Basic Troubleshooting Guide Any software troubleshooting tips referenced in this guide relate to the current (as of early 2011) long term support release of Ubuntu, 10.4.1 Lucid Lynx. These steps are meant to be a general guide, and the you should always take the time to read any further manuals or documentation available before monkeying with your computer. --------- Tools before you even power on - Grub: memtest and recovery mode There are a few useful tools found within the GRUB menu of any Ubuntu Linux Operating System (OS). After the system POSTs (power on self tests) hit the escape key. This will bring you to a menu with a number of options including memtest and recovery mode. Memtest will run checks on your memory to let you know if any of the sticks you have installed are faulty. Recovery mode will let you troubleshoot software issues with the OS. - Xfix and video problems If you are having video problems caused by a faulty or inadequate video card or chipset one option is to try running xfix from the GRUB menu. However this is only a temporary fix, for a more long term solution you may want to consider installing a video card. Another option is to remove a file from your system called xorg.conf (note do not do this if using dual monitors). From the terminal cd to [/etc/X11/] and type [rm xorg.conf] (note - you may need to type [sudo] before this command in order to give yourself the proper priveleges). - BIOS The BIOS menus and settings can give you access to a lot of useful information about your system. If you are making or have made changes to the hardware installed on your system it's especially useful to check that your configuration aligns with the settings in the BIOS. If changes have been made which are affecting the functionality of the system there is usually an option in the BIOS to 'reset to defaults' so you can start over at square one. ------------ Terminal Tools - lshw to get detailed info about your system Running the command [lshw] in a terminal window will give you detailed information about all of the hardware installed on your system. This will give you a head start with any problems you are trying to troubleshoot. - The man command When using the command line in the terminal it can be difficult to find your way around certain commands. If you type in the command wrong the terminal won't tell you what you are doing wrong, it will just give an error. Using the [man] command, short for manual, will give you access to a wealth of information about the command and its various options. Type [man] before the command to access the manual. Ex: [man lshw] Type [q] to exit any manual. - /var/log The computer will log certain errors and events as they happen. Many of these logs are kept under the directory [/var/log]. If you check the entries in this directory which are relevant to your problem you can find information about your issue. Additionally if you navigate to the specific directory you are concerned with and use the following command [tail -f] the terminal will output any updates to this log. In these cases its useful to note that you can have multiple terminals open at any given time. - HD checks - badblocks If you want to check your hard drive for bad sectors, [badblocks] is a useful command to know. You'll want to specify where the file system is and how quickly the program checks the blocks of your drive. You can also reformat the drive while checking it for bad sectors. One example is [badblocks -c1024 /dev/sda]. If you want to know all of the options read the manual [man badblocks]. ----------- GUI tools -System or Process Monitor Some kind of system/process monitor can be really useful, especially to see if a process is taking up too much memory or CPU. Already installed on Ubuntu is the System Monitor which can be found under the System -> Administration -> System Monitor. You can also add the program to any one of your panels so that you can keep a constant eye on how much memory or CPU is being used at any given time. There are other options as well, such as [htop] which can be run from the terminal. -Booting from a LiveCD Trying a LiveCD and seeing if the problem persists is usually a good place to start for hardware issues, trying different distros and versions is the best way to do it. For example Linux Mint is a great distro to have on hand because it has wide support for lots of hardware. Check for drivers If you have installed new hardware recently, or old hardware is behaving poorly with new programs, it can be a useful practice to check for new drivers. This is done by going to System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers. The program will automatically check for new drivers and inform you if you need to install new ones (and which ones to install). Updates Have you installed updates lately? Unless you have changed the default settings, Ubuntu will autmoatically notify you on a regular basis about new updates. If you haven't checked in a while, or you are working with a new install its always a good idea to run updates. This can be done manually by going to System -> Administration -> Update Manager. Even if after opening the program you do not see available updates hit the [check] button to force the system to check for updates.