Kubuntu does not start in GUI

[nldeshpande]

Hello All,

I have been trying out kubuntu for two weeks now running it thru a live usb session. Yesterday, I thought of installing Kubuntu on my laptop along with my windows xp installation, so that I can save any configuration changes that I make and that these changes are available after a reboot.

Once I completed the installation, the system rebooted and I was presented with multiple choices of booting into.

However, to my utter dismay, the kubuntu system started in at command prompt instead of the GUI.

I tried hard to get the gui to start using

startx
kde
gnome
kdm
and some more which i don't remember now.

Throughout today, I have been searching google as to how to get this GUI to start up.

Hope I get a workaround in this forum.

Thanks in advance.

Nilesh Deshpande

[nldeshpande]

18 views and no replies

either this question is too dumb or there are no solutions to this problem.

The main question is when the session from USB drive runs smoothlessly, why a installation from that same distro gives basic problems like no GUI?


Nilesh Deshpande

[NickStone]

It sounds like X server hasn't been installed. Or maybe KDE hasn't been installed. When installing did you follow any of the pre-set options to install Kubuntu? Just wondering if you had installed just the base system.

[james147]

What happens when you run startx? The others you listed are not valid commands or should not be run directly.

startx is the most useful for debugging, but to start kdm run

sudo start kdm

However, recent versions of kubuntu have started to use lightdm instead.

[nldeshpande]

Dear James & Nickstone Sirs,

I was using kubuntu thru a live usb session. Whenever that session started, it asked two options

Try Kubuntu

or

Install Kubuntu

Whenever I choose try kubuntu, it works perfectly. (Only it does not save any settings, which I have to redo after every reboot)

When I chose Install Kubuntu, it got installed without any hickups. It showed me all the graphical screens while installation for getting my inputs.

But when I try to run Kubuntu from this installation, it runs in the command prompt mode.

And what's more, after about 30 seconds, it turns into a blank screen, leaving me helpless. So I have about 30 seconds to try out various commands which are greek and latin to me at this stage.

The only recourse is a hard reboot of the laptop and get those 30 seconds once more for a new trial.

Hope I have explained so that some resolution can be got out of this mess that I have landed into.

BTW I also installed Ubuntu side by side on this laptop, and it is working perfectly.

Thanks

Nilesh Deshpande

[nldeshpande]

The version is kubuntu 10.10

When I run sudo start kdm

it asks for my password and then it turns into a blank screen for some time, before returning back to the command prompt and asking me for a re-login.

[james147]

The blank screen sounds like X starting, but not starting anything inside it... try pressing Alt+Crtl+F1 to switch back to the terminal when this happens. Then try running startx from and see what happens, if you get a black screen again press alt+print screen + k to kill X or alt+ctrl+f1 to switch back to the terminal and see what output you get from it.

Also, what version are you installing? and did you do a md5sum check on the iso you downloaded?

[dmeyer]

The version is kubuntu 10.10

10.10 has reached end of life. IT would be very uniwse to install it as you won't be getting security updates or any other bug fixes. Furthermore you will be running old software and KDE has improved immensely in the last two years particularly. If I were you I would download 12.10 and go from there. KDE4.9 is absolutely brilliant! You will have better hardware support and people around here will have an easier time helping you.

If you feel you need a long term release i.e. next five years instead of the next 2 then you could go for Kubuntu 12.04. If I were you, I would take 12.10 because 12.04 ships with GCC4.6, KDE4.8 and 3.2 kernel. 12.10 uses KDE 4.9 (huge speed improvements over 4.8), GCC 4.7 (So much faster than 4.6 that you can't even compare them), and lastly the 3.5.x+ (uses 3.6) kernels saw a huge speed up due to removing some kind of IO-blocking in the kernel! Lastly 12.10 feels more stable.

Download link: http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu
Top button is 12.10 bottom is 12.04. Just choose the correct architecture, burn to a USB with unetbootin and go for it!

[nldeshpande]

Thanks a lot James & dmeyer,

I will download the 12.10 and check it out.

Nilesh Deshpande

[NickStone]

Even though 10.10 is no longer supported it should still install and run without problems. Where did you get that copy of 10.10? Had it been installed successfully on other machines? It could be a problem with that particular CD/DVD image of 10.10. Did it download with errors? Have you checked the MD5 check sum? The fact that Ubuntu installed without problems I think proves that Kubuntu will also install without problems and I suspect that it is a problem with that copy of 10.10 you have.

[nldeshpande]

Dear NickStone,

Even now when I run the kubuntu using the same usb drive as a live usb session it runs smoothly.

The problem occurs when I install it using this very same usb to install it on my hard drive and then boot from the hard drive.

Sounds wierd, but is true.

Nilesh Deshpande

[NickStone]

So installing from USB is proving to be a problem, what about installing from a CD, same effect? Also when re-reading all the posts I noticed that you had successfully installed Ubuntu, well Ubuntu and Kubuntu is the same operating system except for the GUI. Ubuntu uses Gnome 3 with Unity and Kubuntu uses KDE, so you can always replace Unity with KDE if you really want KDE instead of Gnome 3 with Unity. Or install the 12.04 which gives you support until 2017 or install 12.10 which is the most recent stable version.

Sorry I cannot help to fix the 10.10 install.

[james147]

Dear NickStone,

Even now when I run the kubuntu using the same usb drive as a live usb session it runs smoothly.

The problem occurs when I install it using this very same usb to install it on my hard drive and then boot from the hard drive.

Sounds wierd, but is true.

Nilesh Deshpande

Sounds like the packages in the livecd are currupted so fail to install properly... I would try a reburn, but I would also burn 12.10 as suggested as it has many more improvments.

[SteveRiley]

Even though 10.10 is no longer supported it should still install and run without problems... The fact that Ubuntu installed without problems I think proves that Kubuntu will also install without problems and I suspect that it is a problem with that copy of 10.10 you have.

Well, we don't know which Ubuntu version the OP tried.

Also, 10.10 may have compatibility problems with the hardware -- we don't know the equipment specs.