Tried to install Ubuntu desktop on my Dell Inspiron 1420 but failed, finally work around it and solved the problem. All the problems encountered might be caused by my computer graphical card "NVIDIA GeForece 8400M GS", it has hardware failure before and I replaced once and still not working 100% well.

1, Install the Ubuntu desktop version "ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso", the installation UI cannot display properly, cannot proceed, installation failed,

Ubuntu desktop installation problem and solving_desktop


2, workaround solution, install the server version Ubuntu and then install the desktop package, successful installed the 'ubuntu-14.04.1-server-amd64.iso', as it is a server version, the system was only with command line. Now install the Ubuntu desktop manager,

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-core
sudo apt-get install x-window-system-core
sudo apt-get install gdm


Installed successful, the result is as below, still failed.

Ubuntu desktop installation problem and solving_desktop_02


3, realize the NVIDIA driver might be needs to upgrade.

Download from NVIDIA website, "NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.32.run", executed from command line, still failed, even worse, only mouse point can be seen,

Ubuntu desktop installation problem and solving_ubuntu_03


Trying to install by apt-get automatically upgrade the NVIDIA driver,  still same result, failed.

<pre name="code" class="plain">sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-current
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install nvidia-current



Trying to install the NVIDIA driver by bumblebee, still same result, failed. 

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
udo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee-nvidia nvidia-319


Re-install the OS and install other desktop manager, all failed, the desktop managers I ever installed includes,  Mate Desktop 1.8, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, LXDE, all failed, I found the compare of different desktop manager at this link, know the pros and cons of different desktop manager now.

​​http://www.renewablepcs.com/about-linux/kde-gnome-or-xfce​​


4, the final solution I found at this link:

​​http://askubuntu.com/questions/413928/ubuntu-13-10-how-to-disable-nvidia-graphics-nouveau​​

by disable the NVIDIA graphical cards, desktop manager can work properly, at the blacklist in the /etc/odprobe.d/blacklist.conf, add one line "blacklist nouveau", and after comparing with different desktop manager, I chose KDE at last and working fine now,

sudo apt-get install kde-standard


the KDE desktop is as:

Ubuntu desktop installation problem and solving_nvidia_04