10.04 LTS RC: Blank Screen at startup

[Manganic]

Well, to my amazement, I still had the documentation from when I purchased my laptop. I usually keep things like that, but I thought it got misplaced when I moved about 5 years ago.

My video card details:

ATI Mobility Radeon 7000 Series (IGP 345M)
*Not to be confused with a slightly different model, the Radeon 7000 IGP*

Note: My laptop is of the "desktop replacement" variety. It is very heavy, and uses a desktop mobo with a P4 Desktop CPU in "portability mode" (essentially underclocked to reduce energy usage), rather than an actual Mobile CPU. It gets rather hot under full power, especially in its old age...

So, I have answered one of my three questions. Two still remain. I am not afraid of using command line options, but after 20 years of troubleshooting only Windows / DOS, I'm not sure where to begin with Ubuntu / Linux. I've been using it here and there since Hardy, but I've never encountered any problems until now.

How would I go about disabling KMS by using the "radeon.modeset=0" option?

Is there a proprietary ATI driver that I could install?

Thanks to everyone for your help so far!

I'm also experiencing this issue on my laptop (LG R405 with ATI Radeon Xpress 1250). I have managed somewhat of a workaround:

Hold down left-shift on boot to enter GRUB
hit "e" to edit the kernel
remove "quiet splash" and replace with "nomodeset single"
control-x to boot

(http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+so...2/+bugs/511130)

A system recovery screen appears, I selected "start ubuntu normally" (or whatever option is similar) which put me through to a shell login prompt. After logging in to the basic shell I typed:

sbritton@Zarniwoop:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

Which, much to my surprise, launched the Lucid Lynx gui.

I'm using the standard drivers for my video card (I attempted, but failed to install ATI's catalyst control center.)

Where I'm at now is trying to figure out what changes I need to make to what files to get this gui to launch from boot. Hopefully this helps and moves us forward a bit. If anyone can make any suggestions towards what I did to get the to work this way, and what changes I can make to get this system working, I'd appreciate it!

[Darque1137]

Update: I did manage to get Lucid working on my venerable Dell 700m with the Intel chipset, using the i915 modeset workaround. Apparently I was having trouble getting this to work in grub because of a separate problem with grub, which was fixed and then startup commenced.

Now Flash doesn't work in Firefox. Sigh. Maybe it's time to replace old Maribelle.

[Manganic]

For me, I seem to have found the workaround.

First, credit where credit is due:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9221567

So, to make this change (remember to ALWAYS preserve a backup of your files)

sbritton@Zarniwoop:~$ cd /etc/default
sbritton@Zarniwoop:/etc/default$ sudo gedit grub

The editor will come up

Locate this line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Change it to:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="radeon.modeset=0 quiet splash"

Save, reboot, and voila!

When Lucid is installed, it defaults to KMS - Kernel Mode Setting, which means the Kernel determines the graphics mode to launch in. It seems that ATI cards don't like this and cause the Blank Screen of Death(tm).

Further reading:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting

Further note: I make no promises as to whether this change will work on "your" system. All I know is that it worked for me.

[ppepperr]

For me, I seem to have found the workaround.

First, credit where credit is due:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9221567

So, to make this change (remember to ALWAYS preserve a backup of your files)

sbritton@Zarniwoop:~$ cd /etc/default
sbritton@Zarniwoop:/etc/default$ sudo gedit grub

The editor will come up

Locate this line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Change it to:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="radeon.modeset=0 quiet splash"

Save, reboot, and voila!

When Lucid is installed, it defaults to KMS - Kernel Mode Setting, which means the Kernel determines the graphics mode to launch in. It seems that ATI cards don't like this and cause the Blank Screen of Death(tm).

Further reading:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting

Further note: I make no promises as to whether this change will work on "your" system. All I know is that it worked for me.

Hi new kid on the block. Been using Ubuntu without issue for 3 years on my Samsung R60 Plus laptop. Upgrade to 9.10 went without a hitch so I was extremely disappointed with upgrade to 10.04. Spent too long researching the issue and reverted to 9.10 before seeing this thread/post. Many thanks to Manganic your solution appears to be working. Lets hope the ATI issue is solved soon. Newbies shouldn't have to play around with GRUB.

[KingJeremy]

I'll be trying nucleuskore's Eureka Fix when I get home this evening, but in just scanning this thread, I haven't seen my specific problem mentioned - my screen only stays blank if the laptop isn't plugged into the power cord on bootup. Plugged in, it boots up just fine.

I have an HP tx2110 tablet and I upgraded to 10.04 from 9.10. If anyone else happens to have a similar problem, I'd be interested in hearing as much.

[twrock]

Update: I did manage to get Lucid working on my venerable Dell 700m with the Intel chipset, using the i915 modeset workaround. Apparently I was having trouble getting this to work in grub because of a separate problem with grub, which was fixed and then startup commenced.

Now Flash doesn't work in Firefox. Sigh. Maybe it's time to replace old Maribelle.

Downgrading to Karmic worked fine for me.

I just don't have the time to mess with it anymore. I'm sure they'll get this all worked out before 9.10 is EOL'ed.

[KingJeremy]

I'll be trying nucleuskore's Eureka Fix when I get home this evening, but in just scanning this thread, I haven't seen my specific problem mentioned - my screen only stays blank if the laptop isn't plugged into the power cord on bootup. Plugged in, it boots up just fine.

I have an HP tx2110 tablet and I upgraded to 10.04 from 9.10. If anyone else happens to have a similar problem, I'd be interested in hearing as much.

Well, that didn't work. If my laptop isn't plugged in when I boot up, my screen stays black. Which is funny, because I can still log in, I just can't see anything.

Anybody having this problem?

[sharkey77]

I did an upgrade on a Gateway MX6131 from 9.10 to 10.04 through the update manager.

To edit Grub I have to hold shift and keep pressing escape during boot. If I just hold shift Grub quickly flashes on the screen then goes to the Ubuntu Splash screen then to the blank screen.

I erased quiet splash and replaced with nomodeset but the problem persists.

I can get into Ubuntu by choosing Recovery Mode> failsafex> run ubuntu in low graphics mode for one session but can not use the other options to change any settings or view the log files (an empty window opens up).

How do I find the correct nomodeset setting to use with my graphics card so I don't have to choose failsafex everytime?

Thanks for your help.


Video Intel® Extreme 2 Graphics
Screen 15.4-inch Widescreen Ultrabright TFT WXGA

[KingJeremy]

So, I disabled the Nvidia (current version) driver and rebooted w/o the power cord plugged in and it booted up fine. With the driver activated, I get the Blank Screen of Death(tm) if I start the computer without being plugged in. Weird stuff. I'll keep an eye here if anyone reports a similar problem, or a solution.

[sharkey77]

I followed the steps in http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...5&postcount=11 but it didn't help. I went to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting but don't know how to check my driver.

This is my grub file:

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.modeset=1"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

I ran sudo update-grub after saving the above changes.