[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu/Linux is still not an OS for the masses - discuss

[Rob Beard]

On 13/10/10 16:30, Roy Jamison wrote:
> Do all of these machines have nVidia graphics cards?
> Just a thought, but there's a known issue with the new Xorg 1.9 ABI that
> breaks the older nVidia drivers, and I'm guessing the 6800 would be one
> of them, hence the reason that Ubuntu *thinks* it is running ok. That
> might also explain the fact that there is no X fallback coming up.
>
> Kernel modesetting commands anyone?
>
> I remember seeing something about a machine with SiS graphics...I had
> trouble with them too :(
>
>

With regards to video problems, on 10.10 (and IIRC 10.04 LTS) when you 
boot from the CD (or even USB stick) as soon as it comes up with the 
icon of a keyboard and a person in a circle press the Enter key.

Then you can choose your language.

Then press F6 and then ESC.

A line will come up saying Boot Options with a command line after it.

Press the backspace key a few times to remove the following:

quiet splash --

then enter the following:

xforcevesa --

The boot options line should now read:

file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz 
xforcevesa --

Once you have made these changes, press enter to boot.

You should see a load of boot messages scroll by and eventually with any 
luck a desktop should appear.

If you get a blank screen, you should be able to press Control - Alt - 
F1 to get to a terminal.  If you're plugged in to the network via a 
network cable with any luck you should be able to run the apport-bug 
command to create a bug report (in text mode it will still walk you 
through logging a bug).

I must admit, it's been a long while since I've had to boot Ubuntu with 
VESA display drivers (which is essentially a safe mode video driver) so 
I was a bit surprised to see the option has been removed from the boot 
menu.  I believe the last machine I had to do it on had an Nvidia 
Geforce 6200 AGP graphics card.  I can't remember what I did to get 
round it (I do remember it involved some head scratching and googling 
from another machine).

Anyway I hope this is of some help to someone.

Rob