10 May, 2010

Ubuntu 10.04/Mint 9 boot ending in a blank screen?

I have found some info about a problem I hit on an oldish notebook with an Intel 815 IGP. Hope it helps more people.



Originally taken from Linux Mint forums here

A tip for anyone with slightly more "experienced" hardware.

My old laptop with an intel 855gm graphics chipset would not boot the livecd.
(it was the same with Lucid)

I found a fix on ubuntugeek. Specifically the second fix.

Solution 2

Yes, I think you may be right about it being a graphics card problem. I think you may have the same problem that I did on my beat-up old Toshiba Satellite A10.

So, here is what should work:

At the very first screen, the one with just the rectangle (it’s meant to be a keyboard) and a human figure, press any key - spacebar will do.

Then choose your language.

Then make sure you have “Try Ubuntu without any changes” selected, and then press F6

Add this to the end of the command line:

Code: Select all
i915.modeset=0 xforcevesa


Then press enter and it should boot successfully.

The sequence needed for mint is slightly different though.

1, Boot the machine with the livecd in

2, once the "automatically booting in ten seconds" screen appears hit the ENTER key.
(This will open the boot options screen)

3, With the boot options screen open make sure the first option in the list is selected and hit the TAB key.
(This will show the boot parameters for the livecd)

4, Once the list of parameters appears append the code quoted above to the list.

5, Hit the ENTER key

6, Enjoy the minty goodness. :D

No comments: