Hello and thank you for your offer of help. I've attached my answers as a file. I wasnt aware of how rapidly you or your colleagues respond and so wasnt explicit as to the problem which I will try to rectify. When I press Alt-Ctrl-F# I get a blank screen, though I can return to the GUI desktop with Alt-Ctrl-F7. I noticed that the on light on the monitor changes from green to amber and thinking that might be the problem, I switched the monitor off and then on again. Then I get a message that the monitor is in power saving mode; the only option I have is to invoke the GUI. I am very impressed with the promptness that Ubuntu responds to requests for support, unlike the other major distros. So thank you again. Let me know how else I can assist in solving this problem. G. <div class="gmail_quote">On Feb 16, 2008 6:26 PM, sktsee <<a href="mailto:sktsee@tulsaconnect.com">sktsee@tulsaconnect.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">On Sat, 2008-02-16 at 10:55 -0500, geoffrey froner wrote: > I installed Ubu 7.10 on an IBM ThinkCentre. I have been unable to > invoke virtual consoles (Ctl-Alt F#) although everything else works > okay. Can anyone help? </div></div>Hopefully, if you can provide the answers to the following questions we can get it working. To get these answers you'll need to run some commands in a terminal window, like gnome-terminal, or xterm, and copy-n-paste the complete output of each command in your reply. First, install the package hwinfo if it isn't already installed. Use Synaptic, or in a terminal type "$ sudo apt-get install hwinfo". ** don't put this output in your reply** 1. What kind of graphics hardware do you have installed on your machine? $ hwinfo --gfxcard 2. What kind of monitor is attached to your machine? $ sudo ddcprobe If you have your monitor on a kvm, disconnect it from that and connect it directly to computer for the purpose of troubleshooting. 3. Are the right kernel modules loaded? $ lsmod |grep fb $ lsmod |grep vga 4. What kind of framebuffer support does your graphics adapter provide? $ sudo hwinfo --framebuffer 5. Do you see the grub boot menu shortly after you power on the machine? 5.a If yes, what happens when you select "Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)" from the menu and hit enter? Are you able to see text in the console scroll by as the OS is loading? Type "exit" to continue booting into X once you're at the prompt. If your screen is blank, just wait until the disk isn't busy and then hit CTL-ALT-DEL to reboot. 5.b If you saw text in the console while booting in recovery mode and were able to complete booting to X by typing "exit" at the prompt, can you now hit CTL-ALT-F# to switch to a vt and see text? 6. What kernel options are you booting with? $ cat /proc/cmdline That should be enough to start on. -- sktsee -- ubuntu-users mailing list <a href="mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users</a> </blockquote></div>