Take several tries to boot without graphical errors

[alreadytaken4536]

I've just completed an installation of Linux Mint 12, which I have decided to use as my primary distro after mixed experiences with Ubuntu 11.10. Everything seems to work perfectly. The GNOME 3 interface is much smoother than Unity and I haven't encountered any glitches so far once I'm successfully logged in. I am however, having significant graphical errors when I try to boot the OS.

About 4 times out of 5, Linux Mint loads with a funky split screen. The background flickers rapidly about the split line. I can type my password, but then my account won't load (not that I would even try to operate with such a distracting glitch). All I can do is reboot and hope that the glitch goes away. After a few tries, it always does, but I don't understand why this happens. Why would it do something different each time that I try to boot? Why does it just magically go away without any interference on my end? I feel powerless when that happens.

System specs:

Linux Mint 12 Lisa, 32-bit, GNOME 3
Linux Kernel 3.0.0-12
AMD Radeon 6670 (1 GB)
AMD Phenom II - X2
4 GB RAM
FGLRX drivers

It appears also that there are leftover images on my card when I boot sometimes. I was in Ubuntu, then I rebooted the system and loaded Mint, and my background from my Ubuntu desktop showed up for a few seconds. Weird!

EDIT: I rebooted to take a photo of the split screen, and then I tried 8 more times to correctly boot into Mint, but it kept happening. A few times, the entire screen was grey. The last few times I saw the following lines of text pop up.

Code: Select all

Mountall: Plymouth command failed
Mountall: disconnect from Plymouth

[Miekuxi]

Can you talk about your installation process, such as partition decisions, autologin, etc?

[alreadytaken4536]

I installed from the live DVD, and the drive I'm booting from contains an Ubuntu partition and a Windows partition. I'm not sure what autologin is, but I haven't been logging in automatically, so I don't think I have that.

[alreadytaken4536]

This is still a serious problem.

[sagirfahmid3]

I know what happened. Your previous Ubuntu install messed up your Mint install. When you install Mint over another distro, ALWAYS use the advanced partitioning option and make sure to hit the checkbox that says format partition. I once ended up with a Mintbuntu hybrid because at the time I didn't click the "format partition" checkbox before installing Mint over Ubuntu.

[alreadytaken4536]

I know what happened. Your previous Ubuntu install messed up your Mint install. When you install Mint over another distro, ALWAYS use the advanced partitioning option and make sure to hit the checkbox that says format partition. I once ended up with a Mintbuntu hybrid because at the time I didn't click the "format partition" checkbox before installing Mint over Ubuntu.

Interesting. I made sure I had a clean partition before I installed though. What I did was I used GParted to reduce the size of an already existing partition (at the time, my Ubuntu partition) and used the remaining space on the disk to make a fresh partition for Mint. Just today though, I installed Maya, and deleted my Ubuntu partition for good. I still get the split screen when I log in. All I have to do to fix it is hit the reset button on my case and then I can boot into Mint with no graphical issues. It's weird. I'm gonna see what happens after I install proprietary drivers.