10.04 LTS RC: Blank Screen at startup

[twrock]

Thanks everyone for the tips. Though if someone could help me clarify a few things I am not as technically minded.
<snip>

I have a Dell 700m Insperon

Doug, here's a post I wrote from a thread dedicated to the 700m. See if it helps.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...7&postcount=12

[jivana]

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[More edits] Here's a link with a bunch of info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes
I tried Workaround A. It works, but it has other problems on my Dell 700m. Now at each boot, I get an error message. I then choose to "Restart X" and things are fine after that. But I really don't want an extra step on each boot, so I'll keep working on it.

[And yet more edits] I think I got it! Instead of Restarting X on the boot error, I chose to Troubleshoot the error. Then I chose to Edit the configuration file. I changed "vesa" to "intel" and clicked ok. I rebooted. at the GRUB menu, I hit "e" and worked down to the end of the line that has "quiet splash" and added "i915.modeset=1" (no quotes). I hit Ctrl-X and everything went without a hitch! So now I just need to edit my GRUB configuration file to make that permanent, and I should be in business. So a combination of Workaround A, editing the configuration file, and editing the GRUB configuration should finally work for me.

As always, YMMV.

Thanks so much, workaround A did it for me, this is a great link for everyone running the Intel 855 graphics chip, which seems to have been blacklisted in Lucid.
I already had Lucid installed, but could not boot. Booting the alternate CD, going to Rescue system, working your way through the screens (defaults did it for me), until you can execute a shell on your drive. Choose that option, type what it says above under workaround A - ignore errors (I got 'could not resolve ...' ), when you've executed the commands use Exit to get out of the shell, take out the CD and use Reboot the system or similar, all was good on my system.
Edit: The system reboots, but still problems playing video from the browser, e.g. .wmv files, also after following the steps in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
Still investigating.
Life is still better than without being able to boot - good luck!

[zzyzx1]

i HOPE nobody marks this as SOLVED. I still havent seen a fix for the ATI folks (whithout having to do a fresh install) The Live CD boots just fine with graphics. Let me clarify whats going on with *Upgrade* -

Dell Zino with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 Series GDU. Running the ATI drivers for Linux. Works GREAT in 9.04-9.10. I was running 9.10 and did the *upgrade* to 10.04. NONE of the recommendation have made any sort of dent in this.

This is really a serious issue for ATI users, especially for ones that have tweeted and facebooked abot the big * upgrade* for months.

Why wasnt there more caution flags thrown up on this?? NOWHERE NEAR READY for primetime.

Appreciate any help.

Thank you!

[gohanssjn]

i HOPE nobody marks this as SOLVED. I still havent seen a fix for the ATI folks (whithout having to do a fresh install) The Live CD boots just fine with graphics. Let me clarify whats going on with *Upgrade* -

Dell Zino with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 Series GDU. Running the ATI drivers for Linux. Works GREAT in 9.04-9.10. I was running 9.10 and did the *upgrade* to 10.04. NONE of the recommendation have made any sort of dent in this.

This is really a serious issue for ATI users, especially for ones that have tweeted and facebooked abot the big * upgrade* for months.

Why wasnt there more caution flags thrown up on this?? NOWHERE NEAR READY for primetime.

Appreciate any help.

Thank you!

Hmmm. My tablet (Dell Latitude XT) works with the nomodeset fix. ATI x1250 inside. However, I don't know how to install any ATI drivers to see if it works without that switch.

[twrock]

There is a typo in #6. It should be i915.modeset=1

Yeah, this is a real conundrum for me. I did go back and change that, even though I didn't really want to. Because once that step is different, it affects the rest of the process. So doing it one way might work for some machines, but doing it yet another way might be the only way to get things to work for someone else.

I'm on another thread dedicated to the Dell 700m only, and someone there is getting different results on the same machine! So who knows what's going to work.

Basically, it seems that i915.modeset=0 will get some people in, but only up to 1024x768 resolution and only a square screen. i195.modeset=1 will get the widescreen working for some. I'm not sure for whom "xforcevesa" is necessary, but it might be helpful for some. Knowing that some machines might need to have xorg.conf edited to change "vesa" to "intel" is probably going to be important for yet someone else.

So the wiki is correct (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes). There is not yet a universal solution, and the best we can do at the moment is treat each problem as a new one. I thought I had found a reproducible solution for the Dell 700m, but maybe I'm wrong about even that.

So as always, YMMV.

[SabreWolfy]

Why do such fundamental problems still exist in the latest release? It's so frustrating. How can I possibly motivate to friends and family to try/use Ubuntu with problems like this? Can you imagine "moms and pops" trying to adjust boot parameters just to get Ubuntu working? Or the impression a blank screen creates on the first boot of this great new, free operating system?

[Unicast]

Hmmmm....

Even with the "i915.modeset=1" kernel option I have been getting occasional black screens with X trying to restart (unsuccessfully) in low res mode.

I've taken the extreme step of installing a newer kernel (2.6.34-020634rc6) and removed the above kernel option from grub.

Still testing, but seems more stable than the stock kernel that ships with Lucid.

[IcyPhoenix]

I am glad to see many folks here have resolved this problem. However, I have still not come much closer to a reasonable solution.

I did a fresh install with the official release version, hoping the ATI issue was confined to the RC, but I'm still having the same issue.

Today I decided to try something, so I got my old spare CRT monitor out of the closet and set it up. I plugged it into my laptop's VGA port, and.....

I GOT VIDEO!!

ON BOTH SCREENS!!

So, why is it that my laptop cannot boot into Ubuntu 10.04 with any video, but if I plug in my Dell E773c (16" CRT monitor), it displays video perfectly fine ON BOTH SCREENS?!?!?!

I even went into the Monitor settings and messed around with the dual-monitor options, and everything works fine. If I unplug the CRT, my laptop's display still works by itself, until the next reboot.

So, basically, I've got it working, as long as I boot my laptop while the CRT is plugged into the VGA port.

Does anybody know how I can determine EXACTLY what model of video card is in my laptop, short of opening up the case? I'll do that if I have to, but if there's an easier way, I'd love to know.

Also, I've heard that I may get some good results from disabling KMS by using the "radeon.modeset=0" option. How do I try this and how do I edit the boot options to make this a permanent solution?

And on another note, I tried running System>Administration>Hardware Drivers to see if I could install a proprietary ATI driver. After about 2-3 minutes of searching for packages, it came back with "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system."

I'm so close to finding a solution, if anyone can help, that would be awesome. Thanks!

[Covarrubias]

I have an ATI 5770 and my monitor have a native resolution of 1920x1080 and can´t boot liveCD because after the orange dots at boot i get a black screen and can´t do anything from here.

¿someone with the same configuration can boot Lucid Lynx LiveCD?

For what i have read i think folks with Nvidia and Intel graphics can do (with tricks) but not ATI´s folks.

[IcyPhoenix]

Well, to my amazement, I still had the documentation from when I purchased my laptop. I usually keep things like that, but I thought it got misplaced when I moved about 5 years ago.

My video card details:

ATI Mobility Radeon 7000 Series (IGP 345M)
*Not to be confused with a slightly different model, the Radeon 7000 IGP*

Note: My laptop is of the "desktop replacement" variety. It is very heavy, and uses a desktop mobo with a P4 Desktop CPU in "portability mode" (essentially underclocked to reduce energy usage), rather than an actual Mobile CPU. It gets rather hot under full power, especially in its old age...

So, I have answered one of my three questions. Two still remain. I am not afraid of using command line options, but after 20 years of troubleshooting only Windows / DOS, I'm not sure where to begin with Ubuntu / Linux. I've been using it here and there since Hardy, but I've never encountered any problems until now.

How would I go about disabling KMS by using the "radeon.modeset=0" option?

Is there a proprietary ATI driver that I could install?

Thanks to everyone for your help so far!