boots to prompt screen only

[Tiny1]

I am running a Dell dimension 4600 with a apg 128 rage video card. I have been running Kubuntu Karmic since it came out and love it. However, I have installed this card into the machine and have been trying to get the correct drivers to load so that i can get as good a graphics as i had with the generic built in graphics card.

I thought I was following the instructions for the installation correctly but evidently not. I now boot to only the prompt screen and I can not get root privileges at all.

I do not want to loose the data on this disk by reinstalling from scratch if I can help it. Does any one have any ideal how to get it to boot properly into KDE?

I am going to remove this card until I have a better idea as to how to make it work.

Thanks

TheTiny1

[walto]

Re: boots to prompt screen only

You could try to boot from the live cd and chroot into your installation on hd. After bootin from live cd make a directory at /mnt like

sudo mkdir /mnt/KubuntuHD

then chroot into the hd installation

sudo chroot /mnt/KubuntuHD

Then you should be able to work from command line with apt etc...

I have not tested this suggestion but it could work, you can test it quickly and it does no harm if chroot does not work.

[Snowhog]

Re: boots to prompt screen only

I now boot to only the prompt screen and I can not get root privileges at all.

When you get to this prompt, what shows when typing:

pwd

If it shows:

/root

then you are already running as root. If it shows:

/home/tiny1

(assuming your user is tiny1) then you should be able to gain root access by issuing the command:

sudo su -

[Tiny1]

Re: boots to prompt screen only

I have tried both of these suggestions but since I can not get to the root I am unable to make any directories. Yes it does show me going into the tiny1 sub directory and su it give me a not authorized and back to the tiny1 prompt.

I have come across this problem a few time in the past and have yet to figure out how to force the machine to recognize me as the administrator.

Since neither of these suggestions worked I went ahead and used the live cd to access the hard drive and copy all the important data off of it and am in the process right now of completely reinstalling every thing. I have removed the offending video card and gone back to the built in radion graphics that came with the machine. It will work until I am able to upgrade to a better machine altogether.

However if you have any suggestions on how I can get and maintain administrator rights please let me know. Synaptic seems to have no problems with my password nor do I have any problems when in terminal mode and am asked for my password, until I try an access the root directory.

Many thanks for the help and I hope that your new year is prosperous.

Bright Blessings
TheTiny1