Fix Undefined video mode number in Ubuntu

April 1st, 2008 | by TK |

 If you’re getting the error message; "Undefined video mode number – Press Enter to see more or space to continue" when you boot up, I just found a quick fix for it while trying to patch the same problem on my machine.  Apparently this will also work with the lilo bootloader (check article comments).

It’s a good idea to make a copy of the original "menu.lst" in case you do something wrong by accident.  Type:

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.old

Ubuntu users, open up a Terminal window and type:

gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Scroll down the file and you will find something that says  vga=791 or some other number.  Replace all instances of  vga=791 (or whatever it says) to vga=normal 

Make sure you change all of them or it may not work.

Save the file and reboot.  This should hopefully fix the problem!

 

 


  • jino

    thanks

  • jino

    thanks

  • DragonM15

    This fix will also work for lilo, as confirmed by me. If you have the lilo bootloader, it has the same line of code, but just once. Change it to normal and that fixes the problem. Also, with lilo after you edit and save the lilo.conf file you must run lilo via /sbin/lilo otherwise lilo wont pick up the change, with a restart or otherwise.

    DragonM15

  • DragonM15

    This fix will also work for lilo, as confirmed by me. If you have the lilo bootloader, it has the same line of code, but just once. Change it to normal and that fixes the problem. Also, with lilo after you edit and save the lilo.conf file you must run lilo via /sbin/lilo otherwise lilo wont pick up the change, with a restart or otherwise.

    DragonM15

  • Cecchi Sandrone

    Thanks for the advice…it works for me!

  • Cecchi Sandrone

    Thanks for the advice…it works for me!

  • http://technicaldotcom.blogspot.com techniqueal t.

    Great fix! It actually worked on my other PC. Thanks a lot ^_^

    You have a very resourceful blog. I enjoy reading the entries. Thanks for the exlinks! ^_^

  • http://technicaldotcom.blogspot.com techniqueal t.

    Great fix! It actually worked on my other PC. Thanks a lot ^_^

    You have a very resourceful blog. I enjoy reading the entries. Thanks for the exlinks! ^_^

  • Biggest

    Thanks, I tried and did not work, I resolved by changing the color depth from 24 bit to 8 bits.
    Sorry if my English is bad, use the Google translator. jeje.

  • Biggest

    Thanks, I tried and did not work, I resolved by changing the color depth from 24 bit to 8 bits.
    Sorry if my English is bad, use the Google translator. jeje.