9.10 booting pauses when plugged in to TV via DVI-HDMI. Re-plugging fixes it.

[SpeedSk8X]

Hello.

I've searched high and low for the answer before posting.

I am running a fresh install of 9.10 [32 bit] after giving up trying to figure this problem
out on my previous install that had been distro upgraded several times from 7.x to 9.10.

Problem:
Ubuntu pauses the booting process when my Toshiba 42HL167 LCD is plugged in via
DVI to HDMI cable.

When the boot process pauses and the hard drive indicator lights stop flashing. I unplug
the DVI connector which causes the booting to resume and the hard drive indicators to
start flashing again. I can then plug the DVI connector back in and get a full 1920x1080
desktop on my TV.

I cannot see what is going on as I get no display from post until GDM loads.

If the connector is unplugged the computer boots fine. Also when booting with a
standard PC LCD via VGA port, it works fine.

I can use a Dell Inspiron 9300 [WinXP] with no problems with the same cable.

Also worth noting. When I do have the desktop on the TV, it shows the only available
resolution as 1920x1080, however on XP I can use a full range of resolutions.

The video card is an ATI X700 Pro [AGP].

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[MarsdaleSA]

Hi

Just thought I'd mention that I'm experiencing the same problem. Using the ATI fglrx driver on a Sapphire HD 4850. Sony Bravia 40" LCD TV.

I too can't find any solutions so far but will keep looking/fiddling, unplugging and plugging in again is no solution for an HTPC. If I do find one I'll post the solution here.

[SpeedSk8X]

Wanted to add:

Before the "pause" the mouse and keyboard initialize (caps lock flashes etc).
As soon as it pauses the keyboard lights turn off and you cannot use the keyboard at all.

Also cannot SSH in as the box hasn't booted that far.

On a random hunch I tried editing the Grub splash resolution with no result.

[efflandt]

I just went through troubleshooting this issue after connecting an old 27" Apex HDTV Ready 1280x720 LCD into my desktop DVI. Previously I had no trouble using that HDTV with 9.04 or 9.10 (or Qimo for kids which used 8.10) on other older PC's with VGA. Gnome did not recognize it when connected with VGA, but offered an alternate 1360x768 widescreen mode that worked.

DVI worked fine in 9.10 for my 19" 1280x1024 4:3 HDTV Ready monitor (which I gave to my niece with Qimo for kids on an old PC). I actually switched monitors while my PC was in standby, and while gnome still used 1280x1024 when it woke (which my HDTV supports), when I logged out of gnome and back in, gnome automatically recognized its 1280x720 native resolution.

It was not until I booted later that I just got a blinking cursor for a second, then indefinite blackness (no disk activity or anything). I could boot a USB stick with live/install iso. But a USB hard drive with 9.10 installed would get the same dead boot after grub menu. But I could still boot WinXP or Linux (recovery) modes, and gnome ran fine after I logged in and ran startx from there, so grub menu was half working. It also booted fine into gui login using manual commands from grub. And the USB drive still booted fine on my laptop. So that got me thinking about video.

Apparently vbe in gfx grub2 has limited video modes which on my desktop does not include any widescreen modes or anything over 800x600. But strangely my 1280x800 laptop works fine. Apparently even trying to force 640x480 may not work for DVI/HDMI widescreen, but you can get it working by editing these lines in /etc/default/grub as follows from:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

to:

#GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
# Use "" to see boot messages or "quiet" to hide them
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Note that you need to use sudo to edit it (either gksudo gkedit /etc/default/grub or sudo nano -w /etc/default/grub from a terminal). Then you may not see the Ubuntu logo, but should still get gui login.

I wonder how many people with the latest and greatest hardware will be turned off of Linux for something so difficult to troubleshoot, but simple to fix.

[SpeedSk8X]

That worked for me. Can boot without pause now.

I wonder if this will ever be truly fixed as I would only classify this as a temporary work around.

Just to summarize:

1)
Open /etc/default/grub
with your favorite text editor.

2)
Change the line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""

Save the changes and exit.

3)
Run this command to update the changes to Grub:
sudo update-grub

4)
Reboot

Big thanks to efflandt for the fix!