[solved] Installed fglrx; no boot; uninstalled; stuck splash

[cfr42]

I just installed Linux Mint on a new computer. The computer has the Asus F1A75-V EVO motherboard which is AMD A4-3400 APU with Radeon HD Graphics.

I installed Mint using a live USB key created using Unetbootin on a machine running Arch Linux. It seems to be Linux Mint 10 Julia. In installed the x86_64 live version from Unetbootin's selection.

After installation, the machine rebooted fine. Once logged in, I used software update to update the installation and configured a few things. Configuration included installing ntpd, an additional language and a proprietary driver. These were all done through the various GUI interfaces (not directly through aptitude). The graphics driver installed was, I believe, fglrx.

I also created an additional user account. I further configured the login screen and set some display options for the boot sequence. All through the Control Centre. This was essentially a question of specifying the resolution and disabling the display of a default user for login.

On reboot, nothing. That is, I think the machine booted but I couldn't get any display. I assumed that the hardware didn't like the new driver. So I switched off at the power button (since I couldn't see anything I couldn't do this cleanly). I then rebooted using the live USB key. I mounted the new filesystem and chrooted into the new installation, binding /sys, /dev and /tmp to /mnt/linuxmint/sys etc. I then ran aptitude from the command line. I purged the driver and the associated catalyst control centre module which depended on it. I also updated everything again although I was surprised to see so many updates since I had only just updated everything using software update (or so I thought).

On reboot, I get as far as the Linux Mint splash screen but the boot process never completes and I never get to the gdm greeter. Basically, I have to pull the power again...

Perhaps I should also mention that even before I screwed things up, I was seeing the following on (successful) boot:

Code: Select all

Using PCIE 2.
No device found.


[Pause before boot continues]
To the right of the Linux Mint splash:

Code: Select all

Too many connections...

[And some numbers or something similar.]
Note that I may not have these messages exactly correct as I'm reproducing from my (not very reliable) memory but the gist is correct.

Any ideas what I've screwed up? Please let me know if I've not provided important information.

[cfr42]

So I'm now trying with Linux Mint 12. I burnt the Live DVD, checking the md5sum of the iso and the integrity of the resulting DVD against the checksum list (or else I did it from the boot menu).

To get to the live environment, I had to choose compatibility mode, changing the second "noacpi" to "nomodeset".

To get the install not to hang on "saving installed packages...", I had to allow the installer to format the partitions I wanted it to use and start ubiquity with --no-migration-assistant (and --debug). Otherwise, it never mounted anything under /target and it never copied any files to the destination partitions. I'm not sure why. It didn't complain. It just hung forever without even logging anything helpful.

I obviously don't expect this to work...

[lahirdenganselamat]

I've experiencing some weird thing with LM 10 on my AMD E-350, but my system still running with it (not stuck like yours), it just running weird. But I found that using LM 11 and then update the kernel, my system was running perfect. With the recent driver from AMD site (Catalyst 11.12) it just perfect.

Based on that experience, I'll suggest to try using driver from AMD site rather than driver from the repo (whatever your distro).

[wayne128]

So I'm now trying with Linux Mint 12. I burnt the Live DVD, checking the md5sum of the iso and the integrity of the resulting DVD against the checksum list (or else I did it from the boot menu).

To get to the live environment, I had to choose compatibility mode, changing the second "noacpi" to "nomodeset".

To get the install not to hang on "saving installed packages...", I had to allow the installer to format the partitions I wanted it to use and start ubiquity with --no-migration-assistant (and --debug). Otherwise, it never mounted anything under /target and it never copied any files to the destination partitions. I'm not sure why. It didn't complain. It just hung forever without even logging anything helpful.

I obviously don't expect this to work...

Assuming your iso is good, md5sum is good, DVD burnt is good, and you cannot get into desktop environment on default kernel argument, and nomodeset bring you to safe working DE... it sounded like your hardware is not compatible with the version of radeon in the distros?

May be you can use Debian wiki http://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary
after you run safe mode on live, use Debian wiki procedure to install fglrx, then startx to see that your hardware can work with the driver in the repos..

I just setup fglrx drive on siduction on a Asus laptop with Radeon HD6470M, a long process but good learning curve. However point to note is this distros is based on Sid.
Mint is based on ubuntu so fglrx version might not be the same, anyway what you want is to have your Asuso MB work with whatever version on fglrx Debian has.

edit: my sid repos has the following version of fglrx.
fglrx-driver:
Installed: 1:11-12-1

[cfr42]

Thanks for this. I will report back when I've got a chance to try it out.

Right now I've realised I have a prior problem which is that the installer for Mint 12 is not installing a usable version of grub. So I'm going to have to see if I can solve that first. (When I fail to do so, I expect I shall be posting a separate thread pleading for assistance with that, too. Why do my computer projects never ever go smoothly? Practise seems to be making me _less_ perfect!)

[cfr42]

Just to clarify this: you suggest that I try installing while booted from the Live DVD and then kill and restart X?

I managed to clean up most of the boot loader mess left by the installer and now have a working grub in place. I'm therefore ready to try to fix the graphics but would like to be really clear about what I'm doing as I'd rather not start over again if I can help it!

So I'm "installing" into the live environment rather than the installed version of Mint? (And if not, why is it important to do it from the live environment?)

I'm a bit confused because the whole idea of installing things while booted from a read-only installation is a bit of a novelty. (I've obviously led a sheltered life...) Plus installing things in the live environment seemed a bit hit and miss...

If I've understood correctly, what is the cleanest way of killing X?

Thanks very much for helping me. I'm fed up of reinstalling only to stare at a blank screen again!

[podagee]

try a reinstall and when you get your first successful boot download this: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-d ... x86_64.run
thats the 11.12 driver. then once thats installed do a reboot and you should be fine.then do your updates.
and remember dont follow that tut on making the nomodeset permanent to your computer just use it as temporary.

[podagee]

oh and there is no need for the fglrx driver.to install the 11.12 just click on it and follow the entries

[wayne128]

try a reinstall and when you get your first successful boot download this: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-d ... x86_64.run
thats the 11.12 driver. then once thats installed do a reboot and you should be fine.then do your updates.
and remember dont follow that tut on making the nomodeset permanent to your computer just use it as temporary.

Oh, thanks podagee for the link.

I tried on siduction,
get into safemode , low resolution ( i think it is vesa driver)
download this ati-driver-installer-11-12-x86.x86_64.run
chmod 755 ati-driver-installer-11-12-x86.x86_64.run
./ati-driver-installer-11-12-x86.x86_64.run

take all default setting and , it get driver installed.
reboot, got into nice full resolution graphic.
so this works for my siduction with Asus HD6470M
save quite a lots of steps.

[podagee]

how is siduction by the way?any good?

[cfr42]

try a reinstall and when you get your first successful boot download this: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-d ... x86_64.run
thats the 11.12 driver. then once thats installed do a reboot and you should be fine.then do your updates.
and remember dont follow that tut on making the nomodeset permanent to your computer just use it as temporary.

I assume there was no particular need to reinstall? Anyway, I just installed the driver from AMD's site and installed it in auto/default mode. And now the machine produces proper graphics!

So thanks _very_ much for this link - that really does seem to be a good solution. It isn't fantastic - I'm seeing a lot of temporary corruption of the display. I'm not sure if this is "tearing" but I've enabled tear-free and upped the quality in the configuration centre without success.

However, I am now booting into what I assume is the default Mint environment ("standard") rather than the fallback so hopefully that will improve things in other ways. It certainly _looks_ a lot prettier!

For those searching, I'm pretty sure that the problem I am having with the open driver is that described at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1607778. My dmesg output doesn't seem to include the detail shown in some of the logs in this thread but I'm pretty sure it is the same issue. The driver causes a check of the EDID (?) provided by the VGA monitor, thinks it is a non-match and concludes that there is no monitor attached. So it stops sending it any signal. I did try the modprobe work-around mentioned at the end of the thread but it did not help in my case. Presumably AMD's drivers are less particular about their displays?!

[cfr42]

oh and there is no need for the fglrx driver.to install the 11.12 just click on it and follow the entries

I think the driver linked to is the fglrx driver, isn't it?

Oddly, Mint is still telling me I need to install the proprietary driver and claims I'm using "vesa:sumo" for graphics...

[podagee]

you did not need to reinstall but thats the way i do it just to make sure everything is right.and if i read correctly i thought there was no boot up so i requested a reinstall.
the additional drivers will keep coming up just go to your start up apps and untick it if not just remove it from the software manager.thats what i do.glad you got it up and running

[cfr42]

you did not need to reinstall but thats the way i do it just to make sure everything is right.and if i read correctly i thought there was no boot up so i requested a reinstall.

I think it was booting but just not outputting anything to the display...

the additional drivers will keep coming up just go to your start up apps and untick it if not just remove it from the software manager.thats what i do.glad you got it up and running

Thanks for the help. I am glad it is working at least a bit. Unfortunately, I guess the drivers are incompatible with gnome-shell so the default Mint session involves continuous segmentation faults. But I am not the only one having that problem...