How to stop booting into terminal mode?

Question

My ubuntu 11.04 is only booting in terminal.

From the terminal when I enter command

startx

I see the following:

The NVIDIA GPU at PCI:1:0:0 is not supported by the 173.14.30 NVIDIA Driver Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device! Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration

Command:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

It says:

nvidia-current is already the newest version

Could it be that I have nvidia-current installed but it is not being used?
Instead Nvidia 173 is being used?

How can I fix this?

Update

Graphics card:

EVGA 512-P3-1301-KR GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 32-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Video Card

I ran:

• sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
  and then:
• sudo reboot
  but it did not fix the problem. I'm still starting in terminal mode.
  Trying:
• sudo remove nvidia-current
  and then
• sudo reboot did not fix the problem either.

Running sudo nvidia-xconfig says:

Wrote new X configuration file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

but still sudo reboot did not fix the problem.

I installed nvidia drivers from 'Additional Drivers'. To fix my other issues I gave nvidia 173 a try instead of nvidia-current

Update

My xorg.conf is here: http://pastebin.com/p5602jHW

I was able to put this on pastebin by booting in recovery mode and selecting failsafex and then selecting run ubuntu in low graphics mode for just one session

---

Update

So, as I was in the recovery mode for one session, I went to "Additional Drivers" and noticed that nvidia173 was being used and not nvidia-current. I made this change from additional drivers and then rebooted the system. Now, I'm starting in GUI mode but have few other issues.

• Second monitor does not come on, only one monitor is working
• there are no minimize or maximize buttons on windows (If I keep terminal open with metacity --replace then it fixes the minimize/maximize buttons problem but I have to keep the terminal window open)
• I don't see top and bottom launch panels

Also, now after this change my xorg.conf is : http://pastebin.com/TtQWY9pF

Solution

To answer your original question:

You go to terminal mode because your graphics chipset isn't supported by the version of the proprietary driver you've installed. This nvidia driver should be removed first, use purge and make sure you delete the file it creates in /etc/X11/xorg.conf as this can mess up recovery:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf

You should only use the nvidia proprietary driver that works with your card, or otherwise fall back to the nouvou driver for your card. This might not allow you to use all of the features of your vidio card, but it will be better than a terminal screen.

Please note that you should not ask further questions once you're initial question has been answered (admitted in the comments instead of a real answer) instead you should make a new question and include all of the information you know so far. This is a Q&A website, not a support ticket website after all.

Comments

[Admin]

I deleted my answer since it did not help but made your question more helpful. Since its 2am here am guessing somebody else can give a hand or tomorrow ill do some tests and google checks. Thanks for the update.

[Admin]

Could you put your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file on pastebin?

[Admin]

@RobinJ I've pasted the xorg.conf on pastebin and updated the questions

[Admin]

@LuisAlvarado Thanks for the help and making the question much stronger.

[Admin]

updated again. moving in positive direction...

[Admin]

@Omnipresent Have you tried the open-source Nouveau driver? It may give you better support if NVIDIA's proprietary offering isn't doing the trick.