10.4 installation gives Purple screen of death

[groovomata]

Hello All, I initially had problems with the install CD giving the purple screen of death (a screen of vertical purple lines), however I managed to press F6 and set nomodeset and then add "xforcevesa no splash --" to the boot parametres (I guess) and I was able to boot into the live CD.

Now however, I've installed 10.4 and I'm back to the purple vertical lines. My Dell 6400 laptop has an nvidia 7300 video card which must be the problem. My question is, how do boot into some kind of low graphics mode so that I can install the proper video drivers? I've been pressing shift to get to the grub menu, but the recovery mode only gets me the purple vertical lines as well, and I don't know what I'm doing. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thank you,
Erik.

[infamous-online]

Hello All, I initially had problems with the install CD giving the purple screen of death (a screen of vertical purple lines), however I managed to press F6 and set nomodeset and then add "xforcevesa no splash --" to the boot parametres (I guess) and I was able to boot into the live CD.

Now however, I've installed 10.4 and I'm back to the purple vertical lines. My Dell 6400 laptop has an nvidia 7300 video card which must be the problem. My question is, how do boot into some kind of low graphics mode so that I can install the proper video drivers? I've been pressing shift to get to the grub menu, but the recovery mode only gets me the purple vertical lines as well, and I don't know what I'm doing. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thank you,
Erik.


By any chance do you have pcmia card or an internal network card built in? The reason I ask, because my old Dell 1100 Insprion gives me this same issue, and it turned out to be the pcmia wireless card that was the problem. Whenever it's out the machine is fine but as soon as I plug in the card, I'll give it 5 to 10 mins later and I'll get the purple screen of death. So check to see if it's not your pcmia wireless card. My Dell Latitude with an internal card never had this problem.

[groovomata]

Thanks for the quick reply but the laptop has a built-in card. Additionally, I've managed to install various ubuntu versions on this laptop with no problems. So this is the first time.
Thank you!

[Catharsis]

1) In the grub menu, highlight the kernel you want to boot into and then press 'e'.

2) Replace "quiet splash" with "nomodeset xforcevesa no splash". This is basically what you did to your LiveCD.

3) Ctrl+x to boot.

Not sure you need the "no splash" part. Or even the "xforcevesa". But if that's what worked for you, then why change it, eh? (If the above doesn't work, just try removing the two parameters in this paragraph one at a time.)

[groovomata]

Catharsis, thank you very much! I'll give that a try tonight after work.
Best,
Erik.

[groovomata]

Catharsis, thank you very much. I put in the parameters as you indicated into the grub edit screen and I was able to boot into my new ubuntu and install the relevant drivers.

[windowsfree]

I have a question with your directions. I am doing a clean install and have much the same problem. Where do I attempt to interrupt the startup and Replace "quiet splash" with "nomodeset xforcevesa no splash"

Thanks

[Catharsis]

I have a question with your directions. I am doing a clean install and have much the same problem. Where do I attempt to interrupt the startup and Replace "quiet splash" with "nomodeset xforcevesa no splash"

Thanks

While you're booting, hold down Shift. That should get you to the grub menu. Everything from there should be explained above, but if not, just give a yell.