Boot failure, looping cursor

[oLiVeS]

A few days ago I installed Ubuntu and everything has been working fine.
I'm new to Linux so I’m been reading tutorials trying to get a feel for Linux. I installed and setup samba to share files with my Vista machine which worked fine.

I stepped away from my computer for a bit and when I came back the screensaver was on, no biggie--or so I thought, but then when I tried to move the mouse or hit a key so I can enter my password to unlock the screensaver I couldn't get the dialog. The screen would just flicker and then the screensaver would restart. After messing with it for 5 minutes or so I gave up and I hit the power button.

Ubuntu shutdown giving a message stating that it was frozen, now when I try and boot into Ubuntu I get all the way to the gui screen just before the login screen appears (tan background color) with the loading cursor, I can move the cursor just fine but Ubuntu never loads and the cursor is stuck is some kind of loop because it doesn't circle around in a 360 like it used to it jumps from 1 o'clock to 11 o'clock.

Any ideas what might be causing this?

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Which Graphics Card do you have? Did you upgrade Ubuntu recently?
Press Alt+Ctrl+F1. Does it switch to Command Line Loing prompt? If yes the Log in there and execute this

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
startx

Post exact error message here, if any.

[oLiVeS]

NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT

I installed ubuntu from a CD once I was logged it it had download some updates but that's about it.

I was able to get to the command line using Alt+Ctrl+F1 and I executed the command you suggested.

I get the following:
* Stopping GNOME Display Manager... [OK]

[devils casper]

I was able to get to the command line using Alt+Ctrl+F1 and I executed the command you suggested.

I get the following:
* Stopping GNOME Display Manager... [OK]

Did you execute startx command after that? Post error message here, if any.

You have to re-install Nvidia Driver. First of all, try using "vesa" driver. You will have minimal Graphics and it will be easy for you to re-install Nvidia Driver.

Execute this

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Set Driver "vesa" in Video Card section. Press Ctrl+X, Y and hit Enter key to save file.
Execute sudo shutdown -r now to reboot machine.

[oLiVeS]

whops I didn't see the startx part.
I kind of did in a hurry before work, i'll give it a try after work.

[oLiVeS]

I ran the following:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
result: * Stopping GNOME Display Manager... [OK]

startx
was loaded into a gui with two errors:

[Dialog 1]
The panel has encountered a fatal error
The panel could not register with the bonobo-
activation server (error code: 3) and will exit.
It may be automatically restarted.

[Dialog 2]
Nautilus can't be used now, due to an unexpected error.
Nautilus can't be used now, due to an unexpected error from Bonobo when attempting to register the file manager view server.

Once I close both Dialog's nothing happens, I'm was not rebooted and no menu's were displayed.

I ran sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

 
Section "Device"
    Identifier "Configured Video Device"
    Driver "nVidia" (Changed to) "vesa"
    Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

I ran sudo shutdown -r now but nothing has changed.
I'm still getting the tan background with the tripped out cursor.

[devils casper]

Post the contents of xorg.conf file here.

[oLiVeS]

Section "InputDevice"
             Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
             Driver "kbd"
             Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
             Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
             Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
             Indentifier "Configured Mouse"
             Driver "mouse"
             Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Device"
             Identifier "Configured Video Device"
             Driver "vesa"
             Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
             Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
             Identifier "Default Screen"
             Monitor "Configured Monitor"
             Device "Configured Video Device"
             Defaultdepth 24
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
             Identifier "Default Layout"
EndSection

Section "Module"
             Load "glx"
EndSection

[devils casper]

Boot up in Recovery/Rescue mode and execute fsck.ext3 /dev/<root partition> command.

[oLiVeS]

$ fsck.ext3 /dev/sdb3

e2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)

/dev/sdb3 is mounted

WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause SEVERE filesystem damage.

Do you really want to continue (y/n)? yes

/dev/sdb3 : recovering journal
/dev/sdb3 : clean, 119704/5873664 files, 3190073/23462932 blocks