Ubuntu was working fine; but then...

[M4A1]

Hi, I have Ubuntu 6.06 (with Grub - XPas well)

It was working fine for the past month, until I changed the way I log in!!! Specifically, the "login screen" through the system > Login Screen preferences.

Now it says X has failed to start. It won't run under recovery mode either. Once I'm prompted to login, I'm given a command prompt. Is there anyway to change it back to normal?

(I'm arunning AMD Athlon, ATI Radeon xpress 200m - with a 15gb partition for linux)

Thanks!

 

[Law]

Can you login through the shell then execute startx ?

 

[Meithan]

I had that problem too, and it's usually due to video drivers incompatibility.. Now, when you power up your computer, are there several options in GRUB? In my case, I get two different kernel options. One of them works with my video drivers (the newest kernel), the other does not.

 

[The General]

@Meithan - You need to reinstall your video drivers while booted to the new kernel.

@M4A1 - It wasn't the fact that you changed the login screen that broke it, it was the automatied updates that broke it. Probably installed a new kernel and your video drivers need to be reinstalled, that or it updated some parts of X that aren't compatible with your video drivers. You can thank the Ubuntu team for that, it really makes things useful. Linux for human beings my arse!

 

[M4A1]

ahh!! That makes sense too, I think I did update.

How can I revert back to my old Ubuntu settings? I know this is very ambiguous, but am I doomed?

What can I do?

 

[Law]

No..just reinstall the video card again if you updated to a new kernel release.

If there's something offset in your xorg.conf file, you can run Xorg -configure and it will try and guess the right settings for you. Usually the new file will be saved in /root/xorg.conf.new where you will have to first backup your old xorg.conf then copy the new one to the /etc/X11/ directory and rename it.

 

[Sevoma]

Actually, if it was broken by an update, chances are you can fix it with one. Loging at the command promp and type this:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Reboot, and hopefully it will work.

 

[Meithan]

@The General - Yes, I know, I fixed that issue a long ago, just pointing out what I did to fix it.

Reinstalling video drivers under the new config (from the command line after you login) is a good idea.

 

[M4A1]

ok it's fixed.

two questions:

1) can I view my files on my other partition (windows) from linux and vice versa?

2) how do i change the desktop icon size?

i'm on ubunu 6.06, thanks!

 

[Sevoma]

1) can I view my files on my other partition (windows) from linux and vice versa?
System->Administration->Disks
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm

2) how do i change the desktop icon size?
Open Nautilus window (Places->Home), and click on Edit->Preferences