Mint 14 boot failure on ASUSTek

[Dave85inVA]

Mint newbie here, but a longtime Linux user (and Unix from well before that). I'm trying to install Linux Mint 14.1 Cinnamon 64-bit from a USB stick. It's effectively failing to boot. The image passes integrity check. System information follows (output of inxi -Fxz, reformatted for readability) and then the problem description.

System:
Host: mint
Kernel: 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.7.2)
Desktop: Gnome
Distro: Linux Mint 14 Nadia
Machine:
Mobo: ASUSTeK
model: M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3
version: Rev X.0x
Bios: American Megatrends
version: 1702
date: 12/22/2010
CPU:
Dual core AMD Athlon II X2 255 (-MCP-)
cache: 2048 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm)
bmips: 12454.5
Clock Speeds: 1: 800.00 MHz 2: 3100.00 MHz
Graphics:
Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880 [Radeon HD 4250] bus-ID: 01:05.0
X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev) FAILED: vesa Resolution: 1680x1050@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RS880
GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.0
Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:
Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4200 Series] driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:05.1
Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: 1.0.25
Network:
Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e800 bus-ID: 06:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
HDD Total Size: 4002.9GB (0.0% used)
1: id: /dev/sda model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB temp: 31C
2: id: /dev/sdb model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB temp: 30C
3: USB id: /dev/sdc model: DS_Pro size: 2.1GB temp: 0C
Partition:
ID: / size: 3.8G used: 46M (2%) fs: overlayfs
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 30.0C mobo: 35.0C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 3125 psu: 0 sys-1: 1558
Info:
Processes: 153 Uptime: 2 min
Memory: 411.4/7726.9MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.7.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4

The two hard drives *are* actually in a RAID, but that is handled elsewhere... and I'm having the same problem when I unplug the RAID drives, disable the RAID and put a different single hard drive in.

So... when I boot from the USB stick, I get the Grub menu; when I select "Boot Linux Mint" -- which is to say, boot in normal mode -- I get a blank screen with a blinking cursor and the system freezes.

Upon restart and getting to the Grub menu, I select "Boot Linux Mint (compatibility mode)" ... and this actually brings it up. I proceed to install Mint.

When I restart and boot from the hard drive, I get the Grub menu. I select "Boot Linux Mint" and get nearly the same behavior as from the live stick: blank screen, blinking cursor, system freezes. Only difference is that the cursor is much smaller as the system has apparently set the screen resolution "properly" before freezing.

Restarting once again to boot from the HD, this time I select "Boot Linux Mint (recovery mode)" and the system runs through a number of checks and whatnot, dumping about a screen and a half of output to the monitor... before freezing.

Been through what feels like a zillion topics with minimal luck. Now trying a number of different tweaks to the grub invocation of linux, and if anything works will report back -- but if anyone has further info to offer it would be most appreciated.

[wayne128]

your hardware has ATI graphic

Graphics:
Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880 [Radeon HD 4250] bus-ID: 01:05.0
X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev) FAILED: vesa Resolution: 1680x1050@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RS880
GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.0
Direct Rendering: Yes

so you probably need to read this topic to start
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=122257

[Dave85inVA]

Oddly enough, it turned out that I didn't need to set either nomodeset nor xforcevesa.

The flag I **DID** need to set was: noapic

That's the only flag I needed to set to make it work. I still get occasionally hung up on boot but it's always when checking the optical drive, and I think that's more the fault of the drive.