Installing Mint 14 causes black screen

[kykaios]

Hello all. I'm trying to dual boot Windows 7 and Mint 14 64-bit onto my laptop, but any attempt at doing so results in a black screen. I've tried booting the Live CD from a USB CD/DVD drive (since it doesn't have an optical drive), from a USB flash drive, and using mint4win (virtually mounting the iso) to install it from within Windows, but no luck.

Details:
- Booting from LiveCD/USB: reaches 'automatic boot' loading screen, but then hangs on a black screen (where I can see a very faint Mint logo that appears and disappears if I click one of the function keys/ESC). Adding 'nomodeset' after 'quiet splash' in the boot settings lets it load to a screen with 'Linux Mint 14 . . . .' After a while, it turns black, and nothing happens until I click the power button. Then a scattered line of blue/red appears and disappears, and then a whole bunch of text appears on the screen saying something like 'the system is going down for halt NOW power button pressed', and the laptop turns off.
- mint4win: It appears to install, but after I reboot and choose Mint 14 in the Windows Boot Manager, it says 'Completing Installation in 5...' If I don't add 'nomodeset', a faint mint logo appears, and then the mint desktop loads, but everything is so dark I can't read anything. If I add nomodeset, it does the same thing as the above, where 'Linux Mint 14 . . . .' appears, etc.

Specs:
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130104-1431)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Folio 13 Notebook PC
BIOS: InsydeH2O Version 03.61.01F.0A
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2467M CPU @ 1.60GHz (4 CPUs), ~1.6GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
Graphics Card: Intel HD Graphics 3000

This is my first time installing Linux, so if there is any other information I should include, please tell me. Thank you.

[Anakondarh]

Hey Kykaios,

Your problem probably has to do with the backlight not turning on. The system is actually working fine, that's why you see a faint logo and activity. If you point a flashlight at the screen, you will actually see everything on it

To fix it, add the following at the boot command (instead of nomodeset):

Code: Select all

acpi_osi=linux acpi_backlight=vendor

Hope this helps.

[Anakondarh]

Hey faduda,

I have the exact same computer as you, so I can probably help you out.

The boot command is the first instruction the computer runs, to know where the operating system is installed, and any special parameters needed for a successful boot. To edit it, roughly follow the following instructions:

When you start your computer with your live CD/live USB, the first thing you will see after turning it on is a message saying "Automatic start in X seconds..."

Press a key to stop this. What you will now see is a "text" window, asking you which instance on Mint you want to boot. This is called the GRUB bootloader, and here is where you want to edit the boot command.

Highlight the "Start Linux Mint" option, and press the

key to edit the command per se. Place the cursor before the two --, and write:

Code: Select all

acpi_osi=linux acpi_backlight=vendor

no commas or nothing, and press [Enter]. The system should now boot fine.

Once you're in the desktop, and if you choose to install, Mint might automatically add those options to the boot command. You'll know it if after installing, the system still boots fine. If not, come back here and I'll try to help you out.

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Since we have the same computer, here's some other info I've found useful:

This page explains how to get suspend-on-lid-close working, and the brightness keys:

https://github.com/deliciousrobots/ubuntu-hp-folio-13

Under linux, the trackpad might be a little jumpy. This fixes it for me. The values I use are 50, 51, 256:

http://superuser.com/questions/229839/r ... -in-ubuntu

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I hope this helped!

[Anakondarh]

Good stuff. I hope you enjoy using Linux on your machine!

[Anakondarh]

Good to hear you got it working!