New To Linux - Ubuntu Install/GUI Problem

[EndianX]

Hi everybody.

I am finally making the switch from Windows to Linux. A friend gave me a CD with the install and live boot of Ubuntu. I tried the live boot and I liked it so I decided to install. I seem to have completed the install process, but now I am at the command prompt (or terminal, whatever it is called in linux). That is where it goes when I reboot.

How do I log into the GUI interface? Also, how do I set it up to boot directly to the GUI at startup.

Thanks in advance,

EndianX

EDIT:

Something to add. In this guide, http://mrbass.org/linux/ubuntu/install/, after the screen where you reboot, I didn't get any of the others. I just rebooted and got a login prompt. Did my install not complete successfully?

[techieMoe]

You can start the GUI from the command line by typing

startx

There may be some way to do this that is peculiar to Ubuntu, but in most Linuxes you can set it to start in the GUI by editing your /etc/inittab file. Change the line that looks like this:

id:3:initdefault

And make it look like this:

id:5:initdefault

If the number is already a 5 then something else is going wrong during boot.

[EndianX]

Thank you for the quick reply.

I changed id:2:initdefault to id:5:initdefault but it is still booting to terminal.

There does not seem to be a startx command.

[EndianX]

Update

I downloaded a new ISO from the following site

http://us.releases.ubuntu.com/releases/5.04/

Burned it to a CD at a slow speed to be sure it was good.

I reinstalled to be sure I didn't get any sort of errors.

Also I had it connected to the network during this install incase that made a difference.

Same thing. I boot into the terminal window and can't figure out how to start the GUI.

Any ideas? =/

[techieMoe]

Same thing. I boot into the terminal window and can't figure out how to start the GUI.

Any ideas? =/

What does the console print out when you type the startx command?

[EndianX]

Same thing. I boot into the terminal window and can't figure out how to start the GUI.

Any ideas? =/

What does the console print out when you type the startx command?

-bash: startx: command not found

[techieMoe]

-bash: startx: command not found

Obviously something went wrong with your install, because Ubuntu should have installed your X Windows environment and it didn't. You can try installing it with apt-get. You'll need to have superuser privileges to do this.

apt-get install xorg

[EndianX]

-bash: startx: command not found

Obviously something went wrong with your install, because Ubuntu should have installed your X Windows environment and it didn't. You can try installing it with apt-get. You'll need to have superuser privileges to do this.

apt-get install xorg

Well, I can't log in to SU using the su command, but I'm dealing with that in a different thread. The sudo command seems to work fine for now though.

When I do a sudo apt-get install xorg I get

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package xorg

What could have gone so wrong with my install? I can't imagine its the CD. Could it be my hardware (IMB Thinkpad)? I looked very carefully for errors during install and didn't see any.

Thank you very much for the help by the way.

[bigtomrodney]

Doesn't Ubuntu have runlevels 2-5 the same? The startup script may be missing as it is not called as it would be in other distros, though I'm just gessing. Do you have the var/X11R6/bin/X command, and if so does it run/error at all? Can you upost back results?

[techieMoe]

When I do a sudo apt-get install xorg I get

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package xorg

Hmm... I'd try running apt-get update first and then apt-get install xorg. Sometimes it just needs to refresh its repository listings.

What could have gone so wrong with my install? I can't imagine its the CD. Could it be my hardware (IMB Thinkpad)? I looked very carefully for errors during install and didn't see any.

That's a good question. I've not run into an Ubuntu install before that simply didn't install X Windows.