How to fix ubuntu 10.04 LTS (lucid) blank Screen at startup
This seems to be happening with nVidia graphic cards to fix this problem try to use the following solution i hope this would help
Solution1
I have a HP Pavilion SLimline s7727c
with lspci giving me
VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C51 [GeForce 6150 LE] (rev a2)
I was getting a blank screen (out of sync) on booting from the live cd.
I worked around the problem as follows:
* At install screen press F6 and select nomodeset and install Ubuntu as usual.
* On first boot after install, press e on getting the GRUB bootloader.
* Using arrow keys navigate to and delete quiet and splash and type the word nomodeset in their place
* Press Ctrl and X to boot
* You should now be able to login to your Ubuntu as usual
For those of you who do not know what to do next, in the taskbar click on System->Administration->Hardware drivers, and select and activate the nvidia current driver if you have an nvidia card like I do. The driver will be downloaded and activated automatically, and you will be prompted for a reboot.
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:
i915.modeset=0 xforcevesa
Then press enter and it should boot successfully.
Solution 3
1. Boot from the Ubuntu 9.10 CD
2. Mount the internal HD and look for /etc/X11/xorg.conf -- its missing!
3. Copy a new "known good" xorg.conf file to the HD (I had to use sudo cp ... otherwise I got permission problems)
4. System boots fine.
Thanks to ubuntuforum user for this solution
You are a life saver man! Solution 2 worked like a charm for me. I had spent hours trying to get this resolved before I read this.
it doesnt vvork for me, even i replaced quiet splash to nomodeset (nvidia 7050pv) and press ctrl+*. It bring me to command line interface instead of graphical interface.
So if Ubuntu 10.04 doesn’t recognize the USA qwerty keyboard on my Nvidia video desktop (ps2) or laptop with ati video how do I select nomodeset? Neither very common videocard is compatible with Ubuntu.
Solution 2 works fine for me on old Toshiba laptop, thanks man a lot, regards
Any ideas about the following?
Solution 2 d/n work b/c pressing shift/space/anything seems to have no effect. It still goes directly to the running dots screen. Ruled out the keyboard.
Solution 1 d/n seem applicable b/c I never get to an install screen. After running dots finish, I get only a screen of horizontal blk/wht striping.
I’m surprised how fucking unable they are to do anything right. But thx for help 🙂
Yeah, no video on ati, intel or nvidia cards is a deal breaker. And don’t even get me started about pulse audio problems including the inability to use skype or the sound recorder software included with ubuntu because ubuntu doesnt know what a fricking MICROPHONE is
Thanks for posting this.
Sorry, Ubuntu. I gave up. I tried and tried to get you working on my garden-variety, mass-produced 64-bit desktop. Apparently, you are confused by these things called graphics cards. And since you are confused by those cards–you know, the ones found in every single computer sold today–you also can’t recognize my keyboard. Or my mouse. Which means that my Ubuntu machine is nothing more than a paperweight.
Perhaps if I had a degree in computer science, I could single-handedly reprogram you (is that what the real meaning of “open-source” is?) to work. But I don’t.
Good news! I successfully installed Debian 5.05 on this same tower that totally confused Ubuntu. Pulse audio, Skype and sound recorder worked out of the box. With a little tinkering got the restricted NVIDIA video driver going. Printer install was a snap. I will miss my scanner though. Debian 5.05 and hplip 3.10.6 do not play well together.
Why, oh why can’t Linux distros get basic hardware correct? Don’t most people have video cards, keyboards, network or wifi, sound, printers and scanners. Maybe use various plug ins on the web? While we’re at it, how about a real browser for Debian…one that can actually render pages correctly?
Solution 2 works great for this laptop
Toshiba Satellite
SA40-892
PSA40E-0E9WS-EN
Thank you!
Worked for me on a custom high-end server.
Works once, but it doesn’t save the drivers I download when I restart. Any ideas?
Solution 2 didn’t work.
I have a way-out-a-da-box suggestion for Linux.
90% of people are starting winDOZ then linux.
Why not write a WINDOWS-app that gathers info (written in .NET whatever) and creates a custom ubuntu.yourNameHere.iso for that system!
That would be AWESOME! I would donate to that effort!
-jp
I have a Toshiba Tecra,and have the blank screen.Tried the fixes indicated,and still no response. Fortunately I have a newer computer w/windows that still works.Any suggestions to get tecra working since I am not a computer person,and have Linux on my laptop due to a crash in software previously w/window xp.
I have a new asus laptop with a Nvidia chipset etc. Your solutions didn’t work for me. What I did was the folowing, I installed ubuntu 9.10 made a upgrade to 10.4 in the update manager. Then when the notebook reboots I did the changes you said in thee grub loader and now it all works fine,
thanks 🙂
I have two old (4.5 years) Gateway laptops with Intel 855 video cards. To get 10.04 to finally boot up in a normal manner I added i915.modeset=1 instead of 0. Nothing more than that. Now I boot up fine and can read the live disk fine. If I could only solve the problem of the computers crashing when trying to play videos I think I’d be in hog heaven.
Many thanks !
I have a Matrox Millenium II video card (Pci)
Solution 2 worked perfectly.
Surprisingly, the liveCD session worked from the shelf, but after installation and reboot ..
no X session !
tty1 to tty6 logins were ok, but no desktop!
So, I simply added the proposed options to the boot command line and lauched a new install, and that was it!
juat tell me how we can install ubuntu linux on HP G62
The HP G62-a21SA note book has an ATi Radeon HD4250 graphics card that will work on Karmic at 1024 x 768 but causes boot up to fail on more recent Ubuntus. Early in the boot sequence screen blanks so installation is impossible. Live boot up works from the CD but on installation and reboot from the hard drive it fails. I also had to fix the broadcom wireless network driver but that now works ok. I can’t find a reference to the Radeon HD4250 in any of the driver software so I think it is new and not yet supported. If anyone knows that this is not the case pleasae let me know and I’ll try again. Otherwise I’m just going to wait and hope that Meercat gets this fixed.
My Dell D505 had the same problem, but the i915.modeset=1 change that worked for Frank Henderson worked for me, as well.
Solution #1 worked for me with old Matrox dual output video card on old computer – thanks.
THANK YOU!! This is GREAT. Worked perfectly for my ATI Radeon 2400.
Solution 2 worked for me for my A10 Toshiba, thanks!
How can I reboot from disk
Solution 2 worked on my six year old Toshiba Tecra A2-S336.
Solution 2 worked great here, on a Toshiba Tecra A2. Thanks! 🙂
Solution 1 worked great for me. Thanks.
pressed “e” about 50 times during boot. Never saw a grub screen to edit.
> pressed “e” about 50 times during boot. Never saw
> a grub screen to edit.
To work this method, you have to see first the grub menu (it’s used to let you choose between operating systems). Did you see it?