Graphics Resolution- Upgrade /Blank Screen after reboot

[Blasphemist]

Did you have a link for that?

I'm a little confused on this now also... -generic was 32bit desktop. -pae was 32bit server... -pae was optimised f0r server services and the graphics/desktop services on it "sucked." That was my experience on it through natty testing. Up through a month ago, there still was a separate 32bit -pae for server and 32bit -generic for desktops.

Why did I want to see those 2 grub files? The grub.cfg file is built by the files contained in /boot/grub.d and /etc/default/grub... Grub.cfg is not "the file" you change, but you can see what is affected by grub.defaults by looking at these 2 files. (You can also see what "has" been edited and changed, by looking at these 2 files...)

Yes, it "is" 32bit, ...and if they use startup-manager, it edits straigth to the grub.cfg... It is not permanent nor what is supposed to be "correct" but it works. ...and doesn't check or care if it is 32bit. But those edits still work most of the time. Because of that, one update (automatic. scheduled or manually) of update-grub and the user will have to run the startup-manager again to recreate what it did before.

This is what I read about the pae kernel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension
Note this from the OS support section.

Linux
The Linux kernel includes full PAE mode support starting with version 2.3.23,[6] enabling access of up to 64 GB of memory on 32-bit machines. A PAE-enabled Linux-kernel requires that the CPU also support PAE. As of 2009,[7] some common Linux distributions have started to use a PAE-enabled kernel as the distribution-specific default[7] because it adds the NX bit. [8]

There are a number of threads regarding X issues and this kernel. I just answered one and wasn't sure just what the best option for setting the default kernel to generic is. He has pae and generic and only generic works. In that post I noted another thread where the OP just removed the pae and generic was promoted automatically. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1761593&page=2

[MAFoElffen]

Good morning. I only have one monitor hooked up at the moment, dunno if that matters. (Graphics are still bad)


/etc/defualt/grub

# 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=""

# 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

boot/grub/grub.cfg
[CODE]#if [ "$linux_gfx_mode" != "text" ]; then load_video; fi
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root cb57544a-5084-4fe2-aa54-a49f35e2cb69
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=cb57544a-5084-4fe2-aa54-a49f35e2cb69 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
}

You have an RV370 and all your config files look pretty much untouched and unmodified.

ATI has dropped suppport for all RV200-500 cards starting with 9.4 and future drivers for linux and windows

So you're stuch with opensource drivers. If there was an older propietary driver installed, it would have had to have been removed before update processes for it to find the opensource drivers. Instruction for all that are here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver
Those instruction have been updated for natty.

In which issues with that is still changing:
"Changed in xserver-xorg-driver-ati": as recent as 20110.2.03
So, yes. If fglrx was propietary, then it had to be uninstalled for the new opensource drivers to be found, installed and used. (last status of that for this card.) Instructions for that are in the link above. Also note that you should also open your /etc/default/grub file and edit the following.

Change the line

# GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

to

GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480x24

Change the line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

To

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

And add a line saying

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=text

Run

sudo update-grub

[Randal Graves]

Thanks for the info, I'll see what I can do and report back.

[pssturges]

Hi,

After 3 weeks of frustration trying to get this to work I'm about at the end of my capabilities (and patience!). I started by upgrading from 10.10, but in attempt to fix the problem I did a fresh install. About 10 fresh installs later I'm not a whole lot closer to getting this fixed.

My system is a Medion Akoya laptop with Nvidia 8600m gs graphics.

Here's where I'm at so far:

1) 11.04 live cd boots
2) fresh install successful
3) new system boots without proprietry drivers. It doesn't seem to be able to detect my screen's native resolution (1400x900) where as 10.04 does.
4) install nvidia-current, run nvidia-xconfig
5) after reboot grub appears then black screen. After about 30 sec no more hdd activity.
6) reboot and manually edit grub kernel boot line as follows:

linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=32939def-1f4a-4134-9b56-bed2319a9216 ro   quiet splash acpi=off nomodeset

This works usually once! The system boots, nvidia drivers are loaded and the everything seems to work as it should.
7) Subsequent reboots do not work no matter how I edit the kernel boot line!
8 ) removing xorg.conf allows system to boot again without nvidia drivers.
9) when the blank screen occurs, I can't get a terminal by pressing <ctrl><Alt>F1 etc. Screen stays blank
10) adding "text" to kernel boot line yealds blanks screen also.

I have tried going back to 2.6.37 and also grub 1.98 without success(although I'm not 100% confident I did this correctly)

The really frustrating thing is that some things that I have tried have work once! If I have success with something, I try a reboot to confirm and it will not work anymore. Even some of the things I have descibed above work most of the time but not always!

At this point in time I feel as though I'm going around in circles and don't have a clear plan of attack. If someone could give me some sort of guidance as to where to go from here, it would be much appreciated.

Phil

[johnthei]

I had a bit of time unexpectedly to try stuff. great. total disaster. I saw multiple 'solutions' so I tried one: Sudo apt-get install Nvidia-current running in the only mode {ubuntu Classic] that works. Recovery console has useless graphics, classic is only one running that I can see anything on and work with

I got to terminal, did the sudo and great...got 4 files to download, it did, and then I rebooted.

Dead black screen saying on the monitor Input signal out of range, change settings to 1280 x 1024.

I am back to Windows XP on a different hard drive, to access this forum.
I found from prior info I have GEforce 4MX nvidia, it is integrated into the motherboard, not a seperate video card.

I think I may have to go back to 9.4 version, I think that was the last one I had any 'luck' with. the 10 versions did NOT have graphics that worked even with 22 different attempt to do all sorts of work arounds from all the notes I have on this video problem.

oh the classic graphics are 1024 x 768 it seems. I did see also after the downloads the proprietary drivers, had a new one but it said it was activated but not in use...

which is something I remember seeing allot in the 10.04 version problems, no matter what I did it did not go to 'in use'

Tried a new approach. Installed fresh 9.10 version, reformat everything. then enabled nvidia driver. all works. then start upgrade of everything, everything the upgrade manager wants, 10., 10.10, all fine. get to 11.04 upgrade to it. takes lots of time doing each of these.
New grub. hum. all other versions gone. still good resolution.
then it wont boot, back the dead black screen saying wrong resolution.

I dont know how to get anywhere again with dead black screen, no command seems to do a thing.



So I try to reformat again, with disc of 10.4 or 10.10. fails. gets so far on each, some problem wont let disc load and install.
go back to 9.10 version, start it all again, as of now I am up the the most current 10.10 with all the updates. it wants to upgrade to 11.04.

so after all this time used up this weekend, I will wait til later when I get time, and put 11.04 on separate partition I think, so I can try the 100 fixes on it without having to do all of this over and over again.

[MAFoElffen]

(EDITED)
Medion Akoya laptop with Nvidia 8600m gs graphics.

1) 11.04 live cd boots
2) fresh install successful
3) new system boots without proprietry drivers. It doesn't seem to be able to detect my screen's native resolution (1400x900) where as 10.04 does.
4) install nvidia-current, run nvidia-xconfig
5) after reboot grub appears then black screen. After about 30 sec no more hdd activity.
6) reboot and manually edit grub kernel boot line as follows:

linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=32939def-1f4a-4134-9b56-bed2319a9216 ro   quiet splash acpi=off nomodeset

This works usually once! The system boots, nvidia drivers are loaded and the everything seems to work as it should.
7) Subsequent reboots do not work no matter how I edit the kernel boot line!
8 ) removing xorg.conf allows system to boot again without nvidia drivers.
9) when the blank screen occurs, I can't get a terminal by pressing <ctrl><Alt>F1 etc. Screen stays blank
10) adding "text" to kernel boot line yealds blanks screen also.
11) tried going back to 2.6.37 and grub 1.98 without success

Phil

I need to know 2 things before we start...
A. Is the kernel 32bit or 64bit?
B. Is the video chipset the only video chipset? Well your laptop falls into a sort of gray area of time in technology were for a while there was a type or grouping of laptops called "gaming laptops" that explored certain technologies. Your "brand," like others, had offered some of these with nvidia graphics and others with radeon graphics... There was some of these gaming laptops (and I'm not familiar with your brand, so I need feedback from you or others to tell me) that had those chipsets "behind" other video chipsets (sandy bridge, optimus, etc.). The current bug with these is that the current basic linux processes, as they try to query and set graphics, are seeing the first chipset and stopping <> not seeing the chipsets beyond that. If it is one of "these," then tell me first and don't do any of the instructions below, because the instructions and advice for those will be completely different!!!

Here's my plan:
1. Lets get you backed off to what should be a somewhat measurable current starting place.
2. Then we'll get you configured in a manner that should accept the changes we are going to try.
3. We will apply patches and fixes to correct some common problems and ommission that have come up.
4. Then we are going to load our drivers and our changes.

Getting back to a starting point:
Remove, purge and reinstall Grub version 1.99 from a current 11.04 LiveCD. follow the instructions from here, Item number 12:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

Gathering Data.
What would be helpful here is for you to run

sudo hwinfo --framebuffer
sudo hwinfo --monitor

And post the results here. Reasons?

a. If the data from --framebuffer says the hardware is anything other than nvidia, stop right there. That would indicate that your nvidia chipset is "behind" another video chipset. If it comes to this, look here:
http://www.martin-juhl.dk/

b. ACPI=off currently in your kernel boot line. If that worked as a workaround for you and it helped <> It might have helped with your graphics, but will cause other problems, especially with laptops. I have a workaround for that by manually setting the GFXMODE and VGA mode. We need data from the above commands to do that.

Look at the data returned by both those commands. Look for a resolution that (closely) matches between the 2. We pick the resolution from the --framebuffer list. We take the hex "mode" of that resolution and comvert it to a decimal number. (it will be 3 digits then, example 771.) We will use that in a kernel boot setmode switch, vga=xxx, where xxx= the decimal number you came up with from your hex graphics mode.

Use the same resolution (thst you got the hex/decimal mode number from) and we will add it to grub's default file. Open a terminal and

cd /etc/default/
sudo gedit grub

The first line we want to change in this file looks like this:

# GRUB_GFXMODE-640x480

The new default is auto (notice this is currently commented out). The default is 1.98 was set at 640x480. This version is having a problem sometime when this is set to auto - querying and setting to an invalid mode. So we are going to set this manually, by all 3 parameters, instead of the 2...

GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480x24

You could actually set this to any mode returned in the data from "hwinfo --framebuffer." You can also add multiple resolutions by separating them with a semi-colon. What it is supposed to do, if set that way, is to go through the list until it finds one that works. This "mode" sets the grub menu resolution > But this mode also gets passed on to the kernel and to xorg through kms. By setting this manually, we are trying to pass it "valid" modes.

(By setting the above 2, GFXMODE and vga=xxx, you should no longer need the acpi=off switch.)

While we are in this file, we have more changes to do... Add this line

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text

Which is a workaround to tell the kerenl to ignore invalid graphics calls on boot and not pass them on. Next we are going to add our boot options.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset vga=xxx vmalloc-192MB acpi_osi=/"Linux/" "

Remember to substitute the xxx in the vga switch to the mode you picked for your resolution. The nomodeset is hopefully just "temporary," until your drivers are loaded, but we'll see.

Save and exit. Run update-grub to pick up the changes. Reboot.

Now to install a patch/fix kind of thing. Start up synaptic > search on "linux-headers-generic" What you are looking for the the generic linux kernel headers that are installed. Select and mark this for re-install and apply. In you have -server or -pae, you would do those instead... There was a problem somewhere along the way in the natty repo's where this got missing or corrupted on some machines. When the graphics drivers are installed, it uses these files to create them for the current kernel.

Next, you have previous nvidia drivers on your system and some of them keave resident files that conflict with some of the newer drivers... So we will remove purge them and install the ones I think you need....

sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia*

This will remove all your nvidia installs that are there now.

Now you have to download the correct driver for "your" card. You can try doing nvidia-current if you think that will help, but for some people, that brought about the same problems.

Use the nvidia'---> 173 driver, . (i think the normal choices are 96 for really old cards, the 173 is for go 5 to 9 series, and the 185 is for later... but don't quote me on that!)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-common 
sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-173

Obviously change the 173 to your number if your card is not in the Geofroce 5 to 9 series'. This installed the drivers manually.

Now you have to configure them:

sudoo nvidia-xconfig

Reboot. If it comes up in a graphics mode, start a termeinal and run

sudo nvidia-settings

Chnange your settings how you want, then apply and exit.

If it didn't come up at all, rename your xorg.conf and reboot to get back...

If your graphics still works, re-edit your /etc/default/grub file and remove the "nomodeset" switch from the kernel boot line > rerun update-grub and reboot. If it didn't comeup, re=add it back to the grub default file...

If after it did come up... and then if you are having problems with Compiz > then run:

compiz --replace

[MAFoElffen]

Tried a new approach. Installed fresh 9.10 version, reformat everything. then enabled nvidia driver. all works. then start upgrade of everything, everything the upgrade manager wants, 10., 10.10, all fine. get to 11.04 upgrade to it. takes lots of time doing each of these.
New grub. hum. all other versions gone. still good resolution.
then it wont boot, back the dead black screen saying wrong resolution.

I dont know how to get anywhere again with dead black screen, no command seems to do a thing.

So I try to reformat again, with disc of 10.4 or 10.10. fails. gets so far on each, some problem wont let disc load and install.
go back to 9.10 version, start it all again, as of now I am up the the most current 10.10 with all the updates. it wants to upgrade to 11.04.

so after all this time used up this weekend, I will wait til later when I get time, and put 11.04 on separate partition I think, so I can try the 100 fixes on it without having to do all of this over and over again.

1. What is your hardware (Desktop or laptop, CPU, Video)?
2. What ar you trying to install (32bit or 64bit0?
3. By the last paragraph, I'm thinking your plan would be great, because then we could
compare wat conf files and drivers are working and what can be tested, without severing you from the outside world.

[johnthei]

1. What is your hardware (Desktop or laptop, CPU, Video)?
2. What ar you trying to install (32bit or 64bit0?
3. By the last paragraph, I'm thinking your plan would be great, because then we could
compare wat conf files and drivers are working and what can be tested, without severing you from the outside world.

HP desktop, A320N pavillion i think it is, [at work now on other pc] 32 bit has built in graphics not separate video card.

yes, partitioning to its own area seems to me like something to try. on the installs a few times I got asked questions about grub and other stuff, a few times I just guessed as to what I thought was best, the default new install instead of keeping current editions.

will report back when i get time later this week to continue on it.
be seeing you

[spek578]

All right so i can install and boot into 32 bit 10.04 fine, but if i try a 64bit of ANY distro i get a black screen on live cd or after install, and the only way i can see anything is if i close the lid of my laptop and then open it. im on a gateway nv7915u with intel core i3.

[Randal Graves]

Change the line

# GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

to

GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480x24

Change the line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

To

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

And add a line saying

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=text

Run

sudo update-grub

Ok, I have my friend helping me and we edited the grub code. After editing the code we rebooted and tried to load Unity but received a message telling me I didnt have the hardware to run Unity, it then forced me to use Classic. I then went to monitor preferences and when I tried to activate the second monitor i got this error messge:

The selected configuration for displays does not fit available size requested =(3040, 900), minimum=(320-200), maximum=(1600,1600)

After I rebooted I was able to use the dual monitors after turning down the resolution to 800 on both monitors to a combined width of 1600. So, Its working but the res sucks. Seems like were getting somewhere


I can live with this setup so I guess the only questions left are:

Will I ever be able to run Unity?

Can I fix the res?