[SOLVED] Debug blank screen after GRUB menu at first boot?

[virgult]

Hello all,

Intermediate Linux user here, I would really like to start using LMDE and I just gave it a whack on my Laptop. The installation runs with no errors, however as soon as I reboot the PC boots to a blank screen with no cursor immediately after the GRUB menu (perhaps this hints to a corrupted or missing kernel image?).
I'm having a hard time getting to the bottom of this, since there is no error message and the lock-up is so generic I'm struggling to find a solved thread that would apply.
Is there any way to:
- Fetch GRUB logs?
- Get something similar to an exit code from GRUB?

I'll give you more details about my installation, with config, quirks and all.

Installation method:
- LMDE UP8 on USB stick, UEFI mode
- Installed with GRUB enabled during the process and then retried with GRUB configured manually later on following this guide here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 7&p=664856 although I replaced bootx64.efi with the GRUB binary leaving the W7 loader untouched
- OS disk configuration:
- sda1/sda3 Windows 7 reserved partitions
- sda2 EFI partition, flagged as boot
- sda5 Mint root (it comes physically BEFORE sda4) flagged as boot to no avail
- sda4 Windows

LMDE loader for GRUB as it shows when pressing 'e':

Code: Select all

load_video
insmod gzip
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,gpt5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root <UUID for sda5 verified with blkid>
echo 'Loading Linux 3.11-2-amd64 ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.11-2-amd64 root=UUID=<UUID for sda5 verified with blkid> ro quiet splash
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.11-2-amd64

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. You'd save a person from going back to ubuntu-based distros.

Andrea

[austin.texas]

I have used the Rescatux/SuperGrub2 CD frequently to solve similar sounding problems. (But not with a UEFI system.)
If you want to try the Rescatux/SuperGrub2 CD, here are some details:
Boot the computer with the Rescatux CD. When Rescatux starts you will get a menu to start Rescatux or SuperGrub2. The SuperGrub2 option is the one you want. After chosing SuperGrub2, the next menu will give the options of booting any installed operating system on your computer or any loop mountable iso files. When you chose the "boot any installed operating system" option, the program will search your drives for your installed operating systems and create a menu for you that will allow you to boot any one of them. It will be a slow process to search your drives and create that menu, so be patient and let it complete.
See if that menu allows you to boot into Mint. IF it does, then it is just a boot problem, and can probably be fixed by running the following command in a terminal:

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub

Tutorial and Troubleshooting with SuperGRUB2:
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/SuperGRUB2Disk
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/Boot_Problems

If it is not a bootloader problem, that test will at least eliminate that possibility.

[virgult]

Thank you austin.texas, your help has been surprisingly useful! I've managed to boot into my local LMDE installation using the .efi file Super Grub2 provides, stored in a USB disk, to force EFI boot. However, the exact same boot entry does not work when using GRUB as installed on my SSD. Also loading vmlinuz and initrd manually from the shell, again using the local GRUB, fails. It's probably worth mentioning that Windows 7 boots fine and several Ubuntu-based distros have always booted in EFI mode.

It seems that the culprit is indeed GRUB's installation, albeit the reason why it fails is still a bit of a mystery. I wonder if I can chroot into that system and then either install a different GRUB package (maybe coming from one of the 'buntus?) or compile it from scratch... Oh, fool me, my intention was to try and stay away from Arch to avoid too much tinkering...

EDIT: OR... I may switch to rEFInd.

[virgult]

Marking this as solved, from my perspective, since I solved my problem using rEFInd and booting Linux via EFI stub. It was so much easier than Grub... hehehehe.