blank screen during install on Toshiba laptop - Intel graphics

[bizna]

The grub screen displays correctly, and that's the last thing you see... After selecting the Install option (or the liveCD option), you get to a blank black screen, even though the disk IS reading.

Even safe graphics mode doesn't show a thing.

Model: Toshiba L500-1xc 64bit
Graphics card: Intel® HM55 Express Chipset with Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD

A link to specs sheet.

Just to be on the safe side, I also tried a 32bit install CD that I have, and the result was the same.

Does anybody have any clue, as for the possible reason? Is there any additional option I can give during boot, that will do the trick?

Thanks!
Dotan

[bizna]

bumping...

[bizna]

After trying the alternate install, the problem is still there.

GRUB displays perfectly, and at the moment the screen needs to out of the textual display, the screen comes to black again.

'Safe mode' doesn't do any trick.

Tried adding the following to the boot in GRUB, and they did nothing:
acpi= off noapic nolapic vga=771

(actually, vga=771 is deprecated, but the gfxpayload didn't help either)

Keeping on trying...

[mattfudd]

I am seeing the exact same issue with my ASUS NOTEBOOK U50. Were you able to figure anything out on this?

[bizna]

Sadly enough: no.

The beta release notes state something about adding i915.modeset=0 to the boot parameters. No love here.

The parameter nomodeset allows the splash screen, but then again the black screen appears. (solution from here)

I've currently reverted to working with the pre-installed Win7, until such time will come that I will have more time to fiddle with that.

Dotan

[bizna]

So, what do we have until now?

- The new Intel HM55 graphics adapter is not compatible with Linux in general, and of course it is incompatible with Ubuntu 9.10 in specific. Apparently, even rescue CDs such as GPartED fail to load the graphics interface.

- The suggested solutions all deal with the 'splash' option in the GRUB and boot stage, and they don't deal with the problem in the Xorg stage (or GDM for that matter). Add the word nomodeset to your boot line in GRUB, and you'll be able to at least load your shiny-but-useless Toshiba laptop in safe mode.

- In Ubuntu, it might have to do with the new EDID that is supposed to detect screen modes, but fails miserably in this case. A suggested solution can be found here, by creating a new xorg.xonf file. This is a tedious procedure, that I didn't find the time to go through.

So, for now there's no use in opening a bug in Ubuntu, since it's not an Ubuntu-specific issue, but a general Linux one.

Dotan

[oniltonmaciel]

I think I've got the same problem.
But since I can't boot live cd I can't make sure if my graphic card is the same.
My laptop is Toshiba Satellite A 505 S6005

Do you know a way I could check this?

By the way, I think we should fill a bug report at launchpad anyway. The bug could be closed but the right person could get the problem/bug upstream? What would be very nice.

If my graphic card is the same as yours you (and your thread) are the only concrete things I have found so far, so please don't give up yet.

[bizna]

oniltonmaciel,

You also have the Mobile Intel® HM55 Express Chipset. The Toshiba a505 s6005 spec sheet can be found here.

Launchpad you say? Launchpad it is! Bug opened: black screen on Intel HM55 - during boot and Xorg

Let's see if any solution comes...

Dotan

[oniltonmaciel]

It seems we've got some activity back there. You should check launchpad as soon as possible.

[bizna]

Thanks to Geir Ove Myhr from LaunchPad, the issue is now solved.

This is the relevant post, with the solution.

Installing the newest Kernel did the trick for me.

Good luck, and thanks for the feedback!

Dotan