nixCraft

Hi Everyone
I have hit a massive problem Ubuntu, which is a 64bit version. My problem is this: after booting up my PC, I get the usual login screen, which I enter in my user name and password, I get the desktop screen and a cursor, which does nothing, but no screen icons, taskbar or anything else. Therefore, the screen or o/s just hangs as nothing else happens.
I am not getting any error messages on boot up or login, it simply hangs there. Further, I haven't installed anything, and this has just happened over night, because the previous day it was fine. I did manage to get some help from forums, typing in ctrl/alt/f1, I went into command line and managed to login successfully with no errors, then I went tail/var/log/messages, which gave me the following messages:
gconfd(andy_6164) starting (version 2.14.0), pid 6164 user 'andy'
gconfd(andy_6164):Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read only configuration service at Position 0
gconfd(andy_6164):Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/only/.gconf" to a writeable configuration service at Position 1
gconfd(andy_6164):Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read only configuration service at Position 2
gconfd(andy_6164):Resolved address "xml:readonly:/var/lib/gconf/debian.defaults" to a read only configuration service at Position 3
gconfd(andy_6164):Resolved address "xml:readonly:/var/lib/gconf/debian.defaults" to a read only configuration service at Position 4
andy_desktop exiting on signal 15
andy_desktop syslogd 1.4.1#17 ubuntu 7.1:restart
Don't even understand what this all means, but I would really love to get my ubuntu back again.
So, please, please, someone help me as I have been without my Ubuntu for over week now and would love to get it back again!
Thanks

a) Look like your disk went into read only mode, when ubuntu boots it need to read and write few configuration options to a file.

b) You also need sufficient disk space.

Go to shell prompt and type command df and mount to get idea about both parameters:

__________________
Vivek Gite
Linux Evangelist
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Hi there

I followed what you said, and this is the result:

df -H
Size Used Avail Use Mounted On
/dev/sda1 214G 3.8G 225G 2% /
varrun 1.1G 119k 1.1G 1% /var/run
varlock 1.1G 4.1k 1.1G 1% /var/lock
udev 1.1G 164k 1.1G 1% /dev
devshm 1.1G 0 1.1G 0% /dev/shm
lrm 1.1G 23M 1.1G 3% /lib/modules/2.6.15-51-amd64-generic/volatile

mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw.errors=remount-ro)
proc on proc type proc (rw)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.15-51-amd64-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)

There is plenty of space on the hard drive as it is brand new with 250Gb

Are you able to help me?

Thanks

Looks all fine. There is only one file that can provide correct error info /var/log/Xorg.0.log. You need to go through this file and lookout for fatal errors.

__________________
Rocky Jr.
What's wrong? I hope I am not making you uncomfortable...

Never send a boy to do a mans job.

Hi

I am not entirely sure what is happening here, but when I typed in /var/log/Xorg.0.log the message I got back was Permission denied. I then tried putting info/var/log/Xorg.0.log and it said no such file or directory.

As a suggestion, and this is only because I have spent weeks on trying to find a solution, would it be better to reinstall the o/s? My worry on this is that my PC is dual boot, and I don't want to lose MS XP Prof 64bit on the other disk through accidentally writing with Linux or adding another partion of Linux on other disk.

What do you suggest, and are you able to help me, please, through this a reinstall if need be?

/var/log/Xorg.0.log is a text file, so you need to open it up is some editor. Or from shell prompt, type tail -50 /var/log/Xorg.0.log . This should give you the last 50 lines of the file which could hopefully contain the error messages.

Hi

I typed in tail -50/var/log/Xorg.0.log into the prompt after typing ctrl/alt/f1 and it didn't work. The message I got back was tail: invalid option --5. Unfortunately, I cannot use a text editor because my Linux o/s isn't giving me any desktop options, all I have is the command line after typing in ctrl/alt/f1.

Do you have any other suggestions? I suggested earlier a reinstall but I am worried about wipping out my XP, and having too many installs. If there is way of deleting the old o/s and reinstalling it without touching my XP, and would be grateful for advice and guidance

The command is :
There is a space between the parameter 50 and filename

Backup all data and reinstall os. Install Linux exactly on same partition. If you want you can install Ubunut under Windows itself without creating partition:
Wubi - Ubuntu Installer for Windows

__________________
Vivek Gite
Linux Evangelist
Be proud RHEL user, and let the world know about your enterprise choices! Join RedHat user group.
Always use CODE tags for posting system output and commands!
Do you run a Linux? Let's face it, you need help

Hi

Typing in the command again, the output at the end showed errors:

(**) Option "Device" "/dev/wacom"
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/wacom
No such file or directory
Error opening /dev/wacom : Success

This error message is repeated a number of times, and then last line says:
(II) Configured Mouse: ps2EnableDataReporting: succeeded

Does this give you any idea as to the problem and can it be fixed?

Thanks