9.04 xorg badly broken

[NoOp]

On 07/04/2009 09:45 AM, Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
> I have two systems that I upgraded to 9.04, and the x system is
> completely broken on one, and unsatisfactory on the other.

What did you upgrade from? Hopefully Intrepid. This shows from 8.04:
http://pastebin.ca/1483892 did you try to upgrade directly from 8.04 to
9.04? If so you will indeed have issues - see:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading
  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes

If that's the case, then download a copy of the 9.04 liveCD & I'll see
if I can help you recover.

> 
> Here's the scoop on the broken one.  Bottom line, X never really
> starts, but it apparently does not know this, because I'm just faced
> with a black screen and an unresponsive system.  Since the install
> never finished (I couldn't use the live disk, and the alternative ISO
> only allows fresh installs), I don't have tools to log into the system
> over the network. 

Alternate CD will indeed allow you to fix an install. It can get a bit
complicated, but you can install/reinstall with the alternate cd.
However, you state that the install never finished; is that 'upgrade'
never finished, or 'install' never finished?

 There's probably a way to do that from the command
> line, but I don't know how.
> 
> Details:
> 
> I'm using Ubuntu and Gentoo Linux, a 3dfx Voodoo 3 board and a
> Westinghouse LCD monitor model LCM-20v5 through a KVM switch (the
> Ubuntu and Gentoo are two different hosts).
> 
> I had a working configuration with xorg on both, they have both been
> broken by recent upgrades to xorg.  I can no longer get X to boot up
> to a working GUI.
> 
> For the moment, I'll focus on the Ubuntu situation
> 
> I have tried the output of Xorg --configure
> (http://pastebin.ca/1483889)    (log file http://pastebin.ca/1483907)
> I have tried the old xorg.conf  (http://pastebin.ca/1483892) (log file
> http://pastebin.ca/1483900)
> I have tried and empty xorg.conf. (log file http://pastebin.ca/1483925)
> 
> The results are the same with all  three: the Ubuntu bootup screen is
> normal (Graphical: Ubuntu logo, large name in an outline font, and a
> "cylon" progress bar with a bright segment moving back and forth)
> later followed by a brief moment with the usual Ubuntu "busy" cursor,
> then a black screen with occasional flickers of slightly gray).
> Useless, but I think I'd be satisfied with the mode that showed the
> cursor -- it was about as small as I remember for a 1280x1024 mode.

Boot to recovery mode, select dpkg and repair any broken packages. Once
finished, run xfix. Then resume.

Also:
Something doesn't appear correct in your xorg.conf:
#
Section "Screen"
#
        Identifier "Screen0"
#
        Device     "Card0"
#
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
#
        SubSection "Display"
#
                Viewport   0 0
#
                Depth     1
#
        EndSubSection
#
        SubSection "Display"
#
                Viewport   0 0
#
                Depth     4
#
        EndSubSection
#
        SubSection "Display"
#
                Viewport   0 0
#
                Depth     8
#
        EndSubSection
#
        SubSection "Display"
#
                Viewport   0 0
#
                Depth     15
#
        EndSubSection
#
        SubSection "Display"
#
                Viewport   0 0
#
                Depth     16
#
        EndSubSection
#
        SubSection "Display"
#
                Viewport   0 0
#
                Depth     24
#
        EndSubSection

That section should contain something along the lines of:
Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "1280x1024 +0+0"
    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection

For a hard configured screen. Note: that's for mine, so yours will be
different. Or:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Default Screen"
    Device         "Configured video device"
    Monitor        "Configured monitor"
EndSection

for a default xorg.conf on 9.04.

What happens if you boot into recovery mode and run xfix?