3

Just a foreword, this is my first foray into anything Linux related. Please forgive me if my lingo isn't up to par.

I just installed Ubuntu 14.04 last night. After I removed the installation disk (when I was prompted to do such) and restarted, the computer started up and I was eventually prompted to put in my passphrase. After that was successfully accepted, the screen went black but my cursor still showed up and I was able to move it around. I tried ctrl+alt+del but to no avail. A few minutes of just the screen led to:

[121.855415] nouveau E[    DRM] GPU lockup - switch to software fbcon

[142.180021] nouveau E[Xorg[1254]] failed to idle channel 0xcccc0001 [Xorg[1254]]

With that second line repeating but with different numbers in the brackets. So I looked around for people in similar situations and found that most people went to GRUB and added "nomodeset" after quiet splash. However, I couldn't figure out how to deal with the $vt_handoff that was present right after "quiet splash" in GRUB. So, I just stuck nomodeset after $vt_handoff and hit ctrl+X.

After the encryption prompt working successfully (as it has every time), I was actually brought to the desktop screen. I thought I had fixed the situation when a problem report window popped up asking me to support the bug report and the screen went fuzzy. It made it difficult for me to document what the bug report contained but I was able to make some stuff out:

Executable path

  /usr/bin/Xorg

Package

  Xserver-xorg-Core 2: 1.15.1-0ubuntu2

ProblemType

  Crash

Title 

  Xorg crashed with SIGABRT

Apport Version 

  2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2

Architecture

  Amd64

At this point, it was difficult to discern what was in the report. Moving the cursor around somehow caused the screen to look better for a bit but scrolling down through report made things difficult again.

I restarted again after that to see that I'm back to a black screen with the cursor which leads me to believe that "nomodeset" did not stick and I'll have to reapply it.

The computer with the problems is a Dell Dimension E521 with BIOS 1.1.11. I did the 64-Bit install from a Live Disc while using Windows XP.

Does anybody have an idea what to do? If you guys needs more info on the computer, I'll get is ASAP. Thank you.

2
  • Please provide the output of lspci | grep VGA. Also while running in the Live CD you saw any of those problems?
    – Salem
    Oct 21, 2014 at 19:52
  • Oh and check that your system is updated running sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
    – Salem
    Oct 21, 2014 at 19:54

1 Answer 1

1

To make nomodeset permanent edit the file /etc/default/grub using one of those:

  • Alt+F2 and then write gksu gedit /etc/default/grub
  • In a terminal sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset" and finally run sudo update-grub2 (this will regenerate the grub entries).

Regarding the bug report window, if it gets annoying you can disable it using one of the methods above to edit /etc/default/apport and changing enabled to 0.

3
  • Okay, so I did most everything you asked to. First off, I didn't see anything weird happen during the install. Nothing weird happened until booted for the first time (i.e. taking the disc out and taking out the Live CD). lspci | grep VGA gave me: 03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G72 [GeForce 7300 LE] (rev a1) I did the updates as well. I changed the file permanently in /etc/default/grub and the black screen and cursor is no longer a problem. But touching the left side of the screen with the cursor causes the screen to become garbled again. Oct 24, 2014 at 20:27
  • Are you using some driver for that card? (Search for "Additional drivers" in the dash). This answer of a similar question says installing nvidia current helps (in your case it seems you are using Nouveau)
    – Salem
    Oct 24, 2014 at 21:30
  • Yeah, I found three other drivers in Additional drivers and used one of them and now my screen isn't going crazy. The Ubuntu logo when I log in isn't shiny like it used to be, but, really, it's a small price to pay. Thanks for all your help! Oct 25, 2014 at 0:20

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .