ubuntu fails to start gnome

Question

I ran into a strange problem today, when i started my computer running ubuntu 9, i got the loading screen and after that i got a black screen with the mouse and hourglass loading. and it stays there, and doesnt load the gnome desktop.

I tryed to go into recovery mode and it works. but dont know how to fix it to start the normal mode as well.

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

My guess would be corrupted ~/.gnome* files or other ~/.?* ("dot files").

Try logging in as a different user (create a new user account for the purpose if necessary).

Then try the following from recovery mode or a text console:

mkdir ~/BAD && mv ~/.?* ~/BAD

... this will create a directory and, if that was successful, it will move all of the "dot files" thereto (and thus out of your home directory).

Do NOT use ~/.* ... this might cause issues (not with GNU mv but with other systems) if it attempts to move .. (the parent of your home directory). Technically ./.?* would fail to match files named things like .a and .b --- any dot followed by a single character. As a practical matter I've never seen such a file used for any sort of configuration settings, so it's merely a theoretical issue for you to understand. Depending on your shell you could use mv ~/.[^.] ~/.?* ~/BAD/ to be pedantically comprehensive.

Answer 2

Maybe your X config is messed up.

Have a look at thie site for re-configuring X.

Answer 3

What kind of graphics driver are you running? Recent update on the kernel or driver? I use Fedora 11 + proprietary NVIDIA drivers on my desktop, and with every kernel update I get to reconfig the binary driver over and over.

Please post more HW configuration information.