[ubuntu-za] Problem New Install

[Lee Sharp]

Bruno Marques wrote:
> hello everyone,
> 
> this past week, i went to a friends house and installed a fresh copy of 
> ubuntu on his pc, dual booting with windows...
> 
> the instalation went great and all, but then, this weekend he phoned me 
> with a problem, im goona put here translated to english what he had to 
> say, any help would be much apreciated.
> 
> "i mas fiddling with my audio mixer (i have a soundcard soundblaster 
> live 5.1 from creative) when i activated an option called "... mixer" 
> (can't remember the name but it was on the section called Switchers), 
> then the pc started to make a funny noise. so i undid the option i had 
> activated and decided to logout and login because the sound didnt stop. 
> when i logged out, the pc froze in a black screen, and doesnt go 
> anywhere from there.
> 
> so i forced the pc to reset,  i saw the ubuntu loading bar, but just 
> when it was about to appear the splash screen, a black screen with some 
> funny stripes appear as u can see on the attached image.
> 
> im using ubuntu 9.10"
> 
> i tried asking him, when that funny screen appears, if he can go to one 
> of the terminals with the command alt+f1, but he says the keyboard 
> doenst respond to any commands.

1) How frozen is the system?  Try num-lock and caps-lock.

2) Can you reboot X? (ctl-alt-bksp)

3) Can you reboot the kernal? 
http://www.brunolinux.com/01-First_Things_To_Know/Skinny_Elephants.html 
or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

4) Can you go into recovery mode?

If 4 is yes, you can try disabling the graphical boot screens and see if 
that helps.

			Lee