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a few days ago I ran into a blue screen issue after downloading some updates. Since then I've been searching for information and trying countless procedures to solve it, to no avail.

Here's some info which I hope will be useful:

  • My computer: a 2008 Packard Bell PC, Intel Core 2 Quad CPU 2.4 GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM, Geforce 9300 GE graphics card.
  • Kernel version: 3.13.0-46-generic
  • Ubuntu version: 14.04.2 LTS

At a very high level here's what I've tried so far:

  • uninstalling then reinstalling Vidia drivers,
  • installing X Updates PPA,
  • installing Gnome interface (which I actually can't even access)

Please advise, your help will be greatly appreciated.

March 01st Update:

Hello, here are today's results:

  • compizconfig-* worked, thanks very much

  • The 1st solution of thread 17381 didn't restore the GUI but displayed

    compizconfig - Info: Backend : ini
compizconfig - Info: Integration : true
compizconfig - Info: Profile : default
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

  • the 2nd solution of thread 17381 returned (I'm just quoting what I think can help, ie the error messages): 

    Glib-warning **: In call to g-spawn-sync(), exit status of a child
process was request but ECHILD was received by waitpid(). Most likely
the process is ignoring SIGCHLD, or some other thread is invoking
waitpid() with a non positive first argument; either behavior can
break applications that use g_spawn_sync either directly or
indirectly.

dconf-WARNING **: failed to commit changes to dconf: Error spawning command line 
'bus-launch --autolaunch=dfa6290d0169f2653223ea790000000000c --binary-syntax--
close-  stderr': Child process killed by signal 43
(...)
Info: Unity is fully supported by your hardware
Info: Starting plugin: openg1

I didn't try creating a script as suggested in thread 457016 as I know I'll make a mess of it, especially through CLI. It seems like we're doing good progress but there's still a few hurdles on the way :)

March 01st Update #2:

I tried running startx and I could see the desktop and the files that are located there, however I have no wallpaper (but a blue background) and no taskbar and vertical iconbar. I can open the text files but not the pictures.

Badabing
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  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! ;-) Could you please post a screen shot of that? I've never seen a blue screen in Ubuntu! :/ Can you still go to a TTY by pressing [Ctrl][Alt][F1] and long in there? – Fabby Feb 28 '15 at 20:42
  • There is no blue screen in Ubuntu... Are you using Wubi? – John Scott Feb 28 '15 at 20:55
  • Thanks for the fast replies. Sadly there is a blue screen in Ubuntu, please see the photo I took: http://nsm08.casimages.com/img/2015/02/28//1502281053207415813021253.jpg @Fabby I can indeed use the command line interface, this is how I performed the actions I mentioned in my first post. – Badabing Feb 28 '15 at 21:55
  • Thank you! More clear now... Please have a look at the above link and report back whether that helps. – Fabby Feb 28 '15 at 21:59
  • Thanks for the link, however I tried all applicable suggestions but with no luck. As a noob I didn't try those involving file deletion.
    If that's any help command 'dconf reset -f /org/compiz/' returned
    "Cannot autolaunch D-Bis without X11 display"
    Command 'apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager' returned
    "Unable to locate package compizconfig-settings-manager".     – Badabing Feb 28 '15 at 23:35
  • You should try http://askubuntu.com/questions/457016/how-to-change-gsettings-via-remote-shell as well when you do the dconf reset command (I've also edited it to contain the command from the above answer) I've got 14.04.2 as well and compizconfig-settings-manager is available, sou you should try compizconfig-* then. – Fabby Mar 01 '15 at 07:37
  • @Fabby, thanks for your invaluable help, I edited my original post and added today's results. – Badabing Mar 01 '15 at 12:35

1 Answers1

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try it this way in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo nvidia-xconfig

Then login to tty Ctrl+Alt+F1 

sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia*

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia primus linux-headers-generic

sudo reboot

When it's booted to make sure run:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

gksudo nvidia-settings
JoKeR
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  • Hello, I tried what you suggested. To run the first set of commands I had to run sudo apt-get install nvidia-currentfirst otherwise sudo nvidia-xconfig would error out saying "command not found". The definition is now very low (640*480 I guess).

    After rebooting I tried running the last two commands you mentioned but again I had the "command not found" error message even though I had run sudo apt-get install nvidia-current beforehand. Do you have any idea what I should do?

     – Badabing Mar 02 '15 at 22:16
  • I ran ccsm and got the error message "compiz couldn't open display". When I ran startx, I got the error message "error setting mtrr". Can anybody please help? – Badabing Mar 03 '15 at 22:09
  • I was suggesting you bumblebee solution not nvidia-current and do this from tty terminal Ctrl+Alt+1 and stop X before doing so sudo service lightdm stop repeat the step by step. – JoKeR Mar 03 '15 at 23:08
  • please check my edited answer – JoKeR Mar 03 '15 at 23:19
  • you can also use Nvidia driver from Nvidia directly more here http://askubuntu.com/questions/66328/how-do-i-install-the-latest-nvidia-drivers-from-the-run-file/423619#423619 – JoKeR Mar 03 '15 at 23:26
  • Hello, I tried to follow your suggestions as closely as I could.

    I may not have made it clear, after logging in I cannot run a terminal, all I can do is press Ctrl Alt F1. After doing so and running sudo nvidia-xconfig, I get an error message saying the command cannot be found.

     – Badabing Mar 04 '15 at 21:42
  • command not found means you haven't properly installed nvidia driver or it's not activated at all. No idea why you cant run a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T you can simply install --reinstall gnome terminal or type terminal in Dash, otherwise also check nvidia driver to be activated go to system settings-->software&updates-->additional drivers and make sure nvidia is active. Also bumblebee should have activated it by default. Reply what you have. If you successfully installed bumblebee give the output for prime-select query – JoKeR Mar 05 '15 at 15:31
  • Hello everyone, after trying all that was suggested here (and from many more threads) I decided I'll save time by going the easy way and reinstalling Ubuntu. Thanks for your help. – Badabing Mar 06 '15 at 20:40