Dell 3452 Laptop - Boots to Black screen- Mint 18.3

[elytron]

I am troubled by a black/blank screen upon booting my Dell 3452 laptop. My current version is Mint 18.3 Cinnamon 64-bit. Noticed the same issue with Ubuntu-MATE 18.04 beta-1 amd64. Hope to get this fixed so that I can use Mint 19 when released. The problem may be Linux Kernel (graphics driver) related, because I am able to boot just fine on version 4.4.0-116. The latest kernels don't seem to like my laptop.

Dell 3452 Inspiron 14:

Intel Pentium N3700 CPU
4GB Memory
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SSD (An upgrade)
Intel 8260 Wireless (An upgrade)
14 inch screen

Graphics chipset details:

Vendor: Intel Open Source Technology Center
Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)
Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8

The 'nomodeset' boot option does get me to a basic graphical environment.

I have another thread concerning this over on LinuxQuestions.org https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... 175625985/. Since it bothers me on multiple Linux Distributions.

Results of the "inxi -Fxz" commmand, when run from terminal:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: NOTEBOOK-03 Kernel: 4.4.0-116-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Inspiron 14-3452 v: 4.3.0
           Mobo: Dell model: 0GK6KJ v: A00
           Bios: Dell v: 4.3.0 date: 02/01/2018
CPU:       Quad core Intel Pentium N3700 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 12799
           clock speeds: max: 2400 MHz 1: 1254 MHz 2: 1068 MHz 3: 1180 MHz
           4: 1904 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Device 22b1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Device 2284 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-116-generic
Network:   Card: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 01:00.0
           IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (6.9% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_850 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 454G used: 29G (7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.20GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0C mobo: 45.0C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 203 Uptime: 4:12 Memory: 1280.6/3863.3MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35

[deepakdeshp]

WHy not work with the working kernel?

[elytron]

WHy not work with the working kernel?

For now I am working with 4.4.0-119 on 18.3

Was looking forward to a fresh install of Mint 19 though. Would it be possible to switch back to the working one when 19 is released?

Should I submit a bug report or something? So that the problem could get fixed. Currently don't know how, or where to submit one.

I may just end up sticking with 18.3

[deepakdeshp]

Mint 19 can be upgraded from 18.3, no need for a fresh install.

[twain]

I have a similar machine (Mint Cinnamon 18.3 on a Dell Inspiron 15 3552, Intel Pentium N3700 which has Intel 22b1 graphics device), and the same problem. Booted in UEFI mode OK so long as modesetting was turned off, but without hardware acceleration the system would freeze up (display frozen, no keyboard nor mouse response) after a couple minutes when watching HD video. After trying advice from a number of forums, here's what worked to fix it for me:

1) Switched from UEFI boot to "legacy" boot (following instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI# ... egacy_mode). This only got me part way - booted fine the first time, and modesetting worked to get the Mesa renderer working, but subsequent boots went to the black screen about half the time.

2) Changed "splash" to "nosplash" in the grub configuration. This makes the boot process ugly, but so far works every time and seems to be getting as much hardware acceleration as that chip can provide. Now able to stream high-def videos simultaneously in two different browsers.

Here's the output of inxi -G with kernel options "quiet splash i915.modeset=0" set in grub:
Graphics: Card: Intel Device 22b1
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: fbdev,intel (unloaded: vesa)
Resolution: 1366x768@76.00hz
GLX Renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 5.0, 128 bits)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8

... and after the fix (legacy boot with kernel options "quiet nosplash"):
Graphics: Card: Intel Device 22b1
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8