[WiskyT]

Folks,

My wife yesterday was feeling frisky and decided to "go for it" and upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 on our laptop that was running 9.04 since it wouldn't run anything newer. Now it has a black screen and nothing more. Does anybody want to hold my hand while I try to fix the 12.04 on it, or should I just wipe it and reinstall the older version that works?

Tell me what info you need and if there is anything that can be done since the screen is black. How would I input any fixes if I can't see anything? I guess I should boot up the old version as a live disc so I can get the system info. I'll start that now.

Thanks in advance for any help, and be gentle, as I am not in any way a tech guy.

[IndyGunFreak]

If I had to guess, she attempted to upgrade 9.04 directly to 12.04 skipping releases like that, is not supported or advised (unless you're going from one LTS release, to the next LTS, which is designed for this)...

I'd nuke it and clean install 12.04. You may get it fixed, but I would expect system instability, etc. I'm a little surprised she got a popup to upgrade to 12.04, unless she tried to do this manually.

IGF

[WiskyT]

It definitely popped up on it's own, probably update manger. She wouldn't have gone looking for it. She showed me the window last night and I was half dead and I just mumbled something to the effect of "I'll look at it tomorrow". I wanted to check in here first to see if it was a good idea. But she was feeling a little adventurous, which when dealing with a free OS is understandable. There is no "data" on this computer, it is just a terminal for the kids to access their kiddie websites. So reinstalling something is not some kind of disaster. BTW, is there a limit to how many times a HD can be reformatted like this? Does it wear it each time this is done? Because this HD has had probably close to a dozen different OS's tried on it.

I have 9.04 booted up live, is there anything you need to know about the machine? I tried to boot up the 12.04 and it doesn't fully boot. I get the Gateway and then the Ubuntu screen in purple with the little dots under the word Ubuntu and then it goes black. This is the same problem I have with trying to boot 10.04 from the CD, it won't fully boot up.

[IndyGunFreak]

Originally Posted by WiskyT

It definitely popped up on it's own, probably update manger. She wouldn't have gone looking for it. She showed me the window last night and I was half dead and I just mumbled something to the effect of "I'll look at it tomorrow". I wanted to check in here first to see if it was a good idea. But she was feeling a little adventurous, which when dealing with a free OS is understandable. There is no "data" on this computer, it is just a terminal for the kids to access their kiddie websites. So reinstalling something is not some kind of disaster. BTW, is there a limit to how many times a HD can be reformatted like this? Does it wear it each time this is done? Because this HD has had probably close to a dozen different OS's tried on it.

I have 9.04 booted up live, is there anything you need to know about the machine? I tried to boot up the 12.04 and it doesn't fully boot. I get the Gateway and then the Ubuntu screen in purple with the little dots under the word Ubuntu and then it goes black. This is the same problem I have with trying to boot 10.04 from the CD, it won't fully boot up.

On the 9.04 live CD, open a terminal
type "lspci" (lowercase L) no quotes, and hit enter
Post the output.

Eventually, hard drives die.. but is there a "limit" that they can be written to? If it's an SSD (a machine that old, its not)... there is. But platter drives, not really, they just die when they die.

[WiskyT]

Originally Posted by IndyGunFreak

On the 9.04 live CD, open a terminal
type "lspci" (lowercase L) no quotes, and hit enter
Post the output.

Eventually, hard drives die.. but is there a "limit" that they can be written to? If it's an SSD (a machine that old, its not)... there is. But platter drives, not really, they just die when they die.

How soon can you get here? There's a lot of stuff there. I'll see if I can make a screen shot and transfer it to a USB stick to the computer I'm talking to you on.

[IndyGunFreak]

Originally Posted by WiskyT

How soon can you get here? There's a lot of stuff there. I'll see if I can make a screen shot and transfer it to a USB stick to the computer I'm talking to you on.

You should just be able to copy/paste it.

Highlight it all (hold left click, highlight all the text) release left click, right click, copy.

then go to a post in GT, and right click/paste.

[IndyGunFreak]

Originally Posted by IndyGunFreak

You should just be able to copy/paste it.

Highlight it all (hold left click, highlight all the text) release left click, right click, copy.

then go to a post in GT, and right click/paste.

Wait, now I see... that machine is not on the internet(I was thinking it was)...

Really the main thing I want to know, is the graphics adapter.

The graphics adapter line will look something like this:


00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)

[WiskyT]

Originally Posted by IndyGunFreak

You should just be able to copy/paste it.

Highlight it all (hold left click, highlight all the text) release left click, right click, copy.

then go to a post in GT, and right click/paste.

I can't get that machine to the internet at this moment because I'm too far for an ethernet cable and the wifi needs Broadcom drivers that aren't in the live disk. I sent the screenshot to photbucket and hopefully the resolution will be good enough. We'll see in a minute.

[WiskyT]

.....

[IndyGunFreak]

Originally Posted by WiskyT

Well, I'm not seeing anything there (just a 404.. did you post the link right?)

IGF

[WiskyT]

Originally Posted by IndyGunFreak

Well, I'm not seeing anything there (just a 404.. did you post the link right?)

IGF

IDK WTF is going on with it. It's up on Photobucket but the link shows nothing. I wonder if PB is screwing up? I'll play with it a little.

[WiskyT]

This is exactly what is one the address bar. The album is "public".

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/...reenshot-1.png

[IndyGunFreak]

Originally Posted by WiskyT

IDK WTF is going on with it. It's up on Photobucket but the link shows nothing. I wonder if PB is screwing up? I'll play with it a little.

If you can just look and tell me what it says your VGA device is, that's fine.

[WiskyT]

[IndyGunFreak]

I'm almost sure this is a graphics problem, but that Intel device should work fine w/ Ubuntu.

Do you know how much RAM that system has?

[WiskyT]

BTW, I have no objection to burning a 12.04 CD and installing it except I'm pretty sure that won't work since it is doing the same thing with it installed as it was with other newer Ubuntu versions, it hangs while booting up. I don't know that it is a display problem, the display may be showing what is going on, nothing is going on.

[WiskyT]

Originally Posted by IndyGunFreak

I'm almost sure this is a graphics problem, but that Intel device should work fine w/ Ubuntu.

Do you know how much RAM that system has?

According to System Monitor, "Memory" is 740.9 MiB

[IndyGunFreak]

Originally Posted by WiskyT

According to System Monitor, "Memory" is 740.9 MiB

Well that explains why it won't boot the Live CD (Live CD's usually require at least 1gig of RAM). I'm surprised it even booted the 9.04 live CD It's honestly even pushing it for a "Ubuntu" 12.04 install.

What I would do:

Download the Lubuntu 12.04 Alternate Install CD.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/re...rnate-i386.iso

You'll obviously need a blank CD to burn.

Use the Alternate Install CD, to install Lubuntu. It'll be better with that little bit of RAM anyway (the interface will be a little different from the Gnome interface your'e used to, but it's easy to use).

The only thing is, the Alternate CD, is a text based installation.... not a Live CD. It's not hard, it's just different.

If you want to try that, but aren't sure of yourself... I'm gonna leave and will be back in about 30min. I can set up chatroom on IRC, and tell you how to get on it... and I'll talk you through it. When doing an OS install, it's a lot easier to chat in real time, vs a message board.

If you don't know how to burn the CD, don't worry about it, just download that file above, and when I get back, I'll talk you through that to.

IGF

[WiskyT]

Originally Posted by IndyGunFreak

Well that explains why it won't boot the Live CD (Live CD's usually require at least 1gig of RAM). I'm surprised it even booted the 9.04 live CD It's honestly even pushing it for a "Ubuntu" 12.04 install.

What I would do:

Download the Lubuntu 12.04 Alternate Install CD.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/re...rnate-i386.iso

You'll obviously need a blank CD to burn.

Use the Alternate Install CD, to install Lubuntu. It'll be better with that little bit of RAM anyway (the interface will be a little different from the Gnome interface your'e used to, but it's easy to use).

The only thing is, the Alternate CD, is a text based installation.... not a Live CD. It's not hard, it's just different.

If you want to try that, but aren't sure of yourself... I'm gonna leave and will be back in about 30min. I can set up chatroom on IRC, and tell you how to get on it... and I'll talk you through it. When doing an OS install, it's a lot easier to chat in real time, vs a message board.

If you don't know how to burn the CD, don't worry about it, just download that file above, and when I get back, I'll talk you through that to.

IGF

I can burn the CD as I have done others. I think it takes time to download the ISO file though. I'll get to work on the CD in the meantime. I have no idea what IRC is. If it would be easier to talk on the phone, I could call you. Whatever you prefer.

[IndyGunFreak]

OK, I'm back. Assuming you have the CD burned
Go to this link on the working computer.... http://webchat.freenode.net/
where it says Channel: indygunfreak
Type you see in the "reCaptcha" image, in the box beside "Reload" If it's hard to read, you can click reload, and it will load a new image.
Click Connect.

I'll be there waiting on you.

[WiskyT]

I'm in the chat, but I don't see a place to type. The ISO is downloaded and I'm going to burn the CD

[WiskyT]

I don't have any kind of cursor or box to type in the chat. I see your responses, but can't find a way to answer.

[IndyGunFreak]

What a pain in the rump...lol (not Wisky's fault)

Took a lot longer than I thought it would, but Mission Accomplished.

For the experienced folks, listen to this.

Apparently now if you boot Ubuntu, and it has a Broadcom device that requires the b43 driver.. it ceases to boot and drops to a console telling you to install the driver manually and a link to download the driver. Yeah, that wont scare a new user!..lol. Over a freaking wireless device?

Took some Googling and what not, found some bug reports on it, but eventually it dawned on me to blacklist the b43 module, and it booted up just fine. Then we installed the b43 driver, and all was right in the world. We finished about an hour ago, and was just doing some updating, installing codecs, etc.

Be a lot of support issues on that one, that's for sure.

IGF

[WiskyT]

HA! "Indy" huh? As in INDIA I presume? It was like chatting with tech support to India except his English is really good.

[WiskyT]

Actually, it was like this:

YouTube (Short URL)

YouTube (Short URL)