Ubuntu install Blank Screen

joe_chicken

Hey people,

I'm trying to install the Ubuntu live CD on the following system:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0 GHz
Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB S-ATA
Corsair Value S. PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB
Asus K8V Mainboard

I put the CD in and get the install options screen.
I hit install and the system looks like it's booting up fine with a splash screen and a progress bar type thingy.

Then it loads to a flashing cursor for about 10 seconds and then the screen goes blank and I can't do anything.

I've been snooping around the net to try and find what to do...

I've tried all sorts of boot parameters (fiddled with screen resolution and power control) to no avail.

It mentioned somewhere that I could press ctrl-alt-f1 to get the terminal, but that doesn't seem to work either.

Anybody else experience this?

niallb

What kind of screen do you have?

ethernet

I used the Alternate CD to install Ubuntu on a system that also refused to work correctly with the standard Ubuntu DVD.

See link on this page.

AndrewMc

joe_chicken wrote:

Hey people,

I'm trying to install the Ubuntu live CD on the following system:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0 GHz
Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB S-ATA
Corsair Value S. PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB
Asus K8V Mainboard

I put the CD in and get the install options screen.
I hit install and the system looks like it's booting up fine with a splash screen and a progress bar type thingy.

Then it loads to a flashing cursor for about 10 seconds and then the screen goes blank and I can't do anything.

I've been snooping around the net to try and find what to do...

I've tried all sorts of boot parameters (fiddled with screen resolution and power control) to no avail.

It mentioned somewhere that I could press ctrl-alt-f1 to get the terminal, but that doesn't seem to work either.

Anybody else experience this?

How long have you waited at the blank screen? There are some known bugs in the bootup on AMD64 where the screen remains blank, but the login screen does appear eventually (where eventually may be several minutes).

Capt'n Midnight

stupid question - you didn't install the server CD did you ? ( It doesn't have a GUI )

If you have the bandwidth try a knoppix CD to identify the video drivers it uses , it's also based on debian and seems a little better at hardware detection and has more boot options.

joe_chicken

niallb wrote:

What kind of screen do you have?

A flat panel dell (e176FP)

... I tried with another flat panel in the house, with no luck, but no other monitors to try it on

Just tested the CD on a laptop and it booted eventually

Was thinking of getting the alternate CD, but really don't wanna go to the trouble of downloading it again... I'll probably have to...
Thanks for the link, was unsure where to look.

Not sure what you mean Capt'N... but I don't think it's a disk issue as it worked with the laptop.

Thanks for replies

h57xiucj2z946q

Boot up the ubuntu recovery option or even boot up with the ubuntu live cd. If you dunno how to use vi, then boot up the ubuntu live cd.

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

where you see something like:

Section "Device"
Driver "????"
...
...
EndSection

change the ??? to "ati" and save and reboot, if that fail, try "radeon". Ubuntu automatically is shipped with these drivers however it should have set this up for you automatically. You could always play safe and use "vga" but your colours and resolution will be kept to a minimum.

There is another driver available for ATI cards for Ubuntu called "fglrx" but you must install it with the package manager first before you can use it.

Hope this helps.

joe_chicken

Casey Ripe Market wrote:

Boot up the ubuntu recovery option or even boot up with the ubuntu live cd. If you dunno how to use vi, then boot up the ubuntu live cd.

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

where you see something like:

Section "Device"
Driver "????"
...
...
EndSection

change the ??? to "ati" and save and reboot, if that fail, try "radeon". Ubuntu automatically is shipped with these drivers however it should have set this up for you automatically. You could always play safe and use "vga" but your colours and resolution will be kept to a minimum.

There is another driver available for ATI cards for Ubuntu called "fglrx" but you must install it with the package manager first before you can use it.

Hope this helps.

Hi Casey Ripe Market,

I'm not sure, but I think you're getting me wrong...

I can't install Ubuntu in the first place, so I can't edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Unless I'm missing something (that's definitely possible ) and there's some way to edit what driver it uses when booting the live CD?

Spose I'll just go ahead and burn that alternative CD...

Thanks anyway

ethernet

joe_chicken wrote:

Hi Damo2k,

I'm not sure, but I think you're getting me wrong...

I can't install Ubuntu in the first place, so I can't edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Unless I'm missing something (that's definitely possible ) and there's some way to edit what driver it uses when booting the live CD?

Spose I'll just go ahead and burn that alternative CD...

Thanks anyway

Not to discourage you, but I ended up editing the x.org file even after using the alternative CD. The resolution was too small for the monitor. To even get this far, I had to install extra packages to get a GUI. I think I was just unlucky!

joe_chicken

ethernet wrote:

Not to discourage you, but I ended up editing the x.org file even after using the alternative CD. The resolution was too small for the monitor. To even get this far, I had to install extra packages to get a GUI. I think I was just unlucky!

That's grand, I have no problem editing it, once I get a terminal

joe_chicken

Phew!

Finally got this bad boy up and running.

I installed the alternate CD, but when I went to boot for the first time... guess what?... Blank screen.

I booted into the "repair install" option from the CD... vi'd the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file... and there was already an ATI section in there.

Tried with radeon in the driver, that still didn't work.

Got sick of this after a while (I really needed to get onto the web) so decided to rename the xorg.conf file and reboot to see if it would work. Turns out it does

So did an apt-get on the xorg ati fglrx driver (after much fiddling with synaptic and browsing the intertubes)... changed the driver to fglrx in xorg.conf and renamed it back.

and now it's working!
Thanks everyone!

One last question... telinit doesn't seem to boot me to a specific runlevel (i.e. 3) and there's no inittab file in /etc... How do I change the runlevel?