nomodeset
to the kernel and
these grub parameter instructions
showed how to do that. It helped, but the projection kept quitting in
movies. Projecting is an important part of my work and probably for
many others, but this bug seemed to get no attention. So I eventually
decided to reinstall Ubuntu 9.04 "cleanly", meaning a full disk wipe.
This reinstall was also problematic. The top Ubuntu website (google
install ubuntu) offered only the offensive 9.10 version and the
supposedly stable 8.04 version, but the disk that I burned with the
latter gave endless CD-reading noise and weird video, and made the
grub loader contain only an eternal memory test. Eventually I found
Ubuntu
9.04
and then found that one should not, after the F12-depressed Toshiba
startup and CD-icon selection with the cursor, cursor down to the
install choice but instead must select "Try Ubuntu without changing
your computer" and then click on the install icon that appears after
the lengthy Ubuntu startup.
I then made the mistake to follow the recipe below from this Ubuntu forum thread:
To replicate your packages selection on another machine (or restore it if re-installing), you can run this: dpkg --get-selections > ~/my-packages This will save a file called my-packages in your home directory. Make a backup of it, install the fresh release, then restore the file "my-packages" to new home partition and run this code in the terminal: sudo dpkg --set-selections < my-packages && sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade It will download and install all the programs for you, except those that you installed manually, if they are not in the new repository. Then restore your backup of /home so all your programs settings will be as they were previously.which deselected
network-manager-gnome
and so killed the
nm-applet
wireless, and with that any further downloading.
Remedy: yet another reinstall, without such package recall but instead
using my notes (posted above) on installing Ubuntu 8.10 to find which
packages to reinstall and how to tune many settings and adjustments
(such as the shell choice). An unpleasant multi-day effort to
re-invent this wheel, but eventually successful. I now wonder when or
whether ever to update Ubuntu in the future. Is the recipe not to heed
October updates?
Another quote from the same thread:
Call me old fashioned, but I still don't see why I or anyone else has to become an expert at saving this and that, tweak the other and tweek the same, stand on your head and drink a pint of beer from the far side of a glass, just so you can upgrade your Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 without any problems. I just want to use my computer..... not program the damn thing!Wouldn't it be nice to have an "Undo Ubuntu update" button next to the "Update Ubuntu" button in the update manager?