Ubuntu 9.10 install issues (solved)

[afjafj]

Hi,
I'm new to fit-pc and new to Linux. I've been trying over the past few days to get Ubuntu 9.10 installed and have not yet fully succeeded.
I've burnt a CD from the iso and booted it on my laptop, then used the menu option to create a bootable USB stick. I plug that into the fit-pc and select install from the menu and the system goes away and successfully installs on the HDD.

I can now boot from the HDD, no problem, but when I follow the installation instructions on the Wiki, I reboot and the system hangs during the boot process. No errors, panics or anything else, just a black screen.

Any suggestions on what I should do next would be appreciated.

[Mylife]

Hi,

Maybe you should add "reboot=b" in the kernel options ?

See here for more explanations :
http://www.fit-pc2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=301

[Denis]

No, reboot=b is not related to this.
I think it`s a graphic driver issue, must be wrong resolution appears in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You need to boot in recovery mode, or boot with installation CD/USB and check this file manually. Find line: Modes "1280x1024" (or another mode can appear there) and change it to your actual resolution. Also read /var/log/Xorg.0.log file, may be some helpful info presents there.

[afjafj]

Thank you both.
It looks like a display issue - the mode just had "x" in it, so I've tried a few different settings there but none have worked - the log says there is no usable resolution. If I boot with the monitor unplugged, when I plug it in, the monitor reports the signal is "Out of Range".
Looks like it could be something odd with my monitor.

Do you know if there's a way simply to force the graphics output to a known resolution, rather than detecting what is supported?

By the way, the monitor is a Viewsonic VX2025wm

[Denis]

Check if you have in /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "Screen"
bla-bla
bla-bla
Subsection "Display"
bla-bla
Modes "1680x1050"

If you think your display can not report his resolution - boot with installation USB and see in /var/log/Xorg.0.log. It must be line "Printing DDC gathered Modelins" and after that all resolutions you display supports.

[afjafj]

Hi Denis,
I've tried setting resolutions of "1024x768", "1680x1050" (the native resolution) and "640x480" in the xorg.conf file - none of them work.

Booting from the USB stick and looking at the supported modes, it lists 36 different modes but most of the are reported as being resolution 0x0. The only exceptions are 3 or 4 which are reported as 640x480.

I have now also noticed that the PC will not boot with the monitor plugged in. The power light comes on but there is no disc activity and the monitor reports no signal. When I unplug the monitor and plug it back in, the disc light starts flashing, the monitor comes to life and shows the POST screen and then it starts booting. Could this indicate a failure in the graphics adaptor?

[afjafj]

The monitor or DVI cable are now suspect.
Having problems with displaying digital signals from another PC.
Am troubleshooting with this other PC and will report back.

[Pascalb]

Try to add your monitor characteristics in the Monitor section of the xorg.conf file :

HorizSync 31.0 - 80.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 70.0

Use the values you'll find in the user manual of your monitor.

On my side, I had to add the Mode line corresponding to my monitor, AND the above lines. And then it worked...

[billyzelsnack]

I had a similar black screen issue after poulsbo driver install. The gist of how it got resolved was that I put the desktop into 640x480 just before rebooting after installing the poulsbo drivers.

More details on my journey here:
http://www.fit-pc2.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 0&start=29

The thing I don't mention is that the display dialog does not fit on screen at 640x480 and so I needed to tab three times to move the keyboard focus and hit enter to actually apply/test the higher setting. Then I just waited for it to revert back if it failed.

[afjafj]

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions.
I've just received a new monitor and now everything is working perfectly. Following the installation instructions on the wiki resulted in a perfect install and I now have the desktop up and running in 1920x1080 and WiFi too.