As far as I can tell, this happens because ubuntu-minimal is not installed, therefore sysvinit is not upgraded to upstart, and runlevels are not executed as they should be.
Installing that package is one of the steps to upgrade as laid out in the announce email from Johnathan Riddell * In the console run: sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop python-qt3 python-kde3 ubuntu-minimal and follow the prompts to install I don't remember seeing ubuntu-minimal mentioned in the upgrade instructions in the knot releases, so now maybe they are aware that this is a potential issue -- kubuntu edgy starts X but screen stays dark (black) https://launchpad.net/bugs/68880 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
