go.) I can't be spending 1 week a month trawling though the internet begging for help just to make my PC turn on. So basically "But you'll hang in there when you have problems with Windows, eh? Why is that?" ... I can't answer that because I have never experienced problems of this magnitude with Windows. You will probably think that this is completely wrong, but I seems to me that simply you need a far greater knowledge of how computers and software work in order to use Linux that you do to use Windows.

Sorry...

**GreyGeek** · Dec 12, 2009, 07:58 AM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

Originally posted by MAOexWimdows

...
Firstly, "Change the appropriate lines and save." ( wanted to put that in a blue box like you did but after 5 minutes clicking "Insert Quote" I couldn't work out how to do it.)

IF you had kdmrc open using nano then your are in a text editor. How do you normally "insert quotes" in a text editor? You press and hold the shift key and then press the key with the '"' symbol on it.

I wasn't entirely sure which were the appropriate lines and what I should change them to. In the end I decided to first try just adding the hash sign (which I eventually found under the 'pound' sign key) in front of the 2 lines that didn't have it, 555 and 565. But I then got the error

The automatic login was getting in the way of solving your video driver problem. The lines that I pointed out to you contain settings for turning on or off auto login. The hash symbol is on the same key which is at the same position it was when you were running Windows on your computer. Why is it harder to find when running Linux? But, you've raised my curiosity -- my # symbol is above "3" and they share the same key. BTW, what keyboard are you using which has the # and @ on the same button?

The document could not be saved, as it was not possible to write to /media/disk/etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc
Check that you have write access to this file or that enough disk space is available

Right clicking on the file in Dolphin and selecting Properties Permissions tells me that "only the owner can change permissions". But clicking Advanced Permissions appears to show that the user has read and write access permission. Anyway I got no further with that.

The security & permissions model for Linux is superior to that for Windows. Everything in LInux is presented as and interacted with as a file. Every file has three sets of permissions: the owner, the group and the world. If you cannot edit a file it is because you don't own it or you are not in the group which has been given "w" permissions for that file, or the world doesn't have "w" permissions set. But, "root" is the UberUser. Anyone who logs into root or is given root rights can edit any file. With Kubuntu you can gain root privileges by using "sudo" or "kdesudo" from a console. But, in your case, since you said you couldn't get to the desktop that means the desktop didn't install and that "kdesudo" won't work. It also means that kate or kwrite can't be run because KDE4 is not running. That is why I recommended "nano", a text editor that is easy to use. But, it appears you booted the liveCD. On your HD, kdmrc is owned by the user root, who is a member of the "root" group. From your LiveCD mount the partition on your HD which contains the Kubuntu installation. You seem to have done that OK since you refered to problems saving /media/disk/etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc. In the Konsole issue

sudo kwrite

and then edit and save /media/disk/etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc.

Secondly, to answer your question;
....... "But you'll hang in there when you have problems with Windows, eh? Why is that?" ... I can't answer that because I have never experienced problems of this magnitude with Windows. You will probably think that this is completely wrong, but I seems to me that simply you need a far greater knowledge of how computers and software work in order to use Linux that you do to use Windows.

Sorry...

No need for apologizes. The troubles you are having are the troubles you are having, but, your video problem isn't so "big" that it is unworkable. Perseverance will get you through. You weren't born with the knowledge of how to run Windows and, it appears, you weren't born with the knowledge of how to run Linux, either!

You've been using Linux for just a week or two. When you ran into problems with Windows you worked them out or your IT dept sent over a techie, or you took your box to a computer repair business. You can do the same thing with Linux. This forum is your "techie"!

So, use "sudo" as shown above and continue working the solution I gave previously.

**MAOexWimdows** · Dec 12, 2009, 11:43 AM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

Hi, thanks for your reply.

OK, I booted into my live cd, open a konsole and typed

sudo apt-get install kwrite

then

sudo kwrite

It opened and I navigated to /etc/kde4/kdm/ and double-clicked on kdmrc and it open in kwrite. I turned the line numbers on and went to line 555 at placed the # symbol in front of it. I did the same for line 565. I could save it OK.
I removed the CD and rebooted into Kubuntu. It came to the graphical login screen but I couldn't log in as before. I clicked on the symbol like the "leave" symbol under the K-menu and logged into a console. I got the black screen with the text log-in. I reinstalled the nVidia driver as before, not by sudo apt-get but by following the instructions for "The official Nvidia way" here:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107406.0
(The reason I used that and not "The official Kubuntu Way" was that when I did that before if gave me version 185, but the installation froze half way through every time.)
But... when a rebooted it was the same as before, the graphical log-in screen, a picture of a head next to my user name and below that a picture of a key next to an empty box into which I put my password and pressed enter, and it just came back to the same box again.

I suspect I may not have made the correct changed to the file kdmrc. You told me to "Change the appropriate lines" but I wasn't sure which they were or what I should change them to.

As to the other things, when I said I was having trouble adding quotes, I meant that in your replies, if you want to quote back to me something in my post, it appears inside a box with a different colour background. It is how to do that I couldn't work out. There is a clickable link Insert Quote in the box below where I am typing next to your last post, but that didn't do it.
The key locations, my hash key # is on the 3rd row, 3 keys to the right of 'L', next to Enter. I get # without shift and a tilde ~ with shift. The key to the left of that one gives single quote ' without shift and @ with shift. the '2' key with shift gives the double quote " and the '3' key with shift gives the 'pound sterling' symbol £. This is standard for a keyboard sold in the UK. When installing Kubuntu I selected to United Kingdom basic keyboard layout. But when running the LiveCD I think it must default to an American keyboard because the hash key gives \, the @ and the " are reversed and the hash symbol is shift-3

Regards,

Michael.

**GreyGeek** · Dec 12, 2009, 03:24 PM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

Originally posted by MAOexWimdows

Hi, thanks for your reply.

OK, I booted into my live cd, open a konsole and typed

sudo apt-get install kwrite

then

sudo kwrite

It opened and I navigated to /etc/kde4/kdm/ and double-clicked on kdmrc and it open in kwrite. I turned the line numbers on and went to line 555 at placed the # symbol in front of it. I did the same for line 565. I could save it OK.
I removed the CD and rebooted into Kubuntu. It came to the graphical login screen but I couldn't log in as before.

You couldn't log into the desktop like you used to because changing editing kdmrc to stop the automatic log in screen didn't fix the corrupted video driver problem. But, now, from the Login screen, you can choose the option to log into a console, not Konsole, screen because the KDE4 desktop is not running. From there, using sudo, apt-get, dpkg and other tools, you can repair your video driver.

I clicked on the symbol like the "leave" symbol under the K-menu and logged into a console. I got the black screen with the text log-in. I reinstalled the nVidia driver as before, not by sudo apt-get but by following the instructions for "The official Nvidia way" here:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107406.0
(The reason I used that and not "The official Kubuntu Way" was that when I did that before if gave me version 185, but the installation froze half way through every time.)
But... when a rebooted it was the same as before, the graphical log-in screen, a picture of a head next to my user name and below that a picture of a key next to an empty box into which I put my password and pressed enter, and it just came back to the same box again.

You should use the nvidia uninstall command to TOTALLY remove the installed version BEFORE you install another or reinstall the version you used. -- Read more:

Did something in your installation go terribly, terrible wrong? No problem! Start your box up in console-only mode, navigate to where you have the nvidia driver installation file saved, and run it with the --uninstall option. sh filename.run --uninstall, and it uninstalls everything it put in.

and there are other sites on the web which also tell how to add and remove Nivida, like you've discovered.

I suspect I may not have made the correct changed to the file kdmrc. You told me to "Change the appropriate lines" but I wasn't sure which they were or what I should change them to.

That's always possible, even for experienced users. That how they get experience!

As to the other things, when I said I was having trouble adding quotes, I meant that in your replies, if you want to quote back to me something in my post, it appears inside a box with a different colour background. It is how to do that I couldn't work out. There is a clickable link Insert Quote in the box below where I am typing next to your last post, but that didn't do it.

Oh, my apologies, I misunderstood what you wrote. I use the "quote" button to create new set "quote" tags, which is composed of a "[", the word "quote", then "][" followed by "/quote" and a"]". When you click the "quote box" you'll see the tags inserted exactly where your text insertion icon was located.

I manually insert the piece of the text I am quoting between the "][" square bracket characters. If I am breaking up someone's reply in order to insert a comment, I manually add lines around the part I want to quote, add the first half of the quotes tag above the text, drop to the bottom of the section of text I want to quote and then type in the second half of the quote tag. Then, I add my commment, add a couple lines and then insert the top half of the quote tag because the bottom have is below the part of the text I split. However, one rarely gets it right the first time so that is what the "Preview" button is for, to see that everything looks the way you want it to. The biggest problems are

1) forgetting to lead the tag with a "[", or
2) using "}" to close the tag, or
3) spelling "quote" as "auote" or "qote", or some such typo.

The key locations, my hash key # is on the 3rd row, 3 keys to the right of 'L', next to Enter. I get # without shift and a tilde ~ with shift. The key to the left of that one gives single quote ' without shift and @ with shift. the '2' key with shift gives the double quote " and the '3' key with shift gives the 'pound sterling' symbol £. This is standard for a keyboard sold in the UK. When installing Kubuntu I selected to United Kingdom basic keyboard layout. But when running the LiveCD I think it must default to an American keyboard because the hash key gives \, the @ and the " are reversed and the hash symbol is shift-3

I suspected as much but I didn't realize that the UK keyboard was that different.

So, to recapp, if you can log into a console screen (i.e., running Kubuntu "headless" - no desktop, lot of Linux servers are run that way) then you can use the nvidia command to remove nvidia. Then I'd check to make sure it it didn't leave any directories or config files around which could interfere with installing a fresh copy of the driver which DID work before, which I'd install the same way you did before when you got it working.

**MAOexWimdows** · Dec 16, 2009, 04:04 PM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

Hi again,

I used the nVidia command to remove the driver and then reinstalled it. But again it made no difference and I still couldn't log on. At that point I have to apologise because I decided that enough was enough and I clean reinstalled Kubuntu. I know I have a lot to learn here but I hadn't been running Kubuntu long enough to make it worth while trying so long to repair it when I could start a fresh. Call me a quitter, I know...
One think I was not clear on was the need to stop auto login so as to get to the login screen to choose a console when it was going to that screen anyway. Did I do the right think just hashing out those two lines in kdmrc?

Well doubtless I will need your help again sometime in the future, if you can take pity on a poor confused old ex Windows sufferer.

**toad** · Dec 16, 2009, 04:29 PM

Re: Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

I haven't read the whole thread, but your first port of call for any such annoyances should be this superb collection by dibl: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3099811.0

What may seem insurmountable at first soon becomes a doddle

And as for reinstalling - don't worry about it. We have all done it about a million times and each time you learn a little more. In the meantime you can sigh a sigh of relief that you don't have to install an office suite again, a virus checker and god knows what else... It is more or less all there already

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Cannot get to Kubuntu desktop anymore

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