help with boot

[bjama1]

total newbie to linux. Install on Dell desktop, screwed up partition on install, Ubuntu took over complete hard drive. Problem is Ubuntu won't boot, can get to login and password which was setup on install. Then get tan screen of death. Have restarted in recovery mode got to root and grub menus, but no go. Burned Supergrub cd and tried it but still no help. thanks.

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Press Alt+Ctrl+F1 at Login Screen. Does it drop you at command line login prompt? If yes, then execute this

sudo lspci | grep -i vga
grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Post output here.

[bjama1]

when hit key combination went to biggputer, name of desktop, login,entered code referenced above, hit enter, asked for login, entered login hit enter then asked for password but would not accept password. cursur appears frozen after asking for password. I'm booting from recovery mode. is there any way I can defrag system , have stopped and restarted system so many times I think its clogged with junk. tried to "clean" from recovery menu but that's almost instantaneous. tried to repair broken packages from recovery mode get message need to install 4 packages and upgrade 249 packages. if all else fails can I uninstall ububtu from root or grub command line and start over?
login timed out after 60 seconds, currently computer locked, cursur blinking, and keyboard caplock and scroll lock blinking.
last line before blinking cursur
[ 579.828049] --- [ end of trace fb47afc304cb2a1b ]

[D-cat]

The password doesn't echo back, not even stars. You just have to type it in right and press enter.

ext3 (Linux) systems typically don't get fragged enough to worry about a defrag. This is something left over from the FAT (Early Windows) days where files always were filled in the first free space and broken up if that space wasn't big enough. Modern file systems work more on a first free space large enough to fit the entire file model, some even look for the oldest free space (wear leveling). Fragging only happens when saving streams or the disk is almost full, and even then, it's minimal.

The tan "death" screen is a symptom of loading the wrong video driver. We still need the output of DC's commands above.

[bjama1]

restarted machine after lock up, booted in recovery mode, resumed normal boot, hit key combination, got to login screen entered DC's code hit enter, asked for biggputer login, entered login, press enter, asked for password, entered ubuntu password, login incorrect, entered windows password, same user name both systems, login incorrect. tried again getting
Ubuntu 8.10 biggputer tty1
biggputer login
By the way what is the character in DC's code after sudo lspci? I've tried 1, I've tried lower case l, upper case I, looks like it's lower case l but that just brings me back to biggputer login screen.
try this again DC's code
sudo 1spci l grep -1 vga grep -1 driver /etc/X11/org.conf
is that correct, or do I hit enter between vga and grep, or no spaces
currently have blinking cursor, keyboard is still active.
tried commands again just from cursor, first with no spaces, no response, then with spaces, no response.
hit ctrl alt del to reboot machine, let it reboot normally, not in recovery mode.
hit alt ctrl f1 at login screen
output
Boot from (hd0,0) ext 3 778d8881-4ac7-4
997 9cdf-88f1252d2a65
Starting up ---
Loading , please wait---
usplash: Setting mode 1152x864 failed
19 +0 records in
19+0 records out
kinit: name_to_dev_t(/dev/disk/by-uuid/9eee1df3-af5f-401a-b2c9-8e99d9ace727) =dev(8,5)
kinit: trying to resume from /dev/disk/by-uuid/9eee1df3-af5f-401a-b2c9-8e99d9ace727
kinit: No resume image, doing normal boot---
Ubuntu 8.10 biggputer tty1
now screen and keyboard are inactive.
by the way, thanks guys for your help so far.

[yancek]

The commands DC gave you are two separate commands. If you haven't tried this yet do:

sudo lspci l grep -1 vga (hit enter key)
grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf (hit enter key)

If you can't boot, use a Live CD. Also, that's a lower case Letter L after sudo.

[D-cat]

linux login: (your username)
password: (your user's password,  no echo)

user@linux:~$>

Once you get that prompt, then you enter the commands. They are all lowercase (case is important in all areas of Linux, if you actually type in upper case, it will not work), but I'll type them in uppercase so you can see what the letters are:

LSPCI | GREP -I VGA
      ^- This character is the {Shift + \}

GREP -I DRIVER /ETC/X11/XORG.CONF
                    ^- This X is upper-case.

I hope this answers your last questions.

[bjama1]

ok, on last boot fsck failed, had to do manual fsck. all done now and rebooted got as far as sudo lspci -i | grep vga.
hit enter asked for password, entered password, hit enter, output is
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL [Brookdale -G] GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)
and dropped me back to
username@biggputer:~$
entered grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf
dropped me back to user@biggputer:~$
tried sudo in front of second command same result
Thanks again D-Cat for helping with the code.

[D-cat]

Your xorg.conf is either extremely generic or non-existent. I don't know why this seems to be happening with certain chipsets. The generic driver it loads assumes certain VESA standard modes are available, I think some chipsets (like recent Intel) have dropped this backwards compatibility standard to improve performance and costs (didn't they learn anything from the Promise cards that tried that trick 10+ years ago, it was about the death of them).

First thing to try is sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg . Since it didn't detect the right hardware first time around, you might have to specify certain hardware (Line your Intel video controller) instead of just leaving it at "default."

[bjama1]

ok entered sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
output
xserver-xorg postinst warning: overwriting possibly-customised configuration file; backup in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.20090218162249
then back to username@biggputer:~$