Help! just installed ubuntu and computer wont start

[n00bfox]

I just installed ubuntu netbook on my netbook and now it wont start up. I'm new to linux and havent been able to figure out how to fix it. I do not have a cd drive on my netbook (I used a flashdrive to install) so i cannot boot from the cd. Any help is appreciated...

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Does it throw any error message? Press Alt+Ctrl+F3. Does it switch to command line mode?

[n00bfox]

no error message, just a blank screen, i tried Alt+Ctrl+F3 and nothing happened. and thanks

[devils casper]

Try combinations between Alt+Ctrl+F1 to F6.

Press any key ( Esc or Shift ) at startup. GRUB Menu will appear. Does it have Recovery or command line boot options? Try to select any of those options, if possible.

[n00bfox]

no luck getting to the command prompt, i can get to the Bios setup utility but idk what good that is

[rokytnji]

I just installed ubuntu netbook on my netbook. I do not have a cd drive on my netbook (I used a flashdrive to install)

Which means you have a live pendrive of Ubuntu. Boot the live pendrive and give Devils Casper the out put of

sudo fdisk -l

from a terminal using the live pendrive.

So he can see how your install went. What kind of Netbook and Specs would help to. Also what version of Ubuntu (you can give extra info from terminal by using the

uname -a

and

uname -v

commands also.

[Route]

no luck getting to the command prompt, i can get to the Bios setup utility but idk what good that is

What this tells me is that the partition was probably not flagged as bootable, that would be my first instinct.

[kurtdriver]

What this tells me is that the partition was probably not flagged as bootable, that would be my first instinct.

Which can be setup in fdisk from the pendrive if that's the case.

[n00bfox]

thanks everyone for the help. I actually didnt have a live pendrive I just copied the installation files from my main computer to my thumb drive to my netbook and installed directly onto the netbook hard drive. I've since made a live flash drive and tried to boot from it by selecting the flashdrive as 1st boot device in bios setup utility but i just got a black screen again. i did check the partition on the flash drive and it is active. im still lost...

[Route]

Is is a blank screen with or without a terminal? Even if that terminal is just a good old fashioned blinking "_" it'll tell us a lot.

My advice for you is to use the system you're on to build a liveCD version and install, pendrives have a lot of good uses, but I had better luck starting out with CD's, especially if you're just cutting your teeth with linux, and burning an ISO properly is a pretty good way to be sure it's not a software problem (in my opinion)

Download Ubuntu | Ubuntu
This should be a CD sized version of Ubuntu for you to download, remember it's an ISO, just copying and pasting it to the CD in your favorite generic burning program won't do. The download page has some suggested programs, they're all fine.

Boot from that CD, and unless you're dual booting something opt for it to manage the entire disk on setup, it'll format your drives and set up your partitions to some defaults (I usually add a little more swap than they recommend, but the system functions fine at their levels, it's nothing you'll need to work with now)

If you have more conflicts after that I'm sure I won't be the only one to help you. Ubuntu is a *very* good OS for compatibility and drivers, but some may be "restricted" packages that you'll have to enable (reasons being strictly legal nonsense) after installation.