Linux help needed urgently

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chrisj1948
Posts: 537
Joined: 15 Jul 2008 15:12
Location: Sydenham

Linux help needed urgently

Post by chrisj1948 »

One of my 'important' PCs runs Ubuntu 14.04. I use it to host a number of VMs with Windows guests, and have little knowledge of the OS itself. Yesterday after a reboot the GUI appeared to fail early in the boot sequence. I can get a Ctl-Alt-F1 terminal, but no amount of Ubuntu forum reference and monkey/typewriter/Shakespeare restoration commands do anything.

I need someone familiar with Linux. Would be prepared to pay! Please PM me if you can help, or know anyone who can.

Regards
Chris
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2575
Joined: 20 Sep 2004 21:49

Re: Linux help needed urgently

Post by admin »

Chris - sorry to hear this - you have my sympathy.

By Ubuntu GUI I assume you are referring to Unity. I know nothing of this being a KDE (Kubuntu) apostle. If you have the opportunity to clone the partition (or are willing to take a risk) you might want to experiment by installing another GUI. LXDE is a very light one. You can do this via command line apt-get (google for full instructions). If the underlying Linux is sound you will get a working system. You might then be lucky and find removing and then re-installing Unity does the trick.

If LXDE or other GUI won't boot then there is something more fundamentally wrong. But again if you still have command line access all your data can be rescued or quarantined in another partition and do a quick re-install and applications returned from the repositories.

You don't get these options with Windows :(

Admin

PS you can get to command line via GRUB on boot. Just hit an arrow key when it shows.
chrisj1948
Posts: 537
Joined: 15 Jul 2008 15:12
Location: Sydenham

Re: Linux help needed urgently

Post by chrisj1948 »

admin wrote: You don't get these options with Windows :(

Admin

PS you can get to command line via GRUB on boot. Just hit an arrow key when it shows.
Thanks for the response. I am no fan of Windows which is why, as my working life whimpers to a close, I am switching over to Unix. The only two things it had to recommend it were that it was a unifying influence, since virtually all businesses used it (how I wish OS/2 had won that war 20 years ago), and I knew the internals very well.

I am familiar with GRUB2, having been forced to use it initially in a two-stage process to persuade Ubuntu that the machine had 16 cores rather than a single one.

What really bothers me is that booting from my original 13.10 disk also fails to generate other than a blank screen after an initial image. It may be a subtle video card problem (the monitor works fine on another Dell T5500 running Win 7). I shall see if I can work out how to make the other video card in the PC the primary one.

Note: having just tried that I have lost video completely

Regards
Chris
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