Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-video-ati package

Black screen and crash on boot up

Asked by R0sbif

Hi again all,

After successfully negotiating a problem installing GRUB on the correct hard disk's MBR, I have encountered another problem.

First, the machine:

ASUS K8V Deluxe
AMD-64 3200+
Asus RADEON 9600XT (AGP)
1Gb RAM
1x SATA 74Gb Raptor (WIndows and Ubuntu)
1x 120Gb Maxtor
1x 250Gb WDC
2x 250Gb WDC RAID array

When I boot from the Ubuntu 6.06 DVD, the CD, or the 6.10 CD I couldn't boot using the normal option. I had to choose the "safe graphics mode" in order to boot. (With the exception of the 6.10 which I couldn't boot at all)

The machine has never correctly booted Ubuntu, apart from in safe graphics mode from the 6.06 LTS DVD

What happens is that it gives the logo, starts loading everything then goes to start X and I get a black screen with a flashing cursor, then my screen clicks (but doesn't turn off) as if to change resolution and then it stays blank. CD activity ceases and I can no longer do anything.

When I installed the alternate CD successfully (alternate CD is text mode), it still didn't boot correctly after a good installation. However, when I boot into recovery mode, obviously the system is intact and I can use it like a terminal no probs.

As soon as I type startx, then I get my black screen and apparent system crash.

I then have to power cycle the machine and boot Windows to find help :-s

I am determined to get this Ubuntu working so I shall keep trawling the net for information, but please let me know if you have any ideas.

Thanks for your excellent support

Regards

Rich

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Ubuntu xserver-xorg-video-ati Edit question
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R0sbif
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Revision history for this message
S.Rey (s.rey) said : 		#1

I suppose this is due to a bad configured xorg.conf, maybe the automatic configuration isn't working properly. We will try to see what happens. Do the following, in text mode:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Go to 'Section "Device"' and change the 'Driver' line to the following:

Driver "vesa"

(Tell us later what were here instead of vesa. Probably "ati" or "radeon".)

Press Ctrl+O to save and Ctrl+X to exit

now you can start the x session and see if it works.

If everything goes well, we'll try to select the proper accelerated driver.
If not, you should post here your /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Revision history for this message
R0sbif (richard-crontek) said : 		#2

Hmmm In fact now I get "waiting for root file system..." for a long time, then I get:
"Alert! /dev/sda2 does not exist. Dropping to shell!".
looks like Windows has somehow knackered the partition.

I think i'm going to reinstall. I'll have an answer to your quesions once I can get it going again.

Incidentally, I just bought a GForce card... Probably work better than the ATI one for this. I'll try that as well, and let you know in about.. ooh an hour or so :)

Thank you v much for your answer.

Best regards

Rich

Revision history for this message
R0sbif (richard-crontek) said : 		#3

Gah, this is turning into a bit of a nightmare.

I reinstalled, with the new graphics card (Geforce 7600GS on AGP) and it all went swimmingly and it even asked me what resolutions i'd like to use in X. So I selected the ones that I normally use etc. it was all good.

On bootup it dropped to the shell because "it appears that X system isn't configured properly" and I had access to the files etc. that you mentioned above.

I then noticed that the graphics card I have purchased required a disk drive type power supply, and I don't have any left seeing as I have so many disks.

Also, I have thought about this "Alert! dropping to shell" problem and I noticed that when I unplug all the other drives this one is no longer sdc but sda. Does Ubuntu label the disks and then if it can't find the right one does it throw a wobbler?

Am I seeng so many problems because I have strange graphics cards, or too many disks?

It can't possiby be this hard...

I need to take a break and lose some disks and retry I think. I shall have another go tomorrow. Thanks for your help and sorry for the delay.

Cheers

Rich

Revision history for this message
S.Rey (s.rey) said : 		#4

As you have already found it appears that those nvidia cards need an aditional power supply cord. If you don't have any left, you can get an adaptor to get 2 connections from a existing one.
I suppose that without the aditional power cord, the card isn't able to go to graphics mode.

Regarding your problem with hard drives, your config is a bit complex for me. All I can suggest is to edit manually the /etc/fstab file, but it's probably safer to reinstall when you have the graphics card properly installed.

Revision history for this message
Best R0sbif (richard-crontek) said : 		#5

OK. Good news :-) I am writing this from Ubuntu on the above computer :))

Here is what I had to do to get it working:

Remove the 2x250 WDCs on the Promise RAID controller permanently
Remove the 120Gb Maxtor permanently
Remove the 250Gb WDC (so far temporarily because it has all my data on it)
Change the graphics card from ATI Radeon 9600 XT to Geforce 7600GS
Install Ubuntu 6.10 AMD64 version.

When I started the live CD the Ubuntu splash screen and the bar that moves from left to right was corrupted somewhat so was unable to see if any messages were coming up or not. However when X started, it all looked good! This isn't even in safe graphics mode.

I destroyed the previous installations of Ubuntu and started this one. GRUB into the MBR (only one available - on this Raptor SATA disk)

When it had finished, and asked me to restart, I did, but the splash screen and associated text was all corrupted on the screen so it was impossible to see what was going on. I waited for a long period and power cycled the machine.

Booted up - same corrupted display until X start, then it's all good!

The only thing now is that I only get a choice of 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. I would like to use my desktop at 1600x1200 but I suspect that there is a driver issue maybe for this card too...

Thanks for your support - I'm off to trawl the net again for answers on this resolution problem. I tell you what, if I can solve that then I'll be a happy man :)

Thanks again

Best regards

Rich