Graphical interface won't load after attempted kernel update

[Kamakzie]

I installed Kubuntu 9.04 64 bit today and a friend advised me to install a newer kernel. Well I tried and it said it failed. So I thought oh well no biggie. Then the next time I rebooted the screen flashed like it was going to load but it never did and I was left off in a full screen terminal and it asked for my username and password. So I typed those in and it keeps me in a text based environment. I'm really rusty at my linux command so if anyone can help it would be much appreciated!

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Graphical interface won't load after attempted kernel update

How did you attempt to load this? Through the repositories?
If so, the first thing to try is to boot your system into the recovery mode, choose root shell with network, and then run

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

If this still pulls error messages, try:

apt-get install -f

(you don't need sudo if you are in the root shell)

And post whatever error messages you get, as we would need to know exactly what failed.

It is still possible to boot your system with the old kernel files, as they are normally left in /boot. Although I am wondering why there is a problem, because usually the last thing in the install process is to update the boot files, so if install failed, it should still be booting off the old files. The other thing is that if you are using a proprietary video driver, it may need reinstalling.

[flarson]

Re: Graphical interface won't load after attempted kernel update

I think youwill find that

apt-get install -f

will tell you it can not find a package -f.

aptitude -f install

will probably try to restore sanity to a botched upgrade. This sounds to me like the kernel did install but the installation of a proprietary video driver failed. You should try

cat /proc/version

to see if you are running the new kernel. Are you using a proprietary driver, like nvidia or ati?

[Kamakzie]

Re: Graphical interface won't load after attempted kernel update

Yeah its a nvidia card that is installed. It looks like the new kernel took but not the vid card. I will try your suggestions and see what happens.

[flarson]

Re: Graphical interface won't load after attempted kernel update

You probably need to reinstall the kernel-source package. If you have a new card

sudo aptitude reinstall nvidia-180-kernel-source

or if not then whatever version you were running.

[Kamakzie]

Re: Graphical interface won't load after attempted kernel update

Just on a lark I tried the xfix option and that seemed to fix things.

[flarson]

Re: Graphical interface won't load after attempted kernel update

I forgot about that. Good thinking.