safe graphics mode not found in wubi

[candtalan]

No display was seen after install of ubuntu using wubi and running ubuntu within Windows.

This PC will run the same live CD ok but needs the Safe Graphics mode otherwise no display is seen. When ubuntu is run after wubi install it seems that the graphics card cannot talk to the flat screen monitor. The monitor is a recent addition, the graphics card is an older one, probably a low spec.

Ubuntu (wubi) 8.04 RC Desktop i386

When choosing to install ubuntu Within Windows (using wubi) I cannot find a safe graphics option - or any mention of graphics.

The wubi installed ubuntu appears to b erunning normally apart from the lack of display - he sounds suggest it is running, an dafter th eaudio prompt, the user can apparently log in ok. (still no display).

ctrl alt F1 gives a normal terminal screen and sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf can examine th efile.
However I have no idea about what to do (version 8.04 hardy RC) to modify the graphics settings.

[Agostino Russo (ago)]

After selecting "Ubuntu" at reboot, press "ESC" to get a list of booting options, one of them is safe graphic mode

[candtalan (aeclist)]

I have just looked at the PC in question. It is a dual boot pc, with xp and (linux) with grub.

At booting, grub runs, I choose XP, then a choice of windows or ubuntu is seen, a timer for ESC, use of escape key now seems to give the original grub menu which has no safe graphics option.

Have you described a wubi install into a machine which only has windows? Maybe that is the difference.

[Agostino Russo (ago)]

Wubi always modifies the Windows bootloader and only the windows bootloader.

So if you have grub, that will be setup to chainload ntldr.

In this case you have to select Windows in grub, and then Ubuntu in ntldr (then you can press esc).

So the boot sequence is:

Grub -> NTLDR -> Grub4dos -> Linux

Modifying non-windows bootloaders is not a high priority at this stage (but I am well aware of the issue).

[Agostino Russo (ago)]

> In this case you have to select Windows in grub, and then Ubuntu in ntldr (then you can press esc).

After which you should see the safe graphic mode.

Note that the menu will change after Linux-side installation, the installer menu will be replaced with a standard grub menu. The second one will have usual boot options: such as normal kernel + recovery mode + memory check. You will be able to select the safe graphic mode only on first reboot after windows (installer menu).

[candtalan (aeclist)]

'After which you should see the safe graphic mode'
Hi Agostino
Thanks for your responses and comments, and I quite understand about priorities, no problem.

For the record though:
it is not true that a 'Safe Graphics' mode is available as you suggest, it is a 'Recovery' mode, and leads to a Recovery Menu with choices of Resume normal boot, Drop to root shell prompt, or, Try to fix xserver xfix (auto configures again). These are useful more perhaps to experienced users than beginners.

In fact it looks like the usual Recovery mode which is available also via grub in 8.04 installed systems. I also tested this in a windows only machine, after wubi install. (The machine is XP originally installed in FAT32 then converted to NTFS, if that makes any difference), then wubi. No grub in the machine.

The Recovery Mode is not the same as an up front, low graphics choice which for example is one of the usual options when running a Live Cd. For the 8.04 Live Cd it is (after initial boot) F4 and choose 'Safe Graphics' mode.

The reason why I am so interested is that - WUBI is a totally brilliant facility! - I personally will be demonstrating the wubi facility locally on many occasions and it is quite possible that users will initially choose a spare machine to test.
I did exactly this, and because of the particular machine's varied history (flat screen upgrade and PCI graphics card random choice), it does not work for wubi, however it does work for a live CD with Safe Graphics (vesa) chosen.

I can live without the perfection :-) and it is good to have noted the situation.

Best regards and thanks

[Jayson Rowe (jayson.rowe)]

Since it's been a very long time since any additional info was added to this bug, I'm just checking to see if this is still an issue, and find out what additional work should be done on this bug.

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!