I just installed Xubuntu to my laptop since Ubuntu 8.04 was a spectacular failure. I was really looking forward to using it, but I had weird problems with GNOME. Now I’ve just encountered a strange problem with XFCE since I did a clean install of it yesterday, and I have no idea what to do.
So…I was using my computer, dragging my files to the Home directory, I had installed NVidiaGLX, and was installing files so it could play MP3’s. Then I went for supper with my family, came back home, and I wiggled the mouse to get it off screensaver. I installed a few more debians, closed down Thunar, and went to change the Desktop theme. The problem began when the wouldn’t open. Then I noticed on the CPU graph that the Load had suddenly gone up to something like 30% and went back down. I decided it would be a good idea to Restart, so I did.
Then I couldn’t log back in. I tried doing it about 3 times, and once it said something similar to, “Your session has only lasted 10 seconds, going back to GDM”. Then it told me I was “low on diskspace”, even though I’ve just started using the partition since I cleaned house (referring to the computer and an unintentional Linux pun), and to access the Failsafe Terminal, which is where I am now. I’m not really sure what file to access. I’m sure I could edit the textfile tonight, because I need to get this repaired soon. I have a report due next week, and I would like to print off my laptop. If anyone could help me, I will appreciate it very much. I’m really anxious to start using Blender and GIMP in XUbuntu 8.04.
I imagine you will have substantially greater luck getting help if you post in the Ubuntu forums instead of here in the off-topic Blender forum. (Just a thought…)
Yeah once I typed in the wrong password and my computer told me it was low on disk space too.
Had a similar problem once, I installed a lot of software from the repositories filing my root partition. Afterwards I tried logging in but Xserver wouldn’t initialize. Turns out the .deb files from the installation needed to be deleted to give the xserver space(it was a very old laptop) & I installed a fair amount.
Type in the terminal: apt-get clean
If you cant get a login screen press Ctrl + Alt + F1 (or any of the F keys). This will take you to the command line. Type your username & password then the above command.
I am kind of mega-surprised that you had a “spectacular failure” with Ubuntu 8.04.
If you meant the RELEASE CANDIDATE of 8.04 then yes…it had a lot of issues
that’s why it isn’t official before…it’s official!
Ubuntu Final release (8.04) was absolutely ROCK solid imho… I’ve installed it
onto several different computers and it rocks my socks! :RocknRoll:
The way you can customize Ubuntu 8.04 with ease… is nothing short of breathtaking,
I’ve never had such an easy and intuitive desktop to “play” around with ever, and I’m still
totally stunned by what it can do. And as for stability - WOAH… I remember running my
ovn setups of beryl/compiz etc. on various distros like slackware & archlinux…and even ubuntu earlier… nothing but trouble as it could crash anytime
Ubuntu 8.04 however…mad blazing fast & rock stable on ALL my computers.
Do tell (and also search google) for your issues.
Ubuntu 8.04 comes with it’s own HARDWARE TEST - so you can start that one
and it will submit an report to Canonical who seem to work pretty hard on solving
issues, I’ve been running Ubuntu 7 on my laptop for quite a while with NO issues, and
thats probably because the auto-updater keeps the computer up-to-date with the
latest versions of everything - every time.
Ubuntu is also one of the EASIEST Linuxes to compile a fresh SVN checkout
of the latest Blender versions
I just installed Xubuntu to my laptop since Ubuntu 8.04 was a spectacular failure. I was really looking forward to using it, but I had weird problems with GNOME. Now I’ve just encountered a strange problem with XFCE since I did a clean install of it yesterday, and I have no idea what to do.
Your hardware might not like ubuntu, and xubuntu… give PClinux a try or Kubuntu.
IMHO PCLinux is the easiest linux to set up.
If you cannot get PCLinux working you might want to try a 4 year computer science course so you can fix/tweak ubuntu… or just install windows and be done with it!
If you have 100% Ubuntu Linux friendly hardware, the setup is really easy in ubuntu.
If you do not have 100% Ubuntu Linux friendly hardware, it will be a complete fucking nightmare for you.
You might want to give WUBI a try, it will install linux without partitioning your hardware. And as soon as you discover that it is just a bunch of half baked rubbish,that is not compatible with your system, then you can simply uninstall it from the windows add-remove programs in the control panel.
If your nightmares involve my laptop speakers not shutting off when I plug in my headphones, I’d be inclined to say that it is not the operating system that needs time to mature
Incidentally my laptop was a vista laptop which I installed XP and Ubuntu on. The laptop even came with XP drivers on the driver disc, yet Ubuntu just works better imo. The upgrade to 8.04 was a slow download because of how bogged down the servers were (I remember reading that one of them served something like 2.5 TB in the first 24 hours) yet the upgrade not only worked flawlessly but Ubuntu started working even better
i am pretty sure there is a way to disable the pc speaker.
I had some real problems with my headset.
I got a nice new headset from my kids for christamas for playing online games.
My wife started using it with Skype to talk to her mother online.One day while she was snacking on a taco while talking to her mother, she bit the microphone off.
Everytime I booted into ubuntu it would play the mic over the speakers, and make a buzzing noise… I found the mute a few days later, and it seemed to fix it.
Sorry I haven’t replied to any of your tips, I got embarrassed when Cessen told me to go to the ubuntu forums instead…the main reason I stick around here is because I don’t want to have to get another username and password and whatever, but that’s passed, so back to business.
I just tried the ‘apt-get clean’ command first with no luck…it said it couldn’t open the cache folder with 13 permissions denied. Then I tried it with Sudo and I have no idea if that worked or not; it simply went to the next line. How do I know if that command has worked? BTW, my laptop is a Gateway MT3422, AMD 64 X2, NVidia card, and Vista-ready. I was using the Final version of Ubuntu 8.04 when I installed it and the “spectacular failure” happened (I had the screen and everything, but programs crashed and then it wouldn’t fully load after the second usage), along with the Final version of XUbuntu 8.04. I got the 32-bit versions of both.
On another note, I’ve been doing my homework using the LiveCD’s with an external HDD to get it done. I never knew LiveCD’s were so important until now…
Okay I just tried logging in again and I have the specifics.
The pop-up that came up said something similar to, “You have logged in for less than 10 seconds. Either you have logged yourself out or there is an installation problem, or you are out of disk space.”
Then I got this in the Error log:
/etc/gdm/Xsession
Setting up IM through im-switch locale=en_US
Start IM through /etc/X11/xinit/input.d/all_ALL linked to /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/default
How do I decipher this? Is there some text file I should correct?
Ok, thats REALLY weird. I’m beginning to think there’s something with your installation CD, try burning one slowly (I actually had this problem with my first Ubuntu CD…it totally ruined my first installation, then I realized that it just might be a bad burn)…
Also do an ISO check (MD5sums) check on your download.
You have an AMD x 2 processor with a laptop that has an NVIDIA card in it?!?! That should be perfect for Ubuntu Linux.
Btw - just for kicks…have you tried installing the 64 bit version? Thats the one I use.
Another thing you may want to do is to check ubuntu for options on disabling eg. the PcmCia port of your laptop (if it has one)…these sometimes cause installing issues because of driver issues, it’s a long time ago…but you never know until you try.
You may also have corrupt memory (bad ram). I suggest loading both the CD-test and the RAM test to see if you have any hardware or cd problems, because the problems you are experiencing are really strange! Ubuntu is the single Linux OS I’ve ever encountered to work near flawless on ALL my computers over years, so to me your issues are totally strange and should’nt happen (in a perfect world…but the world aint perfect so…) oh well…keep trying!
I haven’t even thought about the 64-bit version…really I didn’t think it was necessary since the Feisty Fawn 32-bit worked great…could this one work better than the 32-bit versions with no problem? I hope this problem isn’t the RAM or anything, since I haven’t had this laptop for a year yet!! But I’ll give it a check anyway. Also, is there a Linux distro I can load from Live CD that could mount my HDD so I check all my files? I would like to check my Vista side to make sure that all this installing/uninstalling isn’t messing anything up. That’s where I store my pictures for my art reference.
I just performed a MemTest using the OpenSUSE LiveCD. Zero errors showed up, and it seemed to be just fine. If the RAM was corrupt, wouldn’t the LiveCD’s be unable to work? If I can’t repair my XUbuntu problem, then I am seriously thinking of installing SUSE or Redhat, provided they work with no trouble. Does my machine have the proper specs for those systems?
When you boot the ubuntu cd, you have a variety of options, one of them is to check the cd for errors.
The nvidia card wouldn’t happen to be a Geforce 6100? Compaq laptop possibly?
How much space did you partition for the root drive? I’m almost certain I had that same error where the Xserver would not initialize because I filled the root partition. It was resolved by removing all the cached .debs with the apt-get clean in sudo.
If you’ve also been modifying files or folders in your home directory that the Xserver may need. It will prevent it from writing or reading those files & thus prevents you from logging in.
I assume when you try to login from ubuntu login screen it throws up the error & either kicks you back to the login screen or the command line.
For the command line: Press Ctrl + Alt + F1 (Or any of the F keys).
Type your Username,
then password.
Once logged in:
Type: startx
It shall either start the Xserver fine with no problems, or list a rather long error message, which should give you some details on what is going wrong.
You could also go in through the command line & create a new user account. If this works fine through the typical login screen then you know it’s something wrong with your old account.
To add a new user via the command line type: sudo adduser <username>
Replacing the <username> with a name. You should then be asked a bunch of questions like the password.
Once done restart your machine, try logging in with new account.
A good command to remember to restart your machine is: sudo shutdown -r now
w00t! I just got myself logged in under a new name, but some functions are missing. I tried sudo start x while in the Failsafe Commandline with no luck, but instead I came up with this error:
Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0
If this server is no longer running,
remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again.
How do I repair this one, now that I can run from HDD?
w00t! I just got myself logged in under a new name, but some functions are missing. I tried sudo start x while in the Failsafe Commandline with no luck, but instead I came up with this error:
Did you login to the Fail Safe Command Line after logging into your new account graphically? If you did then that startx command will not work as the Xserver has already been initiated.
