Ubuntu desktop flashing

[computathug]

I have installed Ubuntu a while ago on a old laptop (IBM X31) which has no internal CD/DVD drive so installed it via USB. Now the problem is i have lent my drive to a friend in another city which is 150 miles away from me and dont have access to any other external input device to boot from.

The laptop is looding and gets as far as the desktop and then continually flashes on and off. The sequence stays on long enough for me to get into the menu to close it down but not long enough to do any thing else.

Any idea's appreciated

[lykos]

What version of ubuntu are you using?


~[lykos]~

[computathug]

The latest version, not beta, i think its 11.04

[bad_brain]

hm, see if you can drop into textmode (Ctrl+Alt+F1) and then check /var/log/syslog....

[lykos]

Are you using ubuntu or ubuntu classic? Unity or gnome?

~[lykos]~

[computathug]

I was using the default one but i have swithched to ubuntu classic (no effects) and has stemmed the situation temporarily till i can problem solve this MOFO

Cheers guys, il post the solution once i have found one, seems its a bug in Ubuntu, some have found a fix for their machines while others haven't.

[lykos]

u wouldnt happen to have compiz installed would you?

~[lykos]~

[computathug]

no not installed compiz on this machine, its that old i have i wouldn't even dream of it

[maboroshi]

I had the same issue on Ubuntu 11.04 when you get to your login screen (or if it doesn't appear) type: Ctrl+Alt+F1


then when your in the shell type

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

enter your password

at this point it should still be flashing and it would seem as if nothing happened reboot then it should have worked

[computathug]

Tried that yesterday buddy and that never worked, it seems fine using the ubunto classic no effects desktop but cheers anyway

[bad_brain]

I assume the g-card/driver simply didn't supported 3D hardware acceleration, but who needs those fancy desktop effects anyway...