[solved] Just installed mint18 cinnamon. Rebooted and see just a blinking cursor

Questions about Grub, UEFI,the liveCD and the installer
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triciasurf
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[solved] Just installed mint18 cinnamon. Rebooted and see just a blinking cursor

Post by triciasurf »

Hello. I've just installed Linux Mint cinnamon 18 on my desktop computer. While I was installing I did not see any thing that would indicate a problem with the installation. But then again I wasn't paying too much attention to the log which is visible during the slideshow portion of the installation. Anyway, when I rebooted the computer I reach a black screen with just a blinking white cursor. And that is what I see for the next 2 hours. What is wrong? Is there a way to boot my computer and see of verbose log? Or, is there anything I could do to figure out what is the problem? Thank you
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Pierre
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Re: Just installed mint18 cinnamon. Rebooted and see just a blinking cursor

Post by Pierre »

is this a dual boot OR just with Mint as the only system?.

if it's the only system, then it would be quicker to re-install LinuxMint
:o
But - use the 'compatibility mode' which is usually the 2nd option on the boot menu,
- when using the live environment disk.
it sounds like a video driver issue & in order to get to a point,
where you can load video drivers for your PC, you have to have a working, installed system.
so - try that 2nd option.

did you test out your PCs hardware - using the live disk - - before installing ??.
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Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] - when your problem is solved!
and DO LOOK at those Unanswered Topics - - you may be able to answer some!.
triciasurf
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Re: Just installed mint18 cinnamon. Rebooted and see just a blinking cursor

Post by triciasurf »

It's Mint only. No other OS installed.

> if it's the only system, then it would be quicker to re-install LinuxMint
But wouldn't I just get the same result?

>did you test out your PCs hardware - using the live disk - - before installing ??.
Well, I booted into Mint Live and I could see stuff on the monitor. So I assumed that I could successfully boot into Mint desktop after I install Mint.

Anyway, I'll try to reinstall and use the compatibility option.
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Screenshot Result when I chose "Compatibilty mode"

Post by triciasurf »

Pierre wrote: But - use the 'compatibility mode' which is usually the 2nd option on the boot menu,
- when using the live environment disk.
I just tried compatibility mode. I got this screen:
IMG_20160712_152942_cropped.jpg
Last edited by triciasurf on Mon Jul 18, 2016 8:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
triciasurf
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logs of var/log/partman and var/log/installer/debug

Post by triciasurf »

Here are logs that may help explain what's going on.

1) /var/log/partman https://gist.github.com/anonymous/ac308 ... dd6717e6ff
2) var/log/installer/debug https://gist.github.com/anonymous/2c6d8 ... 4299665933
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Advice I received on #linuxmint-help IRC channel

Post by triciasurf »

Some kind people on the IRC channel #linuxmint-help advised me to try the following:

Power on desktop computer
Hold the Shift key to get the boot menu
Press E or Tab so that I could edit boot commands.
Type the word [noacpi] (without the brackets).

I'll report here with the results soon (by this week, I hope).
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Held Shift key during boot, but didn't get boot menu

Post by triciasurf »

I Held Shift key during boot, but didn't get boot menu.
Cosmo.
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Re: Just installed mint18 cinnamon. Rebooted and see just a blinking cursor

Post by Cosmo. »

Out of an unknown reason the shift-key does not work on all computers. Instead press repeatedly the ESC key, until you see the grub menu.
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Will try Esc key to boot into grub.

Post by triciasurf »

Okay, will try Esc key when I get home to the desktop computer. thanks, cosmo.
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Is there a problem with the installation of grub?

Post by triciasurf »

Someone (nickname is hpg) on the #linuxmint-help IRC channel thought that there may be a problem with the installation of grub. So he suggested
please boot from your installation medium and chroot into your installed system in order to reinstall grub - you'll find instructions about that in the web

But before I do that, wouldn't it be wise to know if there is in fact a problem with the original installation of grub? How can we tell? (After installation, Mint did not say there was any errors during the installation.) But if there is this error, could we confirm by reading var/log/installer/debug ( https://gist.github.com/anonymous/2c6d8 ... 4299665933) ? If so, can anyone read it and let us know? Thanks.
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Repeatedly pressing ESC key does nothing

Post by triciasurf »

Cosmo, I tapped the Esc key from the moment I power on my computer, but it didn't help.
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I installed other distros. Got blinking cursor.

Post by triciasurf »

Someone in the #Linuxmint-help IRC channel suggested trying installing other distros. So I did. But they all give me the same result: a blinking cursor.
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Re: Just installed mint18 cinnamon. Rebooted and see just a blinking cursor

Post by JeremyB »

Any chance there is a disc in the CD/DVD drive? I have one computer that will hang at boot if there is anything in the drive unless it is bootable. I probably should change the boot order in BIOS

It even does it after changing BIOS
triciasurf
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No, I don't have a disc drive

Post by triciasurf »

JeremyB wrote:Any chance there is a disc in the CD/DVD drive?
I don't have a disc drive.
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I successfully got Mint 18 working. But not sure exactly how.

Post by triciasurf »

I don't know how I did it, but finally got Mint 18 installed on desktop PC. I made a number of changes in this installation:


No LVM
No encryption of drive
No encryption of home folder
Installing on HDD rather than SSD.


-------
Here's something unexpected: On an SSD, I installed Manjaro linux. On an HDD, I installed Mint 18 Cinnamon. When I rebooted, I got GRUB menu. Is this normal?
What if i don't want Grub menu? What If i just want Mint 18 to be automatically booted up ? Would simply wiping the SSD clean be the solution? Where does the GRUB menu reside?


UPDATE:
On HDD, I had LVM and encyrption of home folder, and mint still worked. Will now try to install Mint 18 on SSD (for speedy boot-up) with LVM and encryption of home folder.
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Re: I successfully got Mint 18 working as

Post by austin.texas »

triciasurf wrote: When I rebooted, I got GRUB menu. Is this normal?
What if i don't want Grub menu? What If i just want Mint 18 to be automatically booted up ?
You do need the Grub menu (or a different bootloader).
If you don't want to see the Grub menu, you can configure it to only display for one second. That is how mine is configured, and usually I don't see it at all - or maybe just a flicker.
Open /etc/default/grub in your text editor

Code: Select all

gksudo xed /etc/default/grub
Change GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 to: GRUB_TIMEOUT=1
You can pause the menu to use it by tapping UP or DOWN keys as it loads.

Alternatively, you can add this line: GRUB_FORCE_HIDDEN_MENU="true" to that file.
In that case, you press SHIFT to get the menu to display.

After making any changes to the /etc/default/grub file, you have to update grub.

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub
Mint 18.2 Cinnamon, Quad core AMD A8-3870 with Radeon HD Graphics 6550D, 8GB DDR3, Ralink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI
Linux Linx 2018
JeremyB
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Re: Just installed mint18 cinnamon. Rebooted and see just a blinking cursor

Post by JeremyB »

Actually since manjaro was installed on another drive, Grub being displayed at boot time is normal. If only one OS is installed the Grub menu is usually hidden during boot
triciasurf
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SUCCESS

Post by triciasurf »

Finally got ride of the blinking-cursor problem. Here's what I did: I disconnected the 2 HDDs from the motherboard. With just the SSD connected, I booted Linux Mint Live USB and installed. My install settings are:

Wipe entire drive clean
LVM enabled
Entire drive encrypted (I'm asked for a password immediately after powering on).
"Encrypt Home Folder" checkbox is unchecked.
"Ask for password when logging in" is unchecked (I figured that since my entire drive is already encrypted, and since I'm already asked for my password, I see no need for another security hurdle. But pls tell me if I'm overlooking something.)

I then connected the 2 HDDs and now everything works.

Thanks all.

Austin.Texas, I'll implement your one-second code if I see the grub menu. If I recall, I don't see it.
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