<SOLVED>Black screen during boot up!<SOLVED>

[Loshmi]

Ok i have my HP compaq 615 lap top...i tried installing Mint, and after couple of black screens i finnaly made it. I have installed it...but when i restarted i got my self a black screen..and nothing was happening...
I know something is very wrong with this laptop...Cause this is my second linux edition that has black screen...first was opensuse...
I thought mint would be different...but not...i know now that it was not the opensuse's fault it was my stupid lapoto's fault...
When i try using "safeboot" option, i sometimes (1 out of 5) manage to get booted in the system, but with only the console...

Any advice what should i do when i get into it??
Thanks in advance!

[motub]

Does the black screen occur when X/gdm is supposed to start (and before that, you have regular console output)?

If so, you may be experiencing the same issue quite a few of us have been having: Monitor OUT OF SYNC.

The tips in that thread enabled me to get Mint 8 running fine (it's where I'm typing this from).

If this is not your problem, I guess you'd have to give more detail regarding your laptop's specifications, and precisely when in the boot process the black screen occurs to get more targeted help.... but I strongly suspect that you are having the same problem I had (so don't give up !).

[Loshmi]

Well,nah, it would have been to easy

My x and y were ok 1356 vs something ( i have wide screen).
My lap is HP compaq 615...the toublesome one:).
Still sometimes i manage to get in the system (like every now and then)...Sometimes even recovery mode doesn't work. Maybe it's my driver that is wrong...
First time i manage to get in the recovery mode, i did "fix broken packages"..and it downloaded like 160mb from the internet...new kernel etc etc...then next time i rebooted everything was ok. I even installed java, eclipse, and neew ati driver, +new wireless driver...dun't know...what info would help you to help me?

[plumm]

Hi,

Sounds like this may be a hardware issue. You may want to give Debian Lenny a spin, it has much better hardware support.

Cheers,

plumm

[Loshmi]

If it is any help, when i delete "quiete" and i see what's going on during boot, the last ting i see is a line with "acpi video module " and then i see bunch of things..and that is the last i see before the great blackness

[edwinv]

on my dell optiplex gx260 i also get a black screen after the mint logo appears - during installation (clean installion) everything went fine - no problems at all - even after rebooting computer runs fine

however once the computer has been shut down and i want to start him again - the mint logo appears and then the screen goes balck and the computer hangs -- nothing works anymore - no mouse no keyboard
all i can do is reset

(same thing happens with ubuntu 9.10) - i have now mint 7 installed and this runs flawlessly -- so what can cause mint 8 to give this black screen ?

[Loshmi]

Not only Ubuntu, but Kubuntu, and openSuse...have the same problem, im thinking of trying out Fedora...I am thining that it has to be a kernel problem!

[edwinv]

then i guess the problem will remain with ubuntu 10.04 as well - ?

[Loshmi]

I guess the problem will remain until ATI doesn't make proper drivers...

[Loshmi]

Well, if anyone reads this..i have managed to solve the problem...I uninstalled ATi catalyst drivers, and made "vesa" in xorg.conf...Everything started working...in a lower resolution, and without 3d support...but still i was able to boot 100% of time. So it is definitely a driver-kernel issue.
Later i tried installing ATI catalyst again, THIS TIME I UNCHECKED "KERNEL MODULES" when prompted...and guess what...everything works again(i even have 3d support and good resolution... hooray)...so the kernel modules are the thing that should be avoided, everything else works.

I just needed to share this information, in case someone else has this problem...i have lost days trying to figure it out...i hope it helps somebody

Cheers

[edwinv]

loshmi,
can you explain, step by step, how you managed to uninstall these drivers -- i cannot get my computer to boot - so how must i uninstall this ?

[Loshmi]

Well, did you try booting to the "recovery mode"? In the boot menu there is an option to do it, below your "regular boot" option (or whatever was it called). It might not work for the first time, but it will work eventually ...i think recovery mode worked like 30% of the time for me...so you have to try couple of times...
After you've done it...u will see the screen with different options...one of which is "normal boot" and one of wich is "repair broken dpkg packages"...first try choosing the later option, that is "repair broken..."...u got to be connected to the internet, it will download newer kernel and some other stuff (i think it is about 160MB or something like that). Next time you boot you will have more options in you boot menu, try chooseing the newer one...it will be 2.6.31...u will have both "recovery option" and the normal one. Try the normal first (who knows it might work on your laptop)...if it fails, try rebooting again, and go into the recovery mode..after couple of tries you will again have the screen with "normal boot", "repair broken packages" and stuff...try "normal boot"...it will ask you your password...type it...
Now it's time to unsitall the drivers...you will do it this way..

sudo aptitude remove xorg-driver-fglrx
i am not sure if the "xorg-driver-fglrx" is the right name to type or maybe you should try with "fglrx", i forgot...(and i am not at home right now)...so play with it for a little while, you will eventually get it.
After you have uninstalled it you need to change your /etc/X11.xorg.conf file...Open it, an edit it in a way that you put "vesa" instead of "fglrx" in one of those lines....

Try rebooting...

Good luck

PS I am sorry for this imprecise explanation, but i am not close to my laptop, and i have tried tons of different things, before succeeding in uninstalling those drivers..so forgive me :)Hope this helps...if not ask away!

[edwinv]

thanks for the explanation but the main problem is i do not get a boot menu - when the computer boots i see the mint logo - nothing else - and then the screen turns black and the computer freezes - all i can do is reset - so how do i manage to get the boot menu ?

i think it will be better if i install mint 7 again and wait until this kernel problem is solved, which i hope will be in the lts version in mint 9

but in the mean time i am willing to try to solve this if you can explain how to get the boot menu

[Loshmi]

What i ment as "boot menu" is actually the grub menu... that's the way it happens on my machine...when i turn it on, i get the a bios picture, and after that i see the "grub loading" message, and i get the green grub menu, with different inputs in it. I have "linux kernel 2.6.31", then i have "linux kernel 2.6.31 recovery mode", then "linux kernel 2.6.30" etc...
Can u see that menu?

[edwinv]

no - i do not have any menu -- i just see after the bios ,the mint logo - that stays on for a few seconds and then the screen turns black - perhaps something must be changed in the grub settings to display this menu ??

[Loshmi]

Are you dual booting, or only OS on you lap is Mint?

[edwinv]

i only have linux mint 8 installed nothing else - not even windows - it is an old pc dell optiplex gx260 (about 6 years old) - linux mint 7 ran very well on it - so i decided to install mint 8 as a clean install -
installation itself went very fine - even rebooting works great - it is only when the computer has been shut down, the next time you start the computer the screen goes blank after showing the mint logo

[Loshmi]

So u can reboot, but cannot start after the shut down...Tell you what, why dont you try supergrubdisk, or live cd to eneter the system now? And then try to unistall broken drivers???

[edwinv]

i will try that and let you know if it helped

thank for the help

a very nice christmas to you and your loved-ones and to all forum readers

[Loshmi]

Thank you for the best wishes, i happy holidays to you too, and to all those that you love!