Zorin Newbie Problem

Greetings All. Eric here, just replaced our old XP OS with Zorin. This was after numerous times trying Ubuntu, but it never seemed to work right. So we got Zorin working....sort of.

Whenever I reboot, it goes through the process, until I wind up with a black screen, and no activity. I then have to do a hard restart, and I discovered that I can get it to load only if I then go into Recovery Mode (3.5 I think? Second option on the boot menu), then do a "Clean", then "Repair", then start from there. I have to do this every time. Any ideas?

BTW, I will admit that I am extremely simple-minded with regards to computers, so a bare knuckle step-by-step would be appreciated.

Other than this, when I do get it working, I love it.

Hi, it sounds like a graphics issue - can you provide us with more information please?:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5449

Thanks!

And welcome to Zorin!

Greetings, and thank you for helping!

I will do the best I can in answering the questions. Sorry, as it's going to be a bit of a mess:

1. Name (Brand) of Computer Tower/System - a mixture of Gateway parts (the tower was re-assembled by a local repair shop a few years ago).

2. Amount of available Memory (RAM) - I pulled these figures up from the system:

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 305488120 5486196 284460984 2% /
none 4 0 4 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev 1009116 4 1009112 1% /dev
tmpfs 204628 1456 203172 1% /run
none 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
none 1023120 76 1023044 1% /run/shm
none 102400 68 102332 1% /run/user

I also have the following:

Memory: 2.0 GiB
Intel Core 2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86 GHz x 2
VESA: G72 Board - p381n2
OS Type: 32-bit
Disk: 312.8 GB

3. Whether Zorin is the only OS on the computer - yes, it is. I removed the previous XP.

4. Hard Drive partitioning - the hard drive was NOT partitioned.

5. Graphics card make and model - Nvidia g72 GeForce 7300 LE.

6. Wireless Dongle or PCI Card - PCI.

7. Whether you ran Zorin Live first to check it worked before installing - no, I did not.

8. Which version of Zorin you have installed/have in mind to install - Zorin OS 9 Core.

I hope that can clear things up, as I really am enjoying Zorin. Thanks!

If you have no critical data yet, back up your /home folder remembering to press Ctrl+ H to also include your hidden files.

Try this before reinstalling - when you get to the boot menu, press the E key to edit the boot sequence - and enter:

Code:

nomodeset acpi=off forcevesa

If this does not work, make sure you have a wired connection to your router, choose the 'advanced option' and select 'dpkg' - after it has finished reboot the machine DO NOT RESUME!

If still having issues I would do a manual reinstallation:

When you see the blue screen with the keyboard logo = accessibility logo, press the space bar - this will take you straight to 'Language' selection (F2) - change if needs be or leave alone, Then press F3 to choose keyboard locale (language), then F6 and choose from either 'nomodeset' or 'acpi=off' and see if that works in live mode - if you see the screen as you should I would choose the 'install to hard drive' icon on the desktop but follow these steps - 'something else' method.

When you get to the partition editor, delete all your current partitions (assuming you have backed up your data first!)

Then add a 'Primary' partition of '30000 Mibs' (30 Gb) formatted to 'ext4' and mark as '/'
Next create an 'Extended Partition' to the right and add a 'swap area' of 2 Gb (2048) at the END of the extended partition.
Finally, everything at the beginning (to the left of the 'swap area') make into your '/home' partition, again formatting to 'ext4'.

Keep us posted!

[Alternatively, if you are keen to have a go, follow decalman's excellent method of text installation:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8004&p=38810#p38714]