Mint 12 serious graphic issues.

[Whitefort]

Hi - I've been trying to install Mint 12 on my laptop (Lenovo 3000 N100). Here's what happens:

Black screen.
Black screen with note about network configuration.
Mint 12 wallpaper appears. Then the screen is totally scrambled for a few seconds, then the wallpaper reappears.
Then there are empty areas at the top and bottom of the screen (where I assume there should be menu items or something?)
and if I click on HOME or COMPUTER, the entire screen goes totally white. I still have a mouse pointer, which moves, but I have nothing to click!

This is the first time Linux has given me a problem on this computer - I'd be really grateful if anyone can advise me on how to fix this and get Mint 12 installed.

Thanks!

[AlbertP]

What graphics card do you have? Thinkwiki.org lists 3 possible graphics cards in a Lenovo 3000 N series. Is it perhaps the nVidia one (GeForce Go 7300)?

If you can get access to a terminal, please type:

Code: Select all

inxi -Gx

and post the output.

You can also try

[Whitefort]

Hi & thanks for the reply.

Yes, I have the Geforce Go 7300. Does this mean I won't be able to run Mint 12?

Here's the output of inxi -Gx

Graphics: Card nVidia G72M [Quadro NVS 110M/GeForce Go 7300] X.Org 1.10.1 Res: 1680x1050@50.0hz
GLX Renderer GeForce Go 7300/PCI/SSE2 GLX Version 2.1.2 NVIDIA 173.14.30 Direct Rendering Yes


I've been running various flavours of Linux on the machine since about 2006 - there have been a few minor issues along the way, but this is the first real show-stopper.

[rattkjelke]

...
Black screen.
Black screen with note about network configuration.
Mint 12 wallpaper appears. Then the screen is totally scrambled for a few seconds, then the wallpaper reappears.
Then there are empty areas at the top and bottom of the screen (where I assume there should be menu items or something?)
and if I click on HOME or COMPUTER, the entire screen goes totally white. I still have a mouse pointer, which moves, but I have nothing to click!
...

I tried the 32bit Gnome DVD and nearly the same thing happens to me.
Instead of total white the desktop icons and panels disappear but not the wallpaper.
Sometimes the window borders disappeared and windows would not close using the file/quit menu.
I have a Radeon 9200 RV280 video card if that make any difference.
It is also extremely slow and sluggish. I'm glad I didn't install it.

Is there a way to tell if this is caused by LinuxMint, Gnome, X.org or Linux kernel?
I would like to know which group I should hate and accuse of being incompetent.

I used to use LM10 and like it pretty well. I could live with the bugs. LM11 was worse. I tried LMDE and now LM12 and they both suck to the point of being unusable.

I have been using Windows XP since day 1 with no graphics problems whatsoever and the last 3 or 4 releases of Xubuntu with only minor annoyances. I guess I'll stick with what works and save up my money for Windows 7 or 8 or whatever they will have when XP support ends in a couple years.

[Whitefort]

Well, this really sucks... I've wasted my whole day trying everything I can think of to get Mint 12 to work on my laptop. It's had no problems with any Ubuntu since Dapper Drake, or with Arch, Suse, Sabyon(?) or any of the 101 other distros I've tasted over the years.

I didn't install the last version of Ubuntu because I got tired of Canonical trying to force feed bling at the expence of usability, so I was totally delighted when I saw how good Mint 11 was.

And now it looks like Mint 12 is going to send me distro hunting again. Damn. I think this must be the most painful new-install experience I've had since I 'upgraded' Windows ME to XP (And THAT'S saying something!)

Sorry if I sound grouchy. I'm sure Mint 12 is wonderful for anyone who can get it to work... it's just been a long and unproductive day.

[Roland]

Same here with nVidia Geoforce 420.

Had no problems with Ubuntu 10.4, 11.11 or Mint 10.
Do have problems with Mint 11&12, Ubuntu 11.04

[Whitefort]

And, as is always the way with these things, just after I posted my 'this sucks' grouchy message above, I THINK I've finally got the dang thing working.

It still seems very buggy, but at least it's a usable (sort of) operating system. I'm going to download the updates and look at it again tomorrow, and if it's OK I'll post a note on how I did it.

[jazz.h]

Same here, Radeon 9200 RV280 video card.

[Whitefort]

First, a warning - I'm a Linux user, not a Linux guru. There are probably better and easier ways to do this - but just in case it helps anyone, here's how I finally got Mint 12 to run acceptably on my Lenovo 3000 n100.

1. Boot the CD. If at all possible (given the utterly scrambled graphics) right-click and open a terminal.
Actually I had to try about 3 times until I got a screen where I could actually see clearly enough to get a usable terminal.

2. Enter 'metacity --replace'
This turns off whatever it is that my graphics card can't handle without the proper driver, and gets me a screen unscrambled enough to see what I'm doing.

3. Click the 'install' icon, and run through the install in the usual way.

4. Reboot into the installed Mint 12 - I had to launch Gnome classic(No effects), because I still had wild graphics issues in the other versions, but once I got a working menu, I was able to run system tools and install the restricted Nvidia driver - in my case it was the 173 driver, but obviously this will vary on other machines. Mint 12 actually auto-selected the correct driver (Mint 11 always got this wrong).

5. Install driver. Reboot. And that's it. Now I can sucessfully run Gnome, Gnome Classic, Gnome Classic (no effects), and MATE.

Don't know if this is any help to anyone else, but I decided to post it just in case.

[AlbertP]

That won't work with Mint 12 / Gnome Shell.

You could perhaps boot Compatibility Mode (without graphics driver into Gnome fallback). Then you can install Mint and the graphics driver.

[cebalrai]

I'm having serious graphic problems as well but there's no driver to install. Here's my output on a Dell e1505 laptop:

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 945GM/GMS 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org 1.10.4 drivers intel unloaded: fbdev,vesa Resolution 1280x800@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer Mesa DRI Intel 945GM x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version 1.4 Mesa 7.11 Direct Rendering Yes

Does it mean anything that it says drivers intel unloaded?

I get these scrambled screens that come and go with mouse clicks. My screen will look like a stained glass window for a bit and then go back to normal. Sometimes it goes completely black except for a small area of the screen. For example, I was on yahoo.com a few minutes ago and every right-click scrambled the screen, then a second right click would turn it back to normal.

Along with that goes the fact that my touchpad stops working and can only be recovered by a reboot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[AlbertP]

The intel unloaded sentence is a bit confusing. It means that intel is the active X.org driver and fbdev & vesa are unloaded.

Indeed, for Intel there's no driver to install. The driver already comes with Mint and is active as X.org driver "intel" and GLX Renderer (= 3D driver) "Mesa DRI Intel".

[rattkjelke]

2. Enter 'metacity --replace'

That doesn't work on mine. When I do that the panels disappear and the Terminal window loses its menu and border and locks up. I can ctrl+alt+backspace and log in again or go to a ctrl+alt+F1 terminal but I don't know what to do there.
I also have the same graphics problems with Ubuntu 11.10 so I guess neither one will run on my hardware.

[AlbertP]

It indeed does not work on Mint 12. Metacity won't work with Gnome Shell. Mint 12's Shell needs 3D acceleration to work - in future it will also work without acceleration.

[rattkjelke]

Is there a way to force LM12 into 2D mode?
My graphics card would not run Unity in 3D because it is OpenGL 1.3. Is that what is happening here?

[AlbertP]

This is another problem. Gnome Shell runs on OpenGL 1.2, and goes into the fallback mode when your card or driver lacks necessary OpenGL extensions.
What happens at you is most likely a driver bug.

By the way, what card do you have? An old Mobility Radeon or a GeForce3?

"2D mode" does not yet exist in Mint 12's Gnome Shell. You can select the fallback or Mate on the login screen.

[rattkjelke]

I have a ATI Radeon 9200 RV280 that is about 7 years old and so is my motherboard and processor.
Ubuntu has a script or program that tells if your hardware is capable of running Unity. Mine failed because the OpenGL version wasn't supported.

I guess I'll just stick with Xubuntu until I can get a newer computer.

[AlbertP]

Mint 13's Gnome Shell will most likely be able to run without 3D.

By the way, it actually surprises me that you get this on a Radeon 9xxx. Those cards usually just work on Linux.