# Ubuntu Crashes after login



## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

I have used Ubuntu 8.10 for about 3 months and had no problem with it. Today when I have started the computer up, and booted into ubuntu everything worked fine untill I logged in with my Username and Password. Then a Multi-Coloured screen popped up. The login sound played and that's all. 

The Multi Coloured lines were vertically positioned and different colours. Aka Ubuntu Multi-Coloured Screen of Death.

Do you know why it happened and how can I fix this? 

Thank You!

P.S. I use Windows XP SP3 with Ubuntu 8.10 double b00t.

My Graphics card is NviDIA 7800GS


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## wmorri (May 29, 2008)

Hi,

Welcome to TSF!!

I would like you to try something. When you boot into Ubuntu, when you reach the login screen I would like you press CTRL + ALT + F3. This should load you into a command prompt that takes over you entire screen. From there I would like you to try and log in. 

Next I want you to try this command

```
startx [color=blue] this is all one word[/color]
```
See if this will start your desktop for you. If it does then we can start to eliminate some of the possible culprits.

Cheers!


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

Thank you for your reply!

When I reached the login screen I tryed to do as you said

Ctrl + Alt + F3

But this didn't do anything.

I am using Ubuntu 8.10 again and not the default login screen, I am using an installed login screen which comes with my theme.

What should I do?


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## wmorri (May 29, 2008)

Hi,

I would try doing CTRL + ALT + F1-10, I am not sure which one it is. I just know that it is F3 for Fedora.

Cheers!


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

I have tryed all the combinations of 

Ctrl + Alt + F3-12

and none of them did anything.


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## wmorri (May 29, 2008)

Hi,

I am still working on a solution for you. I just haven't come up with a good answer yet. But, I will have one for you.

EDIT: I am wondering if you have any of the desktop effects enabled. I have found a lot of people are having problems with the effects, which can cause problems. 

Cheers!


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

wmorri said:


> EDIT: I am wondering if you have any of the desktop effects enabled. I have found a lot of people are having problems with the effects, which can cause problems.


Thanks for your help. And yes, I have Compiz Fusion installed and Enabled effects.


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## wmorri (May 29, 2008)

Hi,

That is good and bad. It seems like that might be the root of the problem. I am going to see if I can figure out how to uninstall them for now, and see if that fixes it. I need to contact another member and see if they can help me with that, because I am not sure how to do it.

Cheers!


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## Rome5 (Nov 25, 2008)

Just curious, after the system locks, how do you reboot? Manually or does CTRL+ALT+DEL work? Wmorri's right in that you should be able to access a virtual terminal with CTRL+ALT+F1-F6, so perhaps the keyboard is not responding at all.

Instead of choosing the first Ubuntu option on GRUB's menu, choose the 'recovery' option. This should boot in a 'safe mode'. All you need is a command line. If that fails, you can use either single user mode or a live CD to edit a few files, but only if the recovery mode fails.


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

Rome5 said:


> Just curious, after the system locks, how do you reboot? Manually or does CTRL+ALT+DEL work? Wmorri's right in that you should be able to access a virtual terminal with CTRL+ALT+F1-F6, so perhaps the keyboard is not responding at all.
> 
> Instead of choosing the first Ubuntu option on GRUB's menu, choose the 'recovery' option. This should boot in a 'safe mode'. All you need is a command line. If that fails, you can use either single user mode or a live CD to edit a few files, but only if the recovery mode fails.


Hi,

My keyboard works because I can type in my username and password. 

And thanks, I will try recovery mode and see how it goes.

Poka!


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## Rome5 (Nov 25, 2008)

The keyboard works for login, but I was wondering about after -- when the system locks up.

I'm not sure whether or not compiz runs in recovery mode, but if it doesn't work, single user mode will do the trick -- actually what it's meant for.


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

I have logged into terminal at recovery mode and typed in

startx

and it still crashed.

Maybe I have to reinstall Ubuntu, what you think I should do?

Thanks.

And also I got this error when I opened Firefox in Windows -


```
NVIDIA display driver files from different (incompatible)
versions of the driver have been detected.

NVIDIA OpenGL acceleration is disabled in order to
maintain system stability.

To resolve this problem, update the NVIDIA display driver. 
The latest driver is available at www.nvidia.com.
```
And I have updated my drivers but the error still persist. Is this affecting ubuntu aswell?


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

simplejack said:


> I have logged into terminal at recovery mode and typed in
> 
> startx
> 
> ...


I have Uninstalled and Installed the Nvidia drivers, and now the error is gone. 

But Ubuntu still crashes..

Waiting for your reply


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## wmorri (May 29, 2008)

Hi,



> The keyboard works for login, but I was wondering about after -- when the system locks up.
> 
> I'm not sure whether or not compiz runs in recovery mode, but if it doesn't work, single user mode will do the trick -- actually what it's meant for.


Have you tried running in recovery mode, and single user mode. If so then we can try a couple of different things. But, I am curious about that first.

Cheers!


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

wmorri said:


> Hi,
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for reply,

I finally know what is the problem.

I went to recovery mode and selected "Try to fix X server".
When it finished I selected "Resume boot".
Then it went to login screen but in low resolution. I was able to login with no crashes, but still in low resolution. 
I saw that my Nvidia graphics card drivers 177 (latest version, which are labelled "recommended") is deactivated. So were drivers version 99 and 173 were deactivated. 
So then I uninstalled Compiz Fusion from Add/Remove Programs and Activated nvidia drivers 177.
When I rebooted, after the login the system crashed as before. 
Then I went and Tryed to Fix X Server again, and when I booted into Ubuntu in low resolution I activated nvidia 173 instead of 177. But this didn't work either...

So my conclusion is that there is some incompatibility issue with my Nvidia 7800 GS graphics card.

What do you think ?


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

OK, I have erased Ubuntu partition using my Windows Installation CD.

Thanks for all your help. 

I'm waiting for Ubuntu 9.04 to come out!


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## machiner (Apr 9, 2009)

Well, the error was clearly spelled out to you -- too many version of the nvidia driver on your system. You went a little overboard installing nvidia and you probably tried it 2 different ways?

I dunno -- guessing. However, your system *will* do strange things when display is involved if your drivers are somehow not right.

Yours were not. Too bad you went back to Windows. This was an itty-bitty problem and life is full of these. Solving them is usually the right thing to do.


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

machiner said:


> Well, the error was clearly spelled out to you -- too many version of the nvidia driver on your system. You went a little overboard installing nvidia and you probably tried it 2 different ways?
> 
> I dunno -- guessing. However, your system *will* do strange things when display is involved if your drivers are somehow not right.
> 
> Yours were not. Too bad you went back to Windows. This was an itty-bitty problem and life is full of these. Solving them is usually the right thing to do.


Yes, but no one it seemed really wanted to respond and give some tips on what to try. So I decided to get my 10gb back if I'm not using it.


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## Rome5 (Nov 25, 2008)

Sorry, simplejack, classes have taken up quite a bit of my time lately.

Your card is supported by nvidia. Likely compiz or a certain setting caused the breakage. The open source driver (the low res display) did work also, so you had something to fall back on just in case. Tweaking xorg.conf could have given you better resolution.

Might have purged the system of nvidia-glx drivers/settings, and started from scratch. Run nvidia-config or dpkg-reconfigure to setup a new xorg.conf file and then tweak bit by bit until things are as desired. Also helps to narrow down the trouble spot.


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## wmorri (May 29, 2008)

simplejack said:


> OK, I have erased Ubuntu partition using my Windows Installation CD.
> 
> Thanks for all your help.
> 
> I'm waiting for Ubuntu 9.04 to come out!


Why don't you just try doing a fresh install and then seeing if that will fix the problem, since you deleted Ubuntu. You should be able to get it working from a fresh install.

Cheers!


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## simplejack (Mar 21, 2009)

wmorri said:


> Why don't you just try doing a fresh install and then seeing if that will fix the problem, since you deleted Ubuntu. You should be able to get it working from a fresh install.
> 
> Cheers!


lol, yes I did just that, but I installed Fedora10 instead of Ubuntu. But.. Fedora was a big fail..

It was slow and sometimes crashed when I was using "yum", browsers are suuper slow! (even firefox), and y choice of KDE desktop was wrong.. Go GNOME!

So, what have I done? I installed to good ol' Ubuntu 8.10!

Now because I have experience using it I made it look slick and awesome (without compiz-fusion), I know which apps to install, and got a linux manual book from my library, learning how linux works and that.

So yea, thanks for all your help, when I have a problem which I can't resolve, I will surely ask you guys on TSF!

:grin:


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## wmorri (May 29, 2008)

Glad you were able to figure it out. I am not sure what went wrong with fedora but if you have a distro that you like that is the key.

Come back whenever you have any questions.

Cheers!


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