[SOLVED] Ubuntu new install won't load

[applemao]

I"m new, so hello y'all.

anyways, i have an older system i got from my school with 300 some mb ram and a maxtor 20 gig hd. it was formatted and i had ubuntu 8.10 installed on it (i don't have 10.04 yet). everything installed fine, but when i start it up, i can log in and everything, but instead of loading a desktop, it shows a brown screen.

anybody know whats up? thanks.

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome.
A brown screen? Do you see icons or anything? Is the screen garbled/fuzzy? Any idea what kind of video card you have? Boot up the install disk and open a terminal window and issue this command please.

lspci |grep -i vga

[yancek]

i had ubuntu 8.10 installed on it (i don't have 10.04 yet)

Does that mean you are trying to install Ubuntu 10.04? With 300MB of RAM, I would not expect it to work as the Ubuntu page indicates a minimum of 512MB RAM with 1GB recommended.

Your post isn't clear as to what you are trying to do. You said you had 8.10 already installed so...?

[applemao]

i have installed ubuntu 8.10 twice now, and i still get the problem.

better explanation: i have 8.10 installed right now. i can log in, but then it is just a solid brown desktop with nothing on it but the pointer. i have just noticed that the pc also does not show the ubuntu loading screen when starting up. i have an integrated graphics card on an intel board. i have another machine a lot like it and i don't get this problem at all.

and ubuntu works fine with 300 mb ram, imo.

sorry but i'm bad at explaining. should i install 7.10 instead and then update? i formatted it using the guided (use entire disk) option. could this be the problem?

[yancek]

and ubuntu works fine with 300 mb ram, imo.

I was referring to Ubuntu 10.04 which according to their website, requires 512MB RAM. Don't know about your earlier version of Ubuntu. Should be good.

I think it would help if you posted the info requested by MikeTbob earlier. Use the Live CD and: sudo lspci |grep -i vga
.

[applemao]

WAHOOOOO i just solved the problem!!!

so i took the hd out of the old mochine and put it in a older but newer machine, and it ran fine.

i found out that the problem doth lie in lack of GRAPHICS.

you guys were right (of course!) so thank all of you!

[MikeTbob]

Glad you got it working, feel free to mark this thread as solved whenever you are ready.