In our last episode, I promised to rush foolishly into a full install of Ubuntu

for which I was totally unprepared. Well, I did it, and I’ve backed

myself into a usability corner. Technically, the OS is installed, I

just can’t really use it, because of the end-run I did around a

video-driver catch-22 (as described in episode 6).

Long story short, if I don’t pass the boot parameter vga=771,

I can’t complete the install, because the native video driver goes

wonky without the parameter. I need it to complete all the text-based

config menus during the install. However, after the install process,

the correct video driver is in use, and the vga=771

parameter causes the GUI interface to be unreadable. Luckily, I can

drop to a terminal with [CTRL][ALT][F1], which gets me to a command

prompt. My problem now is that I need to find out where the vga=771 boot parameter is specified and take it out of the boot process–all from the command line.

Unfortunately, I’m a total n00b, so I have no idea how to accomplish this. Thus, as always, I’ve turned to Technical Q&A, with a bounty of 1000 useless TechPoints to the kind soul who helps me out of my latest jam.

—

Keep up with the Trivia Geek’s ongoing Wacky Linux Adventures with the wackylinux tag. If it doesn’t say wackylinux, it’s not really a wacky Linux adventure.