Graphics Resolution- Upgrade /Blank Screen after reboot

[MAFoElffen]

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:

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?

Run this command in a terminal

/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

It will tell you if you have the required hardware and packages to run Unity3D. Don't dispare if it says you "can't." There is a Unity2D version that has the same look and feel of Unity3D without the 3D effects. It will run on older hardware.

You can install it via synaptic > search for the package "unity-2d" then install >apply.

Congrats on sysccess (even if the res sucks so far). Subscribe to the 2 monitor radeon bug, they are still working on work-arounds and fixes for that. I'll keep me eyes and ears open and (you know) when I find one, I'll put it here and try to forward what I found to you.

Someone did give me a few ATI cards to play with and to test these problesm on.

[pssturges]

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.

First of MAFoElffen, thankyou for your time and persistance in helping me solve this issue. It is very much appreciated.

As far as I know the nvidia 8600 is the only video chipset. I have had the laptop for 3 years and never seen any mention of anything else.

Now, for the purposes of solving this issue, I have temporarily replaced the hdd with a fresh one and done a fresh install of 32bit Ubuntu 11.04. So consider it a blank canvas!

The info you asked for:

phil@phil-laptop:~$ sudo hwinfo --monitor
process 2838: arguments to dbus_move_error() were incorrect, assertion "(dest) == NULL || !dbus_error_is_set ((dest))" failed in file dbus-errors.c line 280.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.
libhal.c 3483 : Error unsubscribing to signals, error=The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files
30: None 00.0: 10000 Monitor
  [Created at fb.71]
  Unique ID: rdCR.EY_qmtb9YY0
  Hardware Class: monitor
  Model: "Generic Monitor"
  Vendor: "Generic"
  Device: "Monitor"
  Resolution: 640x480@73Hz
  Driver Info #0:
    Max. Resolution: 640x480
    Vert. Sync Range: 50-90 Hz
    Hor. Sync Range: 31-38 kHz
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

phil@phil-laptop:~$ sudo hwinfo --framebuffer
process 2857: arguments to dbus_move_error() were incorrect, assertion "(dest) == NULL || !dbus_error_is_set ((dest))" failed in file dbus-errors.c line 280.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.
libhal.c 3483 : Error unsubscribing to signals, error=The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files
02: None 00.0: 11001 VESA Framebuffer
  [Created at bios.464]
  Unique ID: rdCR.04O_qA0Mq31
  Hardware Class: framebuffer
  Model: "NVIDIA G86 Board - e416h01 "
  Vendor: "NVIDIA Corporation"
  Device: "G86 Board - e416h01 "
  SubVendor: "NVIDIA"
  SubDevice: 
  Revision: "Chip Rev"
  Memory Size: 14 MB
  Memory Range: 0x09650000-0x0a44ffff (rw)
  Mode 0x0300: 640x400 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0301: 640x480 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0303: 800x600 (+800), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0305: 1024x768 (+1024), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0307: 1280x1024 (+1280), 8 bits
  Mode 0x030e: 320x200 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x030f: 320x200 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0311: 640x480 (+1280), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0312: 640x480 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0314: 800x600 (+1600), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0315: 800x600 (+3200), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0317: 1024x768 (+2048), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0318: 1024x768 (+4096), 24 bits
  Mode 0x031a: 1280x1024 (+2560), 16 bits
  Mode 0x031b: 1280x1024 (+5120), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0330: 320x200 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0331: 320x400 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0332: 320x400 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0333: 320x400 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0334: 320x240 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0335: 320x240 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0336: 320x240 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x033d: 640x400 (+1280), 16 bits
  Mode 0x033e: 640x400 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0345: 1600x1200 (+1600), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0346: 1600x1200 (+3200), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0347: 1400x1050 (+1400), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0348: 1400x1050 (+2800), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0349: 1400x1050 (+5600), 24 bits
  Mode 0x034a: 1600x1200 (+6400), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0352: 2048x1536 (+8192), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0360: 1280x800 (+1280), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0361: 1280x800 (+5120), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0362: 768x480 (+768), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0364: 1440x900 (+1440), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0365: 1440x900 (+5760), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0368: 1680x1050 (+1680), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0369: 1680x1050 (+6720), 24 bits
  Mode 0x037c: 1920x1200 (+1920), 8 bits
  Mode 0x037d: 1920x1200 (+7680), 24 bits
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknow

The things I notice of significane are the errors produced by these commands and that the monitor is showing a max resolution of 640x480. Do you think that is significant? The native res of the screen should be 1440x900.

Cheers
Phil

[MAFoElffen]

The info you asked for:

phil@phil-laptop:~$ sudo hwinfo --monitor
process 2838: arguments to dbus_move_error() were incorrect, assertion "(dest) == NULL || !dbus_error_is_set ((dest))" failed in file dbus-errors.c line 280.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.
libhal.c 3483 : Error unsubscribing to signals, error=The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files
30: None 00.0: 10000 Monitor
  [Created at fb.71]
  Model: "Generic Monitor"
  Vendor: "Generic"
  Device: "Monitor"
  Resolution: 640x480@73Hz
  Driver Info #0:
    Max. Resolution: 640x480
    Vert. Sync Range: 50-90 Hz
    Hor. Sync Range: 31-38 kHz
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Yes, This does seem strange and bothers me too. That was what it said about the "laptop" LCD screen? Query the monitor again with this (should get a lot more detail back):

xrandr -q

[pssturges]

Yes the laptop LCD. Nothing else connected.

xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 640 x 480, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
** 1024x768 * * * 61.0**
** 800x600 * * * *61.0 *
** 640x480 * * * *60.0 *

Just for kicks I thought I'd try the same commands under lucid.

xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1440 x 900, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS-1 connected 1440x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 367mm x 229mm
** 1440x900 * * * 60.0*+
** 1152x864 * * * 60.0 *
** 1024x768 * * * 59.9 *
** 800x600 * * * *59.9 *
** 640x480 * * * *59.4 *
** 720x400 * * * *59.6 *
** 640x400 * * * *60.0 *
** 640x350 * * * *59.8 *
VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Very different...

sudo hwinfo --framebuffer
02: None 00.0: 11001 VESA Framebuffer
**[Created at bios.464]
**Unique ID: rdCR.04O_qA0Mq31
**Hardware Class: framebuffer
**Model: "NVIDIA G86 Board - e416h01 "
**Vendor: "NVIDIA Corporation"
**Device: "G86 Board - e416h01 "
**SubVendor: "NVIDIA"
**SubDevice:*
**Revision: "Chip Rev"
**Memory Size: 14 MB
**Memory Range: 0xcd000000-0xcddfffff (rw)
**Mode 0x0300: 640x400 (+640), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0301: 640x480 (+640), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0303: 800x600 (+800), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0305: 1024x768 (+1024), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0307: 1280x1024 (+1280), 8 bits
**Mode 0x030e: 320x200 (+640), 16 bits
**Mode 0x030f: 320x200 (+1280), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0311: 640x480 (+1280), 16 bits
**Mode 0x0312: 640x480 (+2560), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0314: 800x600 (+1600), 16 bits
**Mode 0x0315: 800x600 (+3200), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0317: 1024x768 (+2048), 16 bits
**Mode 0x0318: 1024x768 (+4096), 24 bits
**Mode 0x031a: 1280x1024 (+2560), 16 bits
**Mode 0x031b: 1280x1024 (+5120), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0330: 320x200 (+320), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0331: 320x400 (+320), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0332: 320x400 (+640), 16 bits
**Mode 0x0333: 320x400 (+1280), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0334: 320x240 (+320), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0335: 320x240 (+640), 16 bits
**Mode 0x0336: 320x240 (+1280), 24 bits
**Mode 0x033d: 640x400 (+1280), 16 bits
**Mode 0x033e: 640x400 (+2560), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0345: 1600x1200 (+1600), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0346: 1600x1200 (+3200), 16 bits
**Mode 0x0347: 1400x1050 (+1400), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0348: 1400x1050 (+2800), 16 bits
**Mode 0x0349: 1400x1050 (+5600), 24 bits
**Mode 0x034a: 1600x1200 (+6400), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0352: 2048x1536 (+8192), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0360: 1280x800 (+1280), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0361: 1280x800 (+5120), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0362: 768x480 (+768), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0364: 1440x900 (+1440), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0365: 1440x900 (+5760), 24 bits
**Mode 0x0368: 1680x1050 (+1680), 8 bits
**Mode 0x0369: 1680x1050 (+6720), 24 bits
**Mode 0x037c: 1920x1200 (+1920), 8 bits
**Mode 0x037d: 1920x1200 (+7680), 24 bits
**Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Much the same...

"sudo hwinfo --monitor" produces absolutely no output...strange.

Hope that helps
Phil

[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.

=============
I am at 10.10 version now, so if I choose the UPGRADE to 11.04, will it give me the option of partitioning the HD so I can have 11.04 separate, or should I use the 11.04 disc and add it that way?
I don't want to get so far into an upgrade and find out that I cannot partition the HD to keep 11.04 separate and have to go all the way back to 9.10 version to start all over...

[bogan]

Blank Screen crashes after upgrade to 11.04
Upgrading using the Update-Manager upgrade option, from Ubuntu 10.10 to Natty 11.04, ended with a crash to a blank screen with no mouse pointer, a flashing cursor and two flashing lights on the keyboard.
On rebooting I too have blank screen hang-up problems and Grub Menu difficulties, though the screen is not really black, it has a noticeable blue tinge.
After such a hang-up either the Grub Menu locked-up with no keyboard response or there was no Grub Menu but a blank screen with a white panel centred on it, with the text: "Analogue RGB 93KHz/59Hz. Out of range."
After some time, this panel scrolls at random around the screen a la Screen Saver, also with no keyboard response. These problems were overcome, if not cured, by using a 19" 1280x1024 Monitor instead of a 21.5" 1920x1080 Touch Screen Monitor, connected by a DVI-d cable instead of a VGA cable, and using a fully cold start re-boot after a crash;
ie. Holding the reset button down for at least 30 seconds, with the computer power switch off and the power cable removed.( A cure for other start-up sequence hang-ups suggested by the Medion Helpline).
The crashes after selecting Ubuntu 2.6.38-8, either normal, (modified as suggested by MAFoElffen in these threads,) or recovery, continued.
I repeatedly tried all the suggested ways of getting into a graphics screen that I could apply, without success. Most of which just did not work at all.
( For example, neither a 10.10 nor an 11.04 LiveCD gave a different Grub menu screen when 'esc' was pressed; whilst trying to edit the Grub files failed as the files were 'read only').
After trying the Mount sequence outlined on page 19 of the thread, I gave up and formatted the system file partition, downloaded the 11.04 .Iso file, ran it as a try-out and as it seemed to run with no problems I installed Natty from that.

Eureka! --- At least partially.---
It booted and ran with the 19" 1280x1024 Monitor connected by DVI-d cable. But with a VGA cable it still gave the 'Out of Range' message; however, it no longer hung-up, but, after an “Auto Adjusting” message, rebooted directly into Windows.
With the 21.5" 1920x1080 Touch Screen Monitor, connected by a DVI-d cable, after a crash, on re-booting it went from the Grub menu to a blank mauve screen and then hung-up on a black and white striped screen, (see 2. below). A fully cold reboot corrected this.
I also now have a different set of problems. Though I am not sure they belong to this thread:
1.The first few boots gave a Grub menu on a mauve (Magenta?) screen with the time-out counting down to default auto-boot. Later, however, the time-out no longer showed or operated, but at the moment it is working; though I have not altered any of the Grub files, or run update-grub, in the mean time.
2. On resuming from Suspend or Hibernation it crashes with a screen that is a series of black and white horizontal stripes; the mouse cursor is active but no keyboard response. The 'black' lines have a lot of single pixels of varied colours, which I suspected is a hangover from the screen-saver that was running when I put it to sleep. When booted from the LiveCD, going to Suspend or Hibernate crashed to a text screen with an 'state-error' message about the RaLink USB Wireless Adapter and an 'invalid RTChipset' ( the Wlan link works OK ) it then shut down and rebooted to the Grub menu.
3. The desktop has no 'Panels' and I could not find a way to create one, as the help file assumes there is a top and bottom Panel by default - hence there is no way that the Application and System Menus can be accessed, only listed for configuration: the Places menu is only spasmodically shown, depending on what windows are open. Right Mouse clicks in the title bar have no effect.
When booted from the LiveCD the Applications, Places and System/ Preferences/ Administration menu titles are in the top Panel, similarly to 10.10; but it does not have a Launchpad on the left of the screen, and there is a Notification Panel at the bottom..
The Gnome-Panel files from the 11.04CD are v. 2.32.1-0ubuntu6.3, whereas those from the installed 11.04 show those, also v. 2.32.1-0ubuntu6.5 updated 24/05/11.
{ Edit: I found an answer to this. See next entry. Switch to Ubuntu Classic.}
4. Booting into the recovery mode and selecting 'Resume' after running a File System Check, produced a hang-up at the stage of: “Checking Battery State...” with a flashing cursor but no keyboard response.
Should I start a separate thread for each of the above?

This refers to a Medion MS7318 MD 8822 PC with an Intel Core Duo E6400 CPU, which runs 32bit Vista and has a VIA Chip-set, but an nvidia GeForce 7650 GS graphics card with v173 driver, not the current one. Ubuntu10.04 is in sda6, 10.10 was in sda8 but was overwritten by 11.04 and no longer shows in the Grub menu.
I also have a Medion MD8342 running Windows7 with Ubuntu10.10 in sda6, on an external HDD; it would not install to the Boot Hdd as that already has four partitions.

After the successful(sic?) re-installation, now probably irrelevant, here are some more details:
The main problem seems to have been a failure to mount the 11.04 root, though it mounted from the Desktop and seemed normal when accessed. After a cold reboot, the 1.99~rcl Grub menu showed on a black screen and the time-out was not active nor referred to in the text; selecting the 2.6.38-8-generic recovery entry, produced a full screen of text including:
Code #
Autorun...Autorun DONE.
UFS Cannot open root device 'sda8' or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are available options:
{ but no options followed, what did was:}
Kernel Panic - not syncing: UFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
Pid; 1, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.38-8-generic#42-Ubuntu
Call trace: {there followed a list of ten calls to various mount and other addresses ending with:}
kernel_thread_helper x0x6/0x10
End code.
It then locked up with a flashing cursor but no keyboard response.
Exactly the same response came when the first item was selected after editing the Grub menu to add 'nomodset' and splash '-verbose text' and deleting the 'vt.handoff=7' entry.

Sorry it is so long but you ask for as much detail as possible.
Any work round suggestions welcome.

[bogan]

I found a partial answer to my problem 3. above. Lack of Panels in Natty Desktop Screen.

Evidently the Natty 11.04 LiveCd was set to boot into the Ubuntu Classic display, whereas the installed version is called UBUNTU.
From the Control Centre -'System Settings' in the menu shown by clicking the extreme right top corner Icon - select 'Login Screen'.
Click on 'Unlock' and enter password.
Choose the 'Select' Button
From the drop-down menu select: 'Ubuntu Classic' entry and 'Close'
Hey Presto the Menus are now in the title bar which is now a Panel.

So I can now right click on it and make up my own LaunchPad, which Classic does not have by default.

Thanks to the Desktop forum for this solution, slightly modified to suit 11.04.

[Blasphemist]

I found a partial answer to my problem 3. above. Lack of Panels in Natty Desktop Screen.

Evidently the Natty 11.04 LiveCd was set to boot into the Ubuntu Classic display, whereas the installed version is called UBUNTU.
From the Control Centre -'System Settings' in the menu shown by clicking the extreme right top corner Icon - select 'Login Screen'.
Click on 'Unlock' and enter password.
Choose the 'Select' Button
From the drop-down menu select: 'Ubuntu Classic' entry and 'Close'
Hey Presto the Menus are now in the title bar which is now a Panel.

So I can now right click on it and make up my own LaunchPad, which Classic does not have by default.

Thanks to the Desktop forum for this solution, slightly modified to suit 11.04.

I can help make sense of some of this. You did provide lots of detail.

The live natty cd runs (see this page) https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Demystifying...reRequirements

/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

A failure to support unity causes the live cd to show the classic desktop. You can run this to see what fails the test. Fixing this may be possible by using some of what is in this thread to get better video performance.

This is the official documentation on the nvidia open source driver install.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Bi...erHowto/Nvidia

The nvidia web site shows this as the proprietary driver for your card. http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-d...19-driver.html
This is how nvidia says to install it.

Installation instructions: Once you have downloaded the driver, change to the directory containing the driver package and install the driver by running, as root, sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-270.41.19.run

One of the last installation steps will offer to update your X configuration file. Either accept that offer, edit your X configuration file manually so that the NVIDIA X driver will be used, or run nvidia-xconfig

[johnthei]

ok, i started to put 11.04 on its own partition...I am confused how to make it. I made about half the drive a partition but did not make some other part it says it needs...so I backed out and stopped.

[Blasphemist]

It probably wanted to create a swap, do create one just larger than the amount of RAM that you have.