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I'm unable to access my Ubuntu 14.04 or Win XP partitions. When I try to log in to Ubuntu sometimes I get to the password point and my mouse stops working, or I get a black screen before that and nothing happens, and once I was able to log in but got a black screen after that.

I've tried various options such as recovery mode, repair broken packages, repairing GRUB (via boot repair on a trial Ubuntu USB), and I'm unable to run it in low graphics recovery mode.

After boot repair the url given was: http://paste.ubuntu.com/11213026

The splash screen is visible but moves so fast I'm unable to identify what issues there might be.

If I'm able to access a terminal screen what command can I use to diagnose the problem (and then how to fix it)?

I've been unable to access my (smaller) Win XP partition since doing the boot repair, so presumably that damaged the XP system and needs to be fixed as well.

I'm currently accessing the net via a trial Ubuntu USB.

I would really appreciate any suggestions, thank you.

Nvidia G72M graphics card, Quadro NVS 110M/Geoforce Go 7300 video controller, Ubuntu 14.04, Xfce interface, 32-bit, Dell Latitude D620M, Intel Core 2 processor 1.83 GHz, 2GB RAM

UPDATE (20/5): I realised it must be a graphics issue so tried a new driver. The nouveau one sometimes worked but has frequently been faulty.

I installed nvidia-346 (via xorg ppa instructions I found), which is working but is also faulty; it doesn't recognise my external monitor so I have to use laptop screen. Also my external speakers weren't recognised initially (no sound unless I disconnect them), but are now going again, and the splash screen script is very large.

When I choose XP it starts loading and then after a bit goes to a black screen, without the desktop ever appearing. I have no idea how to fix that.

Lake
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1 Answers1

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From the looks of your paste, it seems like there shouldn't be any issue booting Windows XP. Nevertheless, a sudo update-grub may help out.

As far as the blank/frozen screen at the login, this seems like a graphics/driver issue. Apparently, Noveau (the open source Nvidia driver) doesn't work well with your card. So, the proprietary drivers may be needed.

By going to Geforce.com, you can determine the specific proprietary driver version for your card by doing a search for your card. In your case, the correct driver is the 304 series. This can be installed from the repositories via the command: sudo apt-get install nvidia-304.

After this has been done, reboot the computer and you should have a fully functioning display.

In the comments of your question, it appears that you're still having issues setting the "primary" monitor that displays the window manager (i.e. Unity, Gnome Shell, etc.) If I understand correctly, you want to use your external monitor as the primary display so that it shows the Unity launcher, Gnome Shell Activities bar, etc.

Luckily, I have a little bit of experience with this and I remember most of it! First though, let me explain the issue that I had.

I would leave my HDMI cable plugged into my laptop. If I started up my laptop with the HDMI cable plugged in, X would always place my external monitor to the right of my laptop's LVDS monitor. This is not what I wanted since my external monitor was physically to the left of my laptop and lead to some confusion. No matter how I configured the monitor in the Gnome Display or Nvidia configurations, it would always default to this behavior if I entered the login screen with the HDMI cabled plugged in. It seemed that the Gnome/Nvidia settings would only apply if the cable were plugged in after X started.

However, I found that if I left the HDMI cable unplugged until I got past the login screen, that my settings from nvidia-settings/GNOME would be applied correctly. At least, I think this was the case (it's been quite a while, honestly). However, I do remember setting something up for OpenBox specifically. In the file ~/.config/openbox/autostart I added the following lines:

xrandr --output HDMI-0 --left-of LVDS-0
xrandr --output HDMI-0 --primary #Make sure the desktop is on the HDMI monitor

Essentially, what this does is force my configuration no matter how it was originally loaded. In order to find your specific monitor names, use the command xrandr -q. I believe you can place the same lines above (modified to your own display names from xrandr -q) into ~/.config/xdg/autostart to have the settings apply to all desktop environments as soon as they are loaded and force your preferred configuration.

Chuck R
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