White screen of Death

orthodoc — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:14:23 +0000

Oh! The last couple of weeks have been really dreadful. I have had ubuntu go crashing down …my website host had several outrages and I was left in the lurch trying to recover data. The latter has got a simple and elegant solution. You might have heard it being repeated several times before …and I will do nothing less than the same. The three steps to keeping your data safe on a hosted server are: backup, back up and backup. But better still to have a look at the tao of backup.

On the other hand I had the fortune of facing the white screen of death on ubuntu. Though wikipedia has a small write-up here, its nothing compared to what I faced. Although I am not sure why it happens ( I think it is to do with the display system – X server), I think I have got the solution to it. I had a really lengthy post out there in launchpad and two guys did their best to help me out. If I hadn’t chickened out and gone for the easy way out, we would have probably solved the problem. If this has got you curious you read about it here. But trust me when I say it will bore you to death. That brings us back to the white screen of death…

You have got three ways to sort this problem out:

Option 1: If you have a Nvidia graphics card then simply,
- Open up a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 (you could use F2 to F6 instead of F1) to enter a TTY session
- Then log in with your username and password
- At the prompt type the following:
  
  sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
- Remember that you will be prompted for your password and that you need a valid internet connection for this method to work.
- After the installation is done, you will return to your prompt.
- Now hit the combination of: Ctrl+Alt+F7 to return to your gnome session.
- If you still face the white screen, then log back to TTY session.
- Type at the prompt: sudo reboot to reboot your pc and see if this helps.
Option 2: If oyu don’t have a graphics card installed then,
- Open up a TTY session by hitting Ctrl+Alt+F1
- After you are logged in, typ the following at the prompt:
  
  sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
- A blue screen will open up and run you through various options. Hit enter to choose Yes and move on to the next option. Occasionally you may have to hit the TAB button to choose the OK option. For all of them the default options will suffice.
- Stop at the section that mentions about Xserver loading modules when starting up. Run through the options using the UP and DOWN arrow buttons. Deselect, repeat deselect the glx optiion by pressing the spacebar (There should be no star between the parentheses next to the option.
- After running through all the options you will be back at the prompt.
- Try first Ctrl+Alt+F7 or sudo reboot to log back inot your ubuntu session.
Option 3: Sometimes if you had enabled desktop effects enabled without having a graphics card aor having the restricted drivers then you are faced with the same white screen:
- Again, enter a TTY session by typing Ctrl+Alt+F1
- Run the following command
  
  sudo killall.compiz.real
- Then reboot.

If all of these options do not work then you can post your problem in the ubuntuforums or in launchpad. There are many in the community who will get you out this sticky situation.

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Ubuntu

orthodoc — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:05:51 +0000

Right at the moment …ubuntu is the new love of my life. Its working fine with my PC and I am not too far away from chucking win xp out of my life. On second thoughts that may not be so easy… considering how bound people are with Windoze. Its taken the freedom out of their life.

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White screen of Death

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