[Ubuntu 8.10] Can't boot into UI

DC5_ITR

I am trying to install Ubuntu 8.10 on a Dell XPS desktop. Hard drives are SATA and my graphics cards are 2 x nVidia 8800 GTX in SLI mode. I cannot boot into a UI even from the LiveCD. I entered "startx" at the prompt that appeared when it failed to boot the LiveCD even and was told that it could not find a graphics card in a PCI slot and halted. My graphics cards are in PCIe slots.

Can anyone tell me how I can boot into the UI successfully with this setup or if it is even possible please?

P.S. When I try running the 'installed' version, it bombs out and stops at a "BusyBox" prompt @ "initframs" or something like that.


Any help appreciated.

Blowfish

There was definitely an issue with SLI and the nVidia drivers, though I wouldn't have thought it affected the live CD.

Still though, pull out one card and see if it will boot with just one.

An Fear Aniar

Hi, you could try

nvidia-xconfig

or

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

PogMoThoin

Blowfish wrote: »

There was definitely an issue with SLI and the nVidia drivers, though I wouldn't have thought it affected the live CD.

Still though, pull out one card and see if it will boot with just one.

There were major issues with Ubuntu and the 8800 series gpu's, but I thought these were sorted now. Sli will not be supported, but you should run on a single gpu. When installed You'll have to enable the restricted nvidia driver.

Orion

I had Ubuntu 7.04 and then 8.10 running on an 8800 GTS for over a year without any problems until the card itself died. SLI could be the issue but it's not an 8800 series issue.

[edit]that reads wrong - I had 7.04 running on an 8800GTS for over a year then updated to 8.10 and it worked perfectly. The card died in November.

PogMoThoin

There were loads of problems with the 8800 series


There was a bug in Edgy and Feisty. There is a fix that worked on this page

HTH

Orion

Wow. I had no problems with Feisty at all with the 8800.

DC5_ITR

Thanks all for posts.

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

Hi, you could try

nvidia-xconfig

or

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

I booted the LiveCD and when it bombed as usual and stopped at the "ubuntu@ubuntu:~$" prompt, I tried as you suggested.

I entered "nvidia -xconfig" and the message returned was:

"-bash: nvidia: Command not found"

I then entered "sudo dpkg -reconfigure -phigh xserver -xorg" and the message returned was:

"dpkg: Conflicting actions -e (--control) and -r (--remove)"


I am a complete Linux newbie attempting to learn it, so apologies if I've done something silly that would appear obvious to an experience Linux user.

I read the other thread linked but the menu system does not appear to display the same options in 8.10 as listed in the launchpad thread?

Any further help would be appreciated to get it up and running.

Blowfish

Once you are at the prompt, type this and tell us what you get:

more /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE

An Fear Aniar

DC5_ITR wrote: »

I then entered "sudo dpkg -reconfigure -phigh xserver -xorg" and the message returned was:

"dpkg: Conflicting actions -e (--control) and -r (--remove)"

You have a gap there, it should be "xserver-xorg"

I don't even know if those command would do any good though. Have you actually managed to install Ubuntu, or are you getting stuck with the Live CD? One thing to try is the Alternate Install CD, might work that way.


.

Morlar

Not sure how helpful it would be but there are updated nvidia linux drivers as of about a week ago. I read this post after downloading the ubuntu 8.10 and was going to put it on a dual card SATA xps to get rid of the mandriva currently on there but think I will hold off on that for a while after reading some of the links here.

DC5_ITR

Blowfish wrote: »

Once you are at the prompt, type this and tell us what you get:

more /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE

When I ran this, the following was displayed:

(II) Loading extension MIT_SCREEN_SAVER
(EE) No devices detected

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

You have a gap there, it should be "xserver-xorg"

I don't even know if those command would do any good though. Have you actually managed to install Ubuntu, or are you getting stuck with the Live CD? One thing to try is the Alternate Install CD, might work that way.


.

I enetered the command correctly this time and was told:

dpkg-reconfigure must be run as root

The prompt is "ubuntu@ubuntu:~$" when booting from the LiveCD. How do I change to "root" so I can run the "dpkg-reconfigure" command?


Thanks again for all assistance.

An Fear Aniar

DC5_ITR wrote: »

I enetered the command correctly this time and was told:

dpkg-reconfigure must be run as root

The prompt is "ubuntu@ubuntu:~$" when booting from the LiveCD. How do I change to "root" so I can run the "dpkg-reconfigure" command?


Thanks again for all assistance.

Type "sudo su" to get to be root. I'm not usre it will work with the live cd but worth a try.

It might be better if you download the alternate install CD, the installer doesn't use fancy graphics but it's exactly the same.

.

Blowfish

DC5_ITR wrote: »

When I ran this, the following was displayed:

(II) Loading extension MIT_SCREEN_SAVER
(EE) No devices detected

Ah, interesting. Try this for me.

When at the prompt, type:

lspci | grep VGA

That should bring up something similar to this:

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GTS 512 (rev a2)
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GTS 512 (rev a2)

Make a note of the numbers at the start of both lines (03.00.0 and 04.00.0 in this case). It's essentially your PCI Bus ID.

Next, type this:

more /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Scroll down using spacebar until you see a section called 'Device'. Does this section have a line for a matching BusID? e.g. a line saying:

BusID       "3:0:0"

DC5_ITR

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

Type "sudo su" to get to be root. I'm not usre it will work with the live cd but worth a try.

It might be better if you download the alternate install CD, the installer doesn't use fancy graphics but it's exactly the same.

.

"sudo su" did switch me to root mode and let me run the "dpkg" command, but it didn't actually appear to do anything. No error message appeared however either. The CD I'm using is one of the Ubuntu CD's that get mailed to you. There are options for verbose and turn can delete the "quiet splash" parameters, but the screen just fills up with various boot information before settling at the same prompt as if booting direct into the LiveCD.

Blowfish wrote: »

Ah, interesting. Try this for me.

When at the prompt, type:

lspci | grep VGA

That should bring up something similar to this:

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GTS 512 (rev a2)
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GTS 512 (rev a2)

Make a note of the numbers at the start of both lines (03.00.0 and 04.00.0 in this case). It's essentially your PCI Bus ID.

Next, type this:

more /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Scroll down using spacebar until you see a section called 'Device'. Does this section have a line for a matching BusID? e.g. a line saying:

BusID       "3:0:0"

lspci | grep VGA

gives me:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G80 [GeForce 8800 GTX] (rev a2)
06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G80 [GeForce 8800 GTX] (rev a2)

more /etc/X11/xorg.conf

has no mention of a "BusID". It has the comments wall of text and one single section in it:

Section "Device"
     Identifier     "Configured Video Device"
     Driver         "vesa"
EndSection

If this won't work for my system, can anyone recommend a flavour that isn't an Ubuntu mix that may work?


Thanks for all assistance and posts.

An Fear Aniar

Give the alternate installer a try:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors#alternate

It's text based, so it can do the install without requiring fancy graphics.


Also, I've seen people say PCLinuxOS installs for them where Ubuntu won't.

I'd recommend giving Linux Mint a try as well - it worked on my friends machine when Ubuntu kept stalling during the install.


.

DC5_ITR

Just downloaded and installed Linux Mint and am getting the exact same problems as Ubuntu. The "BusyBox" Ash thing even says Ubuntu in the text that appears! Is Linux Mint another flavour of Ubuntu?

Anyway, seems this just isn't meant to work on this system - it installs and funs fine on my old Alienware A51, so I'll just have to wait and try the next Ubuntu release on the Dell I guess.

Thanks for all help anyway.