To solve this issue, the trick is actually very simple (though it took me two months to find out). Simply append “nomodeset” to the grub entry. Here’s the whole procedure.

(Note: The following procedure only applies to those who have Intel driver and have the black screen issue. Do not follow this tutorial if you do not have the issue. You are asking for trouble.)

Installing Karmic via the LiveCD

If you intend to wipe your computer and install Karmic fresh from the LiveCD, follow the procedure below.

Boot up the LiveCD

Press Enter to select English as the language.

At the main screen where it asks you if you want to try or install Ubuntu, press F6, follow by the ESC key. You will now see a command line at the bottom of the screen. Enter “nomodeset” (without the quote) at the end of the command line and press Enter.

You should be able to boot into the Ubuntu desktop now.

Note: If you have followed the exact same procedure and still see the black screen, most probably this method don’t work for you.

Play around with it and make sure everything works fine. Proceed with the installation. Once it is done, restart your computer.

During the restart, when you see the “Grub Loading” message, immediately press “ESC” to get to the grub menu.

Highlight the first entry and press “e” to edit the entry.

Scroll down to the line that starts with “linux…” and move the cursor to the end. Enter “nomodeset”.

Press Ctrl + X to continue the booting process.

Once you are in the desktop, launch a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal).

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Scroll down to the line: “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT” and add “nomodeset” at the end.

Save and exit.

In the terminal, type

sudo update-grub

Done. You can now boot up your Ubuntu Karmic without any problem (hopefully).

Upgrade from Jaunty to Karmic

I strongly advise you to do a clean installation of Karmic rather than upgrading from Jaunty. But if you really must, here’s the procedure. Before you begin, remember to test your system with the LiveCD first.

When upgrading from Jaunty, things are slightly different as you will be using the legacy Grub (instead of Grub 2) and there is a need to amend the xorg file. (Note: Ubuntu 9.10 does not use the xorg file)

Upgrade your Jaunty from the Update Manager. Once it is done, DO NOT restart your computer.

Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal),

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Scroll down to the end until you see the line starting with the word “kernel”

Add “nomodeset” to the end.

Save and exit the file.

Next, type

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Scroll down until you see the video section
Add in the line

Driver   “Intel”

Save and exit.

Close the terminal

Restart your computer. It should work (hopefully).

PS: If you have noticed, there have been very few articles on Ubuntu Karmic for the past 2 months. The reason being, I can’t get it running in my computer. Now that this issue is solved, you will expect to see more Karmic articles from me.

Image credit: nasa1fan/MSFC

New boot screen

The first thing that you will notice is the new splash screen. Unlike all previous splash screens that are in black, it comes with a brown gradient and white font color. It definitely looks much polished and refined than all all its previous reincarnations.

New login screen

No fancy stuff here. The login architecture was rewritten to provide a better integration with the system. Despite the simple design, one good thing here is that you don’t to type in your username anymore. Simply click on the respective user entry and type in the password.

New wallpaper

The default wallpaper is a plain mix of brown and orange color. Nothing fanciful here, but I do feel that it looks much more livelier than its previous iteration.

The best part is at the backend (Preferences -> Appearance) where you can choose from a great selection of newly added wallpapers.

One interesting wallpaper is the Cosmos, that is in fact a series of wallpapers packed into one. Once set, it will automatically change itself every 30 minutes, so you won’t be bored with the same old wallpaper.

There is even a link that brings you to the Gnome art to download more wallpapers.

For those who can’t wait for the release, you can also grab the wallpaper here (5.2MB).

New icon themes

A new icon theme – humanity was introduced in Karmic beta.

Existing user who wanted to install this icon theme can do so via the command:

sudo apt-get install humanity-icon-theme

Addition in the System tray

Long time Ubuntu users will notice the new addition in the System tray. The envelope icon now allows you to access your Empathy and all IM chat in real time. It also acts as a non-obstructive notification center for new incoming mails.

On your Profile button where you click to shut down your computer, you can also use it to update your IM status now.

New software – Ubuntu Software Center

There have been a lot of hearsay about the launching of the iPhone style AppStore for Ubuntu. Now, it is finally here – Ubuntu Software Center.

The Software Center is not a replacement of the Add/Remove app and Synaptic Package Manger as both of them are still available in Ubuntu Karmic. It is more of an alternative (a much better one) to those who wanted to install applications the easy way. In my opinion, this is by far the easiest and most informative way to source for a free software and get it running in your system.

When you open the Software Center, you don’t see all the apps. Instead, you will find various categories that the apps are grouped into.

Clicking on any of the category will display a list of apps in that category.

Once you found the app that you are interested in, click on it to go to the info page. Here is where you can find the description of the app and its screenshot. At the bottom is the Install button where you can click and get it install on your system.

Does this make you think of iPhone AppStore?

Empathy

For those who are crazy about Pidgin, you are going to be disappointed here. Pidgin will no longer be included in Ubuntu Karmic. Instead, it was replaced by Empathy.

Like Pidgin, Empathy supports various network protocols and allows you to login to various IM networks with one interface. Empathy supports text, voice, video, and file transfers over many different protocols, so you can transfer files over XMPP and local networks and also place voice/video call using SIP, XMPP, Google Talk and MSN.

The GUI is similar to Pidgin, so there is little to get used to.

Ubuntu One

We have previously discussed Ubuntu One and how it could possibly become a dominant force in the online storage arena. In Ubuntu Karmic, Ubuntu One is well-integrated into the system so you can skip the installation and use it straight away.

Signing up is almost instant and the Nautilus integration means you can easily access your files/folders from your Nautilus.

Backend

Enough about the front end, let take a look at the backend.

New bootloader – GRUB 2

You probably won’t notice this at all, but the software that is used to boot up the OS has been upgraded to version 2.  This means better scripting support, command-line rescue mode, graphical boot as well as boot from ISO files.

GRUB 2 will only be installed for new installation. Existing users who upgrade their system via the Update Manager will continue to use the legacy GRUB bootloader.

Default Ext4 Filesystem

Ext4 filesystem was introduced in Jaunty. In Karmic, it has graduated to become the default filesystem. Like the GRUB 2 bootloader, the ext4 filsystem will only be applied for new installation. Existing users who are still on Ext3 will remain as Ext3 unless you choose to upgrade to Ext 4 manually.

That’s about all to the new features in Ubuntu Karmic beta. The official release will be on 29th Oct 2009. Are you looking forward to it?