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I did a fresh installation of Ubuntu 12.04 on all my computers yesterday and one of them just doesn't seem to like 12.04. Let's start with the symptoms:

  1. I initially tried installing through a USB flash with the desktop amd64 version. Since it had worked on all other (5) computers, I believe the USB flash drive was ok. However the computer seemed to be stuck after the Ubuntu GUI came up (bar on the top, pinkish background) but before the screen prompting to Try or Install. When the screen came up, the mouse was moving exceptionally slowly, i.e. it responded 2-3 seconds after I had moved it. After a few minutes, I could move the mouse with normal speed, but could not click anything. The Try/Install window never came up. The same thing had happened a few days ago when I had tried to install Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 on the same computer, but when the Try/Install screen kept failing to come up, I gave up.

  2. I assumed it was a problem with the desktop installer, so I tried the alternative installer, which worked fine. But then, the same (or possibly a similar) problem appears on the login screen: the mouse moves very slowly in the first few minutes, then it moves normally, I cannot click anything (for example the buttons on the top right), and I cannot type in my password to login or select the guest session.

So I am stuck at the login screen. I did not encounter any problems on my other computers, so here are some specs of this one:

  • CPU: Intel i7 980x extreme edition
  • Motherboard: Asus Rampage III extreme
  • RAM: 6GB
  • GPUs: 2x NVidia GTX 580 in SLI
  • HDD: Western digital 1TB green power (20GB for root (/), 6GB for swap, all the rest for /home)

I should also note that this PC ran 11.10 flawlessly until yesterday, when I attempted to install 12.04. I tried installing 11.10 after I failed with 12.04 and it worked again, so its definitely something related to 12.04.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the problem, I don't know how to provide any logs, but if there is some way let me know.

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  • Bug posted here: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libdrm/+bug/990411
    – belacqua
    May 27, 2012 at 23:29

4 Answers 4

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I had the same problem with Nvidia GITX 580 on 12.04 64bit. Here is the solution:

  1. At the lightdm login page, press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to the console (text mode).
  2. Log in using your credentials.
  3. Run

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
    
  4. Install nvidia driver:

    sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
    
  5. Reboot.
  6. Now you should be able to use your keyboard and login in lightdm.
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  • This worked, thanks. I need to point out that: You NEED to make sudo apt-get upgrade, or else lightdm won't autostart. Apr 28, 2012 at 10:14
  • Another addition: After the restart, lightdm won't autostart. Login through the console and execute: 'sudo lightdm start'. From the next boot, lightdm will autostart normally. May 9, 2012 at 18:28
  • Still does not always default to lightdm :/. May 11, 2012 at 11:23
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The problem, appears to be lightdm. I uninstalled it, installed gdm. Now it works. Make sure to apt-get update.

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I had the same problem. Booting the installation CD worked, to the point where the purple background displays and the bar at the top loads. As soon as the "Install" Welcome screen appeared I would get a blank white box in the middle (where the Try/Install Ubuntu normally is displayed)

I fixed it as follows:

Just as the CD is booting (i.e. when the purple background first appears) press F6. You will get a few options (Try Ubuntu, Install Ubuntu, etc). You will also have the ability to press F6 again to select booting options. Select nomodeset and then proceed to "Install Ubuntu". It will work no problem! (at least it did for me)

System Info:

CPU: Intel i7 2600K
GPU: Nvidia GTX 590
Mem: 16GB DDR3 (1333mhz)
Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V Pro

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  • This solved the installation phase part of my problem :). I was able to install with desktop-amd64 without having to resort to alternative-amd64, which is much slower. Apr 28, 2012 at 10:17
  • Note for people possibly encountering what I did: F6 toggles the Ubuntu logo or console text during Ubuntu boot up. Noting it here just in case you get text during bootup after installation. Apr 28, 2012 at 10:37
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I had this same problem on my VirtualBox setup. Seems that if the system cannot log in using 3d acceleration, it simply falls back to the login prompt with no other warnings.

I found I was able to log in if I changed to the 2d prompt, installed the VirtualBox drivers and rebooted. So it looks like if you need a 3rd party video driver, you must start in 2d and install the driver first before the system will boot properly.

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