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I had a system running 10.04, I think. I upgraded it to 11.04, everything was fine. But then when I upgraded it further to 11.10, the system would only boot to a terminal, no desktop like before.

I installed 12.04 on it instead, keeping /home which was on another partition... but it's still booting to terminal. I believe there may be some bad configuration files left over that are causing this.

Looking at other similar issues, I looked for /etc/X11/xorg.conf but it doesn't exist. startx says it isn't installed. Installing nvidia-current didn't help (has GF 6600 GT video card). Alt+F7 shows a blank screen.

I used the alternate installer, and didn't select any of the optional packages it prompts during installation. Should I have?

How do I get it to boot to desktop like normal?

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3 Answers


sudo apt-get install xorg
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Having done that, startx complains that Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0), and also for "nv". Ctrl+Alt+F7 shows a terminal with a slightly different font, but it doesn't respond to keyboard input (can't type on it). –  Core Xii Jun 1 '12 at 11:04
It looks something similar: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1804394 –  jasmines Jun 1 '12 at 11:13
Actually I can type on that terminal, needed to hover cursor over it first. Installing nvidia-current gets rid of the error failing to load "nvidia", but "nv" still persists. That linked thread seem to be about a module-specific error whereas mine is module does not exist. –  Core Xii Jun 1 '12 at 12:10
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Your graphics card seems to have nvidia optimus technology which is not implemented for Linux.

First of all you should delete Xorg.conf by using # rm /etc/X11/Xorg.conf then install Bumbleebee (assuming that you had installed nvidia-current) to switch from your onboard graphics card.

If you want to make use of your nvidia card use the following command to start an application

  $ optirun <command>  
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Are you sure? Mind you, 11.04 and prior worked perfectly fine on this video card. –  Core Xii Jun 1 '12 at 11:37
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up vote 0 down vote accepted

I installed using the normal desktop install instead of alternate and it's working. Don't know what was wrong.

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