[SOLVED] Black screen when trying to boot to Mint

[donvakarian]

Solution: I needed to update the BIOS so that Mint could display when booting from USB.

I am trying to install Linux Mint on my new build. I have fired it up and I can see all of my hardware correctly in the bios. I have tried installing The newest stable version of Mint. When I start booting from the USB and get to the list of options like "Install Mint", "Install Mint (Safe Graphics)", etc. I tried normal and safe graphics. Each time I click run, from here it is nothing but a black screen no matter how long I wait. Next I tried Mint Edge 21.3 and Ubuntu 23.10 to ensure that I had a newer kernel, but the results were the same. I know the USB drive is good because another much older machine successfully boots the drive.

I did open up the GRUB cli on one of the distro menus, that seemed to be working but it had the same result when I tired to boot from USB.
I tried plugging the monitor into the mobo instead of the graphics card in case it was a driver issue causing the black screen.
Accessories seem to lose power after I try to boot as my keyboard and mouse lose their lighting.
My build parts in case they are relevant:

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 7700X
Mobo: MSI PRO B650-P WIFI ATX
Hard drive: NVME M2 drive
Graphics Card: Radeon RX7800XT (but I am plugging the monitor directly into the mother board.)

Any advice on how to get my PC to boot from the Linux Mint USB would be greatly appreciated!

[scjet45]

try "nomodeset" when booting.

[donvakarian]

try "nomodeset" when booting.

Is that something I simply add to the grub command?

[SMG]

try "nomodeset" when booting.

Is that something I simply add to the grub command?

It's automatically added if you select "safe graphics" and you said you already tried that.

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 7700X
Mobo: MSI PRO B650-P WIFI ATX
Hard drive: NVME M2 drive
Graphics Card: Radeon RX7800XT (but I am plugging the monitor directly into the mother board.)

Why are you plugging the monitor into the motherboard instead of into the GPU? Does your BIOS/UEFI know you want to use the onboard GPU?

By the way, that hardware needs the newer kernel available in the Edge ISOs.

[donvakarian]

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 7700X
Mobo: MSI PRO B650-P WIFI ATX
Hard drive: NVME M2 drive
Graphics Card: Radeon RX7800XT (but I am plugging the monitor directly into the mother board.)

Why are you plugging the monitor into the motherboard instead of into the GPU? Does your BIOS/UEFI know you want to use the onboard GPU?

By the way, that hardware needs the newer kernel available in the Edge ISOs.

I did try booting Mint Edge with the exact same result. I tried using the motherboard in case it didn't know how to use the card because of drivers or something, but I could try plugging into the card as well.

[SMG]

I did try booting Mint Edge with the exact same result. I tried using the motherboard in case it didn't know how to use the card because of drivers or something, but I could try plugging into the card as well.

I did a search on the forum and found one person with LM21.2 (latest at the time of their post) running with a MSI PRO B650-P WIFI motherboard and the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor and a 6700 XT so I would think we should be able to get Mint to work.

They were running BIOS/UEFI version 1.40 from 03/24/2023, but I see newer ones available and one version does list "Fix some of M2 devices can not be detected." Do you have the most recent BIOS/UEFI installed?

[donvakarian]

I did try booting Mint Edge with the exact same result. I tried using the motherboard in case it didn't know how to use the card because of drivers or something, but I could try plugging into the card as well.

I did a search on the forum and found one person with LM21.2 (latest at the time of their post) running with a MSI PRO B650-P WIFI motherboard and the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor and a 6700 XT so I would think we should be able to get Mint to work.

They were running BIOS/UEFI version 1.40 from 03/24/2023, but I see newer ones available and one version does list "Fix some of M2 devices can not be detected." Do you have the most recent BIOS/UEFI installed?

This was the issue! I needed to update my BIOS. The link you provided was very useful. Thank you so much for the help, I was stuck on this for a while.

[SMG]

This was the issue! I needed to update my BIOS.

If your issue is resolved, please go to your first post in this topic, click the pencil icon, and add [SOLVED] to the beginning of the title and submit the revised post so others know you are no longer seeking help on this issue.

[baka_strumpf]

Hey, guys. I have a similar problem. I am trying to boot Linux Mint 21.3 from a bootable usb flash drive which I also used to install the OS multiple times in the last 2 months on various laptops. I have just got Dell AIO 5420 with a default Windows 11 Home in it, so I am trying to run Linux Mint on it. I do not want a dual boot, just to run Windows over with Linux Mint and never think about it again. I set up boot options to boot from my usb flash drive, I disabled secure boot, and in the past, with a Dell laptop, this was sufficient. But a desktop Dell with a pre-installed Windows is a trouble. So, I face the black screen described here, and nothing happens after it.
Any ideas? Or, maybe I should start a new question here?

[SMG]

Any ideas? Or, maybe I should start a new question here?

You have different hardware so yes, you should start a new topic. However I first suggest doing a search on "Dell AIO 5420" to see if others with the same hardware are having issues.

[baka_strumpf]

What worked for me was installing Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon Edge. Maybe someone else could use this info.

[scjet45]

What worked for me was installing Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon Edge. Maybe someone else could use this info.

On a minor note:
In my case, (on my Lenovo Legion 5 17ACH6, with latest uefi/bios), I'm booting using Linux Mint 21.3 MATE, -which has no "Edge" release. So a quick fix for MATE user's is to boot and install in safe graphics mode (nomodeset), if need be, followed by a (full) apt update/upgrade and then upgrade kernel to latest "6.5.*", and that also fixed my pesky WiFi issues as well.