Ubuntu 9.04 Blank Screen only can install in Safe Graphics Mode

Did you MD5 check the ISO you downloaded? Did you verify the CD once initially booted to?

Instead of messing with xorg.conf you can boot to recovery mode and select "fix graphic" or whatever it says. This will give you a factory default xorg.conf

yes .. I have checked the desk .. as for the recovery mode thing .. how do i boot to recovery mode? It's not an option i see on the disk ... Besides ... if it was going to work with a default conf .. wouldn't it have worked on the install .. not gave me all the problem where i could only use the safe mode to install?

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
        Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Monitor "Configured Monitor"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

This is my xorg.conf ... as it stands now ...

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
        Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Monitor "Configured Monitor"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

This is my xorg.conf ... as it stands now ... .. If i change the vesa to intel .. it should load the intel driver .. correct .. And this is where my problem starts ...

To access recovery mode:

ESC when grub starts to load
select recovery mode for your desired kernel (latest is normal but not always the case)
the system will boot a little and you can then select fix graphics

If the system doesnt boot after a clean install ten you do have issues.I suggest you try to disable some of the hardware you have in BIOS, like sound and LAN and other stuff tat is surplus to testing. You can also try disabling fancy features like acpi, apic and dma (as well as more) in the kernel using boot options:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

What about the the bugs with the intel chipset .. I have found lots of info on how intel and redoing the drivers ... but cant find much info on the workarounds ... Wouldn't that be a good place to start .. why would u say to disable things in the bios? Wouldn't that be to fix a irq problem? Anyways .. Here is the last few lines from dmesg ..

[ 18.156192] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[ 18.185374] pci 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 18.185383] pci 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 18.185625] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20080730 on minor 0
[ 18.292763] [drm:i915_setparam] *ERROR* unknown parameter 4
[ 18.292804] [drm:i915_getparam] *ERROR* Unknown parameter 6

disable as much of your system as you can and a lot of the kernel, then see what you can get working. Try setting your BIOS to failsafe settings too.

lol ... Ok .. This is not helping .. i did the recovery thing .. and all that did was change the xorg.conf file back to the vesa driver. Same thing as sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg would do... I really dont think this is a bios problem ... thanks for your help however ...

What boot options did you try?

Hi Waters33637

I have the exact same problem however I cannot even get out of the starting block as I cannot edit my xorg.conf file for reasons completely unknown to me.

When I enter at the consol - sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf - I get a blank file showing "new File". I get the same if I run sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. If I load the GUI (which I can do if I connect my laptop to an external monitor) I can see and open in gedit the xorg.conf file however I canot edit and save the edit.

So UBUNTU forces me into a terminal interface where I get a blank file to edit even if I log in with appropriate permission but shows me the file with contents in an interface where I have no permission to edit? What is all this about. Is this what they think is user friendly?

Can someone please tell me why if I enter character by character the following: - sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf I get an empty file?

I am tearing my hair out as I cannot even edit a simple text file being so disabled by the design of Ubuntu.

I was advised to make the following edits which I have been unable to test:

Type into the terminal session
        sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

I looked for the section "Device"
and right before the end section of "device" add
                  Driver "vesa"
(some do not have Driver in that device section, so i don't know if it should of been there originally.)

Use CTRL + W to save and CTRL +X to exit. Then i typed "Exit" in the session terminal to get back to the list of choice under the recovery mode. I then choose to boot normally.

Tony, are you using a LiveCd session of Ubuntu or are you sure you're booting up from the hard-drive?

Do not use sudo gedit in an x session, you can corrupt permissions and ownerships

instead use;

(for gnome)
gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

(for kde)
kdesudo kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf

sudo does not setup the environment correctly and will damage files. A great example of what it will do is here as I had to spend time fixing it with the user (as you will see its my user name)

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/azureus/+question/72151

DO NOT USE SUDO FOR GUI APPS!

So there's an unresolved bug in "sudo" then? It's not at all clear that it would have this effect from reading up on guides about using sudo

No, its not a bug. Its just not used for gui apps. Ive seen these guides and I am actively emailing every single one I find to get them to change their guides.

Ok .. after playing with this all night .. And trying some of the help on here .. I have re-installed 9.04 .. Same thing .. If i try and run the live CD .. or do i standard install .. I get no picture on my screen. I guess it could be my TV that im using. It's a 32" RCA. Could the refresh rate be set incorrect on it? Like i said before. If i edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf I can change the driver to intel .. However .. I don't think that is how it's done. Anyways, HELP!!!

i think you need extra settings in xorg.conf to use RCA maybe. If you plug a monitor to it on the VGA port you will see a picture. I'd have imagined the install process would have set the fact that the tv was used. I'm not too up on the installer process as it doesnt interest me.

This is for trident stuff but may be related:
http://www.backports.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4260618

This may also be related, check the xrandr commands: http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=109384

Nope .. Not really what im looking for ...

I dont have a monitor ... SO .. cant plug one in ..

The TV is plugged into the VGA port .. so i would think it would be setup correct .. And it doesn't explain the errors i get from dmesg ..

The TV is a 32" flat panel .. Works great on windows with my laptop, and with slax live CD .. However, i cant use the xorg.conf from slax for ubuntu .. Not really sure why .. Just get all kinda errors. Maybe being slax is old . and uses a different version on X?

I guess you've tried copying the relevant section about display rather than the whole xorg.conf? If slax worked have you tried another slackware based distro such as Wolvix. The 1.1.0's should be fine, i know they're old but the display section might help where slax's ddin't. The new beta versions are quite stable and might give a better xorg.conf in this case tho.

Nicely done
Regards from
Tom :)

OK .. i'll check them out ...

Ooops, here's a link i forgot
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix

Wolvix is a full proper linux so it's xorg.conf should be worthwhile, sliTaz's is probably good too but i suspect that puppy's would be a bit rubbish for this. Ideally i supose it'd be great to get stuff from debian's :)

Thanks Tom ...

I reinstalled Ubuntu for the 3rd time now ... set up VNC .. and just said to hell with it, and went back to my windows desktop. I can still use the ubuntu machine for the things i wanted it to do in the first place ... DNS,WEB,MAIL, you know .. Stuff like that, and it doesn't have to look pretty to do these things. I'll just keep saving up, and maybe one day i can get another computer that will work right. .. Anyways, thanks for all your help!! .. Im sure i'll keep playing with this for a long time to come, but i have kinda put it on the back burner. It doesnt look so bad in VNC :o) Anyways .. Thanks .. and hey .. let me know if u find anything about my card i have on here. im like 70% sure that is has something to do with the drivers. Anyways, im going to close this one .. Thanks again guys ... Better luck next time for me .. PEACE!!

---- Tom <email address hidden> wrote:
> Your question #74699 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/74699
>
> Tom proposed the following answer:
> Wolvix is a full proper linux so it's xorg.conf should be worthwhile,
> sliTaz's is probably good too but i suspect that puppy's would be a bit
> rubbish for this. Ideally i supose it'd be great to get stuff from
> debian's :)
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/74699/+confirm?answer_id=21
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/74699
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.

I think that's the best way to treat a new OS, especially a radically new one your not used to yet. People expect to be instant experts and for absolutely everything to instantly work despite having spent years learning their old OS. Putting it on a back burner and using it for what does work and then gradually feeling your way into getting more and more out of it seems the best way to develop your skills with it. As the OS updates and develops as well and hardware manufacturers become less unhelpful then hope that one problem should get resolved as if by magic.

Xorg changed radically a few months ago and many people are having trouble with the new way on the odd occasion it doesn't work. To be fair it works better more often and so needs fixing less often than before but fixing it used to be fun. lol. Trying a few distros as LiveCds might well be the fastest way to fix this or perhaps using Xvesa instead of Xorg.

Anyway, good luck and have fun
Regards from
Tom :)

The distrowatch pages are easy to use to compare different distros and all have the download mirror site listed in the same place, eg see the similarity between these addresses and pages

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=debian
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slitaz
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=puppy
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix

and the top 100 popular distros list on the front page down on the right-hand side

http://distrowatch.com

I hope this helps when you have time for playing around with all this again
Good luck and regards again from
Tom :)

Thanks actionparsnip, that solved my question.

Hey all. I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 2600 and I have done enough research to find the problem here. I didn't actually try to install 9.04 because of what I found.

Here is the official Canonical bug report. It doesn't give any helpful information to fix the problem. I emailed "Bryce" and he basically (but nicely) said that the problem is Intel's and Canonical doesn't have any plans to resolve it.
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22595

Here is a workaround that someone used with 8.04 Hardy. Xorg was introduced with 8.10, I believe, so I don't know if the same "fix" will work. You may need to downgrade to 8.04 Hardy and use this workaround to get anywhere. There are more detailed instructions in the comment from paul on Sun 06 Apr 2008 @ 16:20.
http://www.apfrod.com/works/2008/03/15/ubuntu_8_04_hardy_heron_on_dell_inspiron_2600

My 9.04 installation problem was black screen during live install which I overcame by F4-safe graphics mode and F6-no apci, esc, right arrow to get to the command prompt where I added VGA=824 (a bogus resolution setting). During installation the loader discovered the bogus setting and presented a list of possible solutions. I typed in "scan" to allow Ubuntu to try to discover the Intel 82845G card and was presented with the same list. I chose different settings until I got success with #6 (80x60 VGA) which at least allowed me to see a screen after install although it was 800x600.

So now I have and operating system with new updates and all is fine except a resolution that only partially fills my monitor and is somewhat a problem working with some of the larger windows I encountered in experimenting with my new OS.

Next I began reading and concluded the first attempt would be to edit xorg.conf, but I didn't know how as I am a newbie to Linux. I tried a myriad of different terminal sessions getting in most cases the same blank editing page as you have. Somehow while going back to reading I noticed that one poster typed sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf where it dawned on me that I had been typing the lowercase x in X11. Weellllll, low and behold gedit came up and allowed me to edit like I wanted and even let me save my work.

Now it wasn't smooth sailing as I might have hoped because upon immediate re-boot I got an error about my video configuration file being wrong and I should edit it so Ubuntu could proceed to boot. I basically ignored it and canceled the options presented and let it go to yet another black screen. Yeah I know it's frustrating, but hey I was here to experiment and learn.

After about a minute I realised that I wasn't going to get the desktop, login sound or even an 800x600 screen, I shut down completely. I waited a more than appropriate amount of time and started a re-boot. Well, well, well I said to myself as I now had a full screen (1024x768) with no errors, gitches or hangs.

The only thing that puzzles me about it now is when I look at xorg.conf it shows the default list as it was before any editing. Hey, I'm not complaining as my Dell 1100 with Intel graphics card is behaving as I like.

Hi :)

Have you been able to try the new Ubuntu 10.04 before it gets officially released?
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/testing/lucid/beta2
Trying it as a LiveCd or as an extra dual/multi-boot would be ideal. Developers and everyone are keen to try to iron out any problems before 10.04 gets officially released so you might find faster & more effective answers to your bug reports which would make 10.04 work better on your system for you

Thanks and regards from
Tom :)