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Booting to low graphic mode

Hi all,

Ubuntu 12.04 64bit

Just having run upgrade kernel and 2 addition packages (pls see attached files). Computer can't be booted.

Warning:
The system is running in low graphic mode .......

I'm now compelled booting previous kernel. On googling I found many similar problems (old threads) with many suggestions. I hesitate which shall I follow. Please help

TIA

Rgds
satimis

Is it possible that you have installed a video driver manually (not using your distro's repository)?
This is the most likely cause for behavior like that: If you manually install a video driver you will have to re-install it every time you get a kernel update.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD (Post 5081965)

Hi,

Sorry, I couldn't recall exactly whether using the video driver or Ubuntu driver. This box have been running at least >5 years. Last time changing a new hard disc was >1 year ago. So far I could recall is that I haven't installed the driver supplied by the mobo. It would be difficult for me to find it. Additionally this PC has been update/upgrade many times after changing the hard disc but without problem.

Rgds
satimis

When you are booted into your older kernel, what is the output of "lsmod"? That should tell you what graphics driver you are using. What hardware or computer model are you working with? What graphics hardware is used?

Quote:

Originally Posted by purevw (Post 5082199)

Hi,

$ lsmod

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by

pci_stub              12622  1 

vboxpci                23237  0 

vboxnetadp            25670  0 

vboxnetflt            27612  0 

rfcomm                47604  0 

vboxdrv              320300  3 vboxpci,vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt

bnep                  18281  2 

bluetooth            180113  10 rfcomm,bnep

parport_pc            32866  0 

ppdev                  17113  0 

snd_hda_codec_hdmi    32530  1 

snd_hda_codec_via      51474  1 

snd_hda_intel          33719  4 

snd_hda_codec        127706  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_via,snd_hda_intel

snd_hwdep              17764  1 snd_hda_codec

snd_pcm                97275  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec

snd_seq_midi          13324  0 

snd_rawmidi            30748  1 snd_seq_midi

snd_seq_midi_event    14899  1 snd_seq_midi

snd_seq                61929  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event

joydev                17693  0 

radeon                808783  3 

ttm                    76949  1 radeon

mac_hid                13253  0 

sp5100_tco            13791  0 

drm_kms_helper        46978  1 radeon

drm                  241971  5 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper

i2c_algo_bit          13423  1 radeon

psmouse                97519  0 

i2c_piix4              13301  0 

serio_raw              13211  0 

k10temp                13166  0 

snd_timer              29990  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq

snd_seq_device        14540  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq

snd                    79041  18 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_via,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device

wmi                    19256  0 

edac_core              53746  0 

bridge                90989  0 

stp                    12976  1 bridge

shpchp                37201  0 

edac_mce_amd          23709  0 

lp                    17799  0 

soundcore              15091  1 snd

snd_page_alloc        18529  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

asus_atk0110          18078  0 

parport                46562  3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp

usbhid                47238  0 

hid                    99883  1 usbhid

pata_atiixp            13204  0 

firewire_ohci          41000  0 

firewire_core          63600  1 firewire_ohci

crc_itu_t              12707  1 firewire_core

floppy                70207  0 

atl1e                  42078  0

I suppose "radeon"

This is a spare box not used daily. I have run update and upgrade many times never coming into current trouble. I'm very surprised

Rgds
satimis

Just to chime in here to add some more since I have had this issue many times.

This should tell you what graphics card you have:

Code:

lspci | grep VGA

This command should tell you what happened at boot up:

Code:

dmesg | grep -i error

To get to a terminal you may have to use CTRL-ALT-F1, or use SSH.

To reset your current graphics configuration (and use the open source drivers) you could move your config file.

Code:

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak

Then restart the computer and see if you can uninstall your drivers for the graphics card, and then reinstall. The proper way to do that will vary with the video card you have.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtrawoger (Post 5082352)

Just to chime in here to add some more since I have had this issue many times.

This should tell you what graphics card you have:

Code:

lspci | grep VGA

This command should tell you what happened at boot up:

Code:

dmesg | grep -i error

To get to a terminal you may have to use CTRL-ALT-F1, or use SSH.

To reset your current graphics configuration (and use the open source drivers) you could move your config file.

Code:

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak

Then restart the computer and see if you can uninstall your drivers for the graphics card, and then reinstall. The proper way to do that will vary with the video card you have.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

$ lspci | grep VGA

Code:

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS780D [Radeon HD 3300]

$ dmesg | grep -i error

Code:

[  11.052356] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro

[  14.459909] [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Invalid command stream !

I haven't run following command yet;

Code:

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak

Wonder whether it is problem of the graphic card driver, to avoid making the old kernel not working,

Rgds
satimis

Hi all,

Problem solved with running;

Code:

wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.117_all.deb



sudo dpkg -i linux-firmware_1.117_all.deb

Now I can boot the new kernel but another problem coming out - menu bar disappeared after login as administrator-satimis only the background displayed.

If login as guest the menu-bar displayed. On /home the folder /satimis is lost.

On terminal I can't
su satimis
su root

Operation is not permitted

How can I restore satimis login to display the menu bar? Thanks

satimis

Do you have a separate /home-partition? If so, is it mounted?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD (Post 5083031)

Do you have a separate /home-partition? If so, is it mounted?

No.

$ sudo fdisk -l

Code:

/dev/sda1  *  Linux

/dev/sda2    Extended

/dev/sda3    Linux

/dev/sda5    Linux swap /Solaris

satimis

Code:

/dev/sda1  *  Linux

/dev/sda2    Extended

/dev/sda3    Linux

/dev/sda5    Linux swap /Solaris

That shows that you have two Linux partitions plus a swap. I imagine that one of them, probably /dev/sda3 , is /home,but that may not be correct. Can you post the contents of /etc/fstab so that we can see how those partitions are to be mounted?

Quote:

menu bar disappeared after login as administrator-satimis only the background displayed.

If /home is not mounted, then the system won't be able to find the desktop settings for administrator-satimis. are there no error pop-ups when you log in? Verifying that /home is mounted via /etc/fstab is the first step.

Quote:

On terminal I can't
su satimis
su root

Although I am able to achieve root by running "su root", normally I simply type "su" and am then prompted for my root password. I am also able to run "su (my user name)", but after entering my password or the root password, I am still in the terminal as a normal (not root) user. Are you able to run root commands under sudo? What happens of you simply type "su" in a terminal? Does the system ask for and accept your root password?

Radeon is the native kernel driver and it should work fine for an HD3300 graphics processor. I am not sure about Ubuntu, but in openSUSE, /etc/X11/xorg.conf is no longer used unless you install a proprietary graphics driver, and even then, it's not essential. AMD no longer provides proprietary drivers for anything below an HD5000 series if I remember correctly. Since updating your firmware solved that problem anyway, it's only for future reference.

Upgrading your kernel, and installing only the other packages that you listed in the images should not have affected your mount points and user info. Something else apparently happened.

I just noticed that /swap is tagged as Solaris. I'm not sure what that's all about, but the contents of fstab should shed light on things.

Code:



# /etc/fstab: static file system information.

#

# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a

# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices

# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).

#

# <file system> <mount point>  <type>  <options>      <dump>  <pass>

proc            /proc          proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0      0

/dev/mapper/LVM1.5D-root /              ext4    errors=remount-ro 0      1

/dev/mapper/LVM1.5D-data /data          ext4    defaults        0      2

/dev/mapper/LVM1.5D-swap none            swap    sw              0      0

$ su
Password:

Code:

setgid: Operation not permitted

$ sudo fdisk -l

Code:

sudo: unable to change to sudoers gid: Operation not permitted

sudo: setresuid() [0, 0, 0] -> [118, -1, -1]: Operation not permitted

Is there any way to run "fdisk -l" as root/administrator on login as Guest. It would not be easy to copy the complete output while running this command on Init-3

Edit
====
I can login as another user with password which, I suppose, was created previously. Everything seems normal with the menu bar including all working icons on it. (remark: no password required for login as Guest)

$ su
# fdisk -l

Code:



Disk /dev/sda: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930277168 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x000bf74f



  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/sda1  *        2048      499711      248832  8e  Linux LVM

/dev/sda2          501758  2930276351  1464887297    5  Extended

/dev/sda5          501760  2930276351  1464887296  8e  Linux LVM



Disk /dev/mapper/LVM1.5D-root: 300.0 GB, 299997593600 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36472 cylinders, total 585932800 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000



Disk /dev/mapper/LVM1.5D-root doesn't contain a valid partition table



Disk /dev/mapper/LVM1.5D-swap: 4999 MB, 4999610368 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 607 cylinders, total 9764864 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000



Disk /dev/mapper/LVM1.5D-swap doesn't contain a valid partition table



Disk /dev/mapper/LVM1.5D-data: 1195.0 GB, 1195045289984 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 145289 cylinders, total 2334072832 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000



Disk /dev/mapper/LVM1.5D-data doesn't contain a valid partition table

I couldn't start the VirtualBox manager with all VMs which were built by satimis, the administrator. However I could start a new VirtualBox manager here.

satimis

satimis,

Looks like you stumped us all here. But since this is an issue that started after an upgrade, I am going to go out on a limp here and say it had something to do with it. Something may have gone wrong during the upgrade.

Couple scenarios I can think of are:

1) The kernel package didn't install properly. Try fixing the upgrade with:

Code:

sudo apt-get install -f

Since you are having problems getting root access, this may not be easy.

2) Are you running out of room in your root partition? Odd things can happen when you run out of space and do an upgrade.

These are just a couple thoughts.

It may also be pure coincidence that this happened after an upgrade and the hardware is at fault. Boot into recovery mode (you will automatically be root), then execute these commands:

Code:

smartctl -a /dev/sda > /output.txt

df -h >> /output.txt

chmod a+r /output.txt

This will generate the file output.txt in your /-directory, write information about your harddisk and how much diskspace is used on your /-partition to it and make it readable for everyone, so that you can access the file as guest user. Please attach that file to your next post or post its content using code-tags.