help me! cant start my ubuntu!!

[waba]

help! i dual boot, usuwally use ubuntu, when i went to start it up this time, instead of going to the desktop, it goes to a black screen and asks me to enter my username, then password. then it gets me into something like the terminal program (same words, i.e desktop-nathan blah blah blah), but its full screen! i dont know why, and cant get out of it, so i hit restart :( i cant load up the desktop :( i think i made a mistkae when editing the fstab program in/etc/ cos it wasnt mounting the xp partition from bootup, so i edited it, but possibly, when it asked where to mount it, either left it blank or put \, the smae as for the ubuntu partition. help me!!

[jonbanjo]

Not a Ubuntu user but as generals:

startx as root might get you to your desktop but there is something you need to fix, perhaps as you say, an error in fstab.

if you are stuck with the console, vi will almost certainly be there as on editor you could use. You might find it easier to boot from a live CD and get into graphic mode for an editor or other tools though. I'm not sure if Ubuntu has a repair system type option.

[jonbanjo]

btw. If you haven't come across vi/vim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi) and are like me, more used to using kate or gedit you might (again, like me) find it really odd. Still it's one that I can, however clumsily, just about get by with for minor edits.

[mrgoose]

Never really got my head round vi. But Ubuntu also ships with a pretty simple and very easy to use CLI text editor called nano. For example, to edit fstab:-

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Simples!

Best wishes, G

[jonbanjo]

Hmm... on OpenSuse Ihad to (yast) install nano. At first glance it looks easier.

Though with editors, one person may view one in a different way to another. Some do see vi as ideal but to me, to try to struggle to come up with an analogy, I suppose it's more like a starting handle on (not that we have one) an old car. It's probably in the shed somewhere and might help you when the battery is flat.

[mrgoose]

Also depending on what you used to edit the file, it might have backed up your original fstab. Thus you might have a file called /etc/fstab~ (with a tilde at the end) - which is your old fstab file.

Tip: to list similar files from the CLI:-

ls /etc/fs*

Best wishes, G

[mrgoose]

Hmm... on OpenSuse Ihad to (yast) install nano. At first glance it looks easier.

Though with editors, one person may view one in a different way to another. Some do see vi as ideal but to me, to try to struggle to come up with an analogy, I suppose it's more like a starting handle on (not that we have one) an old car. It's probably in the shed somewhere and might help you when the battery is flat.
Nah. It's not as simple as finding a starting handle in the garage. You have to locate the iron ore first and dig it out of the ground. Then you have to smelt the iron. Then you forge it and perhaps turn it on a lathe for accuracy, using a lathe you built yourself. Then paint it - manufacturing the paint entirely from scratch as well, obviously. Once you have mastered all that, then you can use it to start the car! :D

Seriously, I too struggle to find an analogy that adequately describes Vi.

Best wishes, G

[jonbanjo]

I don't think it's quite that bad.

But to me a line editor like ed or msdos edlin is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_editor

I can't even modify a single line with one...

[mrgoose]

I don't think it's quite that bad.

Oh yes it is! :D

Seriously though, since you're obviously into geeky text editors, where do you stand on the emacs question? That has to be the planet's most bizarre editor ever, doesn't it? I dread to think what they were smoking when they came up with that one!

Best wishes, G

[jonbanjo]

I'll hold my hand up and openly admit I can not in any way use emacs.

My first editor on a real rather than home thing was WordStar on CP/M thing called an Avatar which gave me a WP as well as the mainframe (most of that was progs using IMS. somewhere in Stafford) by the flick of a switch and I learned my ctrl key things to navigate it on a green Televideo 970 terminal.

There remains much including ed and emacs that is beyond me though,

[waba]

ahhh thanks, i loaded up livecd, edited fstab in it, and yeah, it was due to me trying to mount my other partition badly :S never mind, all fixed now! on another note, i noticed you were talking about emacs - i need a Tex editor for writing my maths, and lots of people use emacs - but you are all saying its wierd!! iv started just using texmaker which seems ok, but time will tell....

[osxkris]

vi? emacs? Real programmers use butterflies (http://xkcd.com/378/) ;)

[mrgoose]

ahhh thanks, i loaded up livecd, edited fstab in it, and yeah, it was due to me trying to mount my other partition badly :S never mind, all fixed now! on another note, i noticed you were talking about emacs - i need a Tex editor for writing my maths, and lots of people use emacs - but you are all saying its wierd!! iv started just using texmaker which seems ok, but time will tell....
Well done, glad you got it sorted. Now WRT text editors, what you need is kate

kate = KDE Advanced Text Editor. Best free editor ever made IMHO. Dead easy to use + lots of powerful features if you need them. IMHO, it's what emacs should have been if its developers had laid off the wacky weed for a bit! :D

sudo apt-get install kate

Alternatively if you need maths symbos and nice "mathsy" type layouts, then OpenOffice with the DMaths extension might be worth a dabble too.
Best wishes, G.

[jonbanjo]

ahhh thanks, i loaded up livecd, edited fstab in it, and yeah, it was due to me trying to mount my other partition badly :S never mind, all fixed now! on another note, i noticed you were talking about emacs - i need a Tex editor for writing my maths, and lots of people use emacs - but you are all saying its wierd!! iv started just using texmaker which seems ok, but time will tell....


Glad you sorted it.


Re the editor thing to try again in a different way, I think people are so different. vi would probably have got me out of your few lines of fstab mess and I am glad it is std kit but do much with it. no! As said before, there are others I've not learned to get togrips with even for those few lines...

Me, I'm again with Mr Goose. Kate (needs graphics running and some KDE unlike vi) is a nice one that can provide syntax highlighting for a number of tasks.

I'd not read that as "do not use emacs" though. It doesn't seem impossible to me that you might not find it "the best ever". From my POV, it's the entry level learning curve is one I do not need.

[mrgoose]

+1. I also tend to sit on the fence when it comes to emacs.

Whilst I seldom use emacs, it is on my list of standard Goosebuntu (http://www.garfnet.org.uk/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=193&Itemid=58) apps. And it is a very interesting application indeed. For a start, it runs as both a CLI and a GUI app. And it has a shed load of other stuff built in - including an email client, a news reader, a calendar, several calculators and even some games! And unlike vi, I can actually see why emacs protagonists like it so much.

But IMHO, it is a thing of its time. Today there are much better ways of doing things. i.e. nano if you are using a CLI and definitely kate if you are using a GUI. And all its other built in functions are handled much better by other apps that come free with Ubuntu.

Best wishes, G.

[candtalan]

ahhh thanks, i loaded up livecd, edited fstab in it, and yeah, it was due to me trying to mount my other partition badly :S never mind, all fixed now! on another note, i noticed you were talking about emacs - i need a Tex editor for writing my maths, and lots of people use emacs - but you are all saying its wierd!! iv started just using texmaker which seems ok, but time will tell....

There is quite a story behind emacs, and vi is seen as something of an interloper.

If you have the inclination, and the time too, there are some videos on youtube of a talk by richard stallman - who originated emacs, and more - and in one of these (they are a series of 14 videos each about 10 minutes) he jokes about vi.
The first video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6LsfnBmdnk&feature=PlayList&p=C2233C191A464B26&index=0

The joke about using vi is near the end of this, the last one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7zsIEdGjio&feature=PlayList&p=C2233C191A464B26&index=13

[jonbanjo]

LOL. Perhaps I've sinned too much and am stuck doing penance forever!

More seriously, I think it shows why (as Mr Goose say) I would sit on the fence with emacs rather than (except for personal use to date) dismiss it completely. There is no doubt that it is liked by some with levels of knowledge I could only dream of...

[jonbanjo]

Drifting a little but btw,if you got stuck where waba was but in OpenSuse and nano was the app wanted, while it seems to me to need installing rather than just typing nano and go.... yast by default should be there as an ncurses app. It's quite nice to use.

[jonbanjo]

It's not up to date but here is a link for the text ncurses interface that can be used instead of the graphical one.

http://www-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/doc/suse/suse9.0/userguide-9.0/ch03s10.html

[waba]

i gotta say, honestly, i dont really understnad a lot of what you lot talked about when talkin ubuntu :( i wish i did, im sure it would make my computer experience better! but on the other hand, iv got all you people to ask when something goes wrong :)

[jonbanjo]

i gotta say, honestly, i dont really understnad a lot of what you lot talked about when talkin ubuntu :( i wish i did, im sure it would make my computer experience better! but on the other hand, iv got all you people to ask when something goes wrong :)

Not really Ubuntu. This has been more really Unix things with some mention of some KDE (Ubuntu is Gnome/ gtk apps but there is kubuntu and a Mr Goose seems to want to share the best of both) bits. The vi/ emacs thing is quite old..

I doubt you will find much goes wrong.When problems exist, it is mostly (at least in my limited bashes) seeing if you can get say the tv card (I earned ones that work )

Once sorted, the boxes do tend to stay up, there are free apps including free servers to play with,much I don;t understand.

[waba]

Not really Ubuntu. This has been more really Unix things with some mention of some KDE (Ubuntu is Gnome/ gtk apps but there is kubuntu and a Mr Goose seems to want to share the best of both) bits. The vi/ emacs thing is quite old..

I doubt you will find much goes wrong.When problems exist, it is mostly (at least in my limited bashes) seeing if you can get say the tv card (I earned ones that work )

Once sorted, the boxes do tend to stay up, there are free apps including free servers to play with,much I don;t understand.

hehe ok, i think you can fall headlong into linux, which is bad for me as its a distraction from doing proper work....