Linux Mint Forums

Hi Everyone,

There seems to be thousands of post related to my problem but every solution I have found requires access to the GRUB which I cannot seem to do.

My problem is that after I installed Linux Mint 17 from USB which booted and worked fine (even with three monitors) I just get a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left of the screen - a problem which I have read about and to fix it I need to do something like the following: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=122257

The problem is I don't have access to the GRUB, it just boots directly into the Linux partition and then I get the black screen.

Any help fixing this would be greatly appreciated! I've literally just done the Linux Mint 17 install on my laptop (that im using now) and it all worked a treat. My computer has a Radeon HD 5770 Graphics card which I assume is the root of the issue.

Thank you all for helping out, greatly appreciated!

Re1entless.

Did you try holding down the right-shift key when booting

Yes, tried left shift, tab and space bar. Neither will allow me to open GRUB.

Thanks for your reply.

I have had this problem repeatedly -virtually in every install on my Sony VPC Z 138GG.
I always reboot via live USB and run https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
Have always managed through it so far....

Holding down the left shift key while the OS boots does not work for me, but repeatedly hitting the "ESC" key while booting brings up GRUB for me.

Using Boot-Repair worked, thanks loads!!

One more (unscientific?) tip -to evade boot issues with Grub!
After completion of the installation and you get an alert "Continue Testing" or "Exit and Reboot" -choose "Continue Testing".
Launch GParted again!
Make sure that the partition you had selected to install boot is 'flag'-ed "boot".
If incase it has not been flagged, right click on it and 'flag' it as "boot".
Restart. In all likelihood, your Grub will fire up with no issues! I found this as a short cut without having to use the "Grub-Repair Tool" -which leads you through a bit lengthy process to ensure that Grub fires up.

I've had that too, it's a problem with Mint 17/ubuntu 14.04 , try Mint 13, I bet it will install just fine.