Black Screen After Ubuntu sign-in

[rspassey]

Ok, I enter my uername and password to enter ubuntu 5.04, then it takes a few seconds and loads a plain black screen and all I can use is my mouse, and all I see is the mouse cursor. I am pretty sure the install went fine, since it wasn't halted.
What do you think is going on??
Thanks,
ryan124712
(close this thread if it is in anyway going against the downloading and usage of a free OS rule on PcMech)

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by ryan124712 ...(close this thread if it is in anyway going against the downloading and usage of a free OS rule on PcMech)

Not to worry. Not only is Ubuntu free to dowload, you can send for free disks. I have both the dowload and the official disks. Don't know how to help ya with your problem tho. Mine installed just fine and runs good. Did mine with the download version btw.

[rspassey]

Aight, thanks, I wannted to just make sure first. I am not sure if it has anything to do with the hardware, It is an old old computer, PII that has like 64mb RAM and a 10gb HDD. The installation went perfect, and now I can't tell if it is just going to take 20 minutes to load or if It actualy won't load (which is odd b/c it splashes the login screen just fine). Not a big deal to me if it doesnt work out, I got the computer for free when somefriends of ours were about to throw it away, I just wanted to try out Ubuntu and maybe some other distros.
Thanks,
ryan124712

[rspassey]

Now I'm convinced at the computer I was trying to run Ubuntu off of isn't equip to handle it.
Now I am wondering if I get a 80gb SATA and install it in my computer (see sig). Would installing Ubuntu on this drive be a wise choice, or would It somehow make a messed up dual boot and cause problems such as messing with my video card drivers, possibly disable SLI in XP pro? Or am I way off base and the drivers settings like SLI enabled don't take effect until you boot an OS and by making a dual boot I won't have any troubles what so ever?

[kilgoretrout]

First, your right about your old equipment; 64MB of ram won't run ubuntu very well if at all, in graphical mode. If you want to use your old box for linux, try vector linux; it's specifically designed for older hardware and has a lighter window manager which uses less ram. Other distros to try include Damn Small Linux, Slax and Puppy Linux. Slax and Puppy are also live cds so you can test stuff out and see how it runs before installing.
Re installing on your main box - Ubuntu is a live cd and you can just boot off it w/o an install and see how it handles your hardware just to check things out. You may have some compatability issues since your mb is pretty bleeding edge and linux tends to lag a bit on supporitng new hardware. An install will not effect your drivers on the windows partition at all but it will install a linux bootloader so you can dual boot windows or linux. You can restore your windows boot loader later if you don't like ubuntu by booting off the winxp install disk and going into rescue mode. There are many posts on this forum describing how to do this. That's the only issue I see if your installing on a separate drive.

[rspassey]

Okay, well I have tried tackling this problem again.

When ubuntu asks you to select screen resolution, if you select one that isnt supported by the video card or monitor would this cause the black screen I am getting?

I think this might have occured b/c it is a decently old pc and I had no clue on the onboard videos supported resolution when I installed.