Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-HD2 motherboard

[Dennish2300]

I have just built a new PC with this motherboard which has Radeon R7 series integrated graphics. If I try to install Linux Mint 18.1 the display goes blank. The system appears to load into memory. The Gigabyte website implies that Mint is not supported. Do I give up now?

[Mattyboy]

I have just built a new PC with this motherboard which has Radeon R7 series integrated graphics. If I try to install Linux Mint 18.1 the display goes blank. The system appears to load into memory. The Gigabyte website implies that Mint is not supported. Do I give up now?

Nah, I've installed Mint on a Gigabyte from the same series. Sounds like its a resolution issue... so 'no mode set' nomodeset.

Boot the computer press esc or shift until you get the GRUB bootloader. From here you need to find the option to edit the boot parameters.

Change

Code: Select all

quiet splash

to

Code: Select all

nomodeset

then continue to boot

Go here for pointers

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... +nomodeset

[Dennish2300]

I managed to get a display by booting in compatibility mode. It now says it is running in software rendering mode. How do I find out what is wrong with the video and fix it? Thanks for any help?

[austin.texas]

The first thing I would do is try Mint 18.2 AND/OR Mint 18.3 to see if you get better results.

[Mattyboy]

Yeah, as said you're better off with 18.3

Software rendering is normal from a live boot ( its not quite clear you've actually installed yet ). Once installed You should go to menu/administration and run software sources, yours will probably be university of Kent. Back to administration and go to driver manager, here's where you should sort out your graphics. On your AMD system you'll have to install the open source drivers, the system will find them for you. Re-boot then finally update your system in the update manager. Select the 'do not break' option, best for now, but DO make sure you update the Kernel as it contains important security patches in regard to Meltdown and Spectre.

If you require further assistance open the terminal ( command prompt ) from the menu or panel ( taskbar ) shortcut and run this command ( capital F ) and past back the results here.

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inxi -Fxz

[Dennish2300]

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dennis@VenomSSD ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: VenomSSD Kernel: 4.8.0-53-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: MATE 1.18.0 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya
Machine:   System: Gigabyte product: N/A
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: F2A68HM-HD2 v: x.x
           Bios: American Megatrends v: FC date: 12/24/2015
CPU:       Dual core AMD A8-7650K Radeon R7 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G (-HT-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 13176
           clock speeds: max: 3300 MHz 1: 1900 MHz 2: 1900 MHz 3: 2800 MHz
           4: 1900 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Kaveri [Radeon R7 Graphics]
           bus-ID: 00:01.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1280x1024@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD KAVERI (DRM 2.46.0 / 4.8.0-53-generic, LLVM 3.8.0)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 12.0.6 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Kaveri HDMI/DP Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.8.0-53-generic
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 01:00.0
           IF: enp1s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1120.2GB (0.7% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD10EZEX size: 1000.2GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: SanDisk_SDSSDA12 size: 120.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 20G used: 5.6G (31%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb5
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.10GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb6
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 0.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 0.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 181 Uptime: 2 min Memory: 624.2/6922.5MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 
dennis@VenomSSD ~ $ 

Thanks Mattyboy
I got it working this morning before I saw your reply.
I followed someone elses solution and got down to needing to replace Xserver-xorg-video-radeon-dbg and found that it was not installed, so I installed it.
As you can see I have done the safe updates but not the kernel update or 18.3 yet.
Next job is getting the USB dongle wifi working.
Thanks

[Mattyboy]

Next job is getting the USB dongle wifi working.
Thanks

You stand a better chance by updating the Kernel, not guaranteed, but a better one. The Kernels contain your system drivers, they may have been added since 18.1 was released. As a general rule you're going to have a better experience by running the latest versions.

I'd read up on Kernels and their management mate. Regardless, enjoy Linux.