Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

archangel333 · 2009-10-12 03:36:12

Hello all, sorry to bug you with a probably noobish question but I am stuck and can't see what the problem is. I had been using Slackware on this machine for a while before finally deciding to switch over to Arch like I had on my other computers. I successfully did an FTP installation and got to grub. After selecting to boot Arch though, it starts to load, gets to ACPI followed by UDEV (sorry for not saying specific output in my boot process but I only see it on the screen for a split second) and then, black. My screen goes blank and my monitor tells me its going to sleep like it does when it gets zero input. This confuses me as I don't have this problem booting into the live/install cd (2009.02 if it helps to know) or into windows (its a beast I need to live with for my steam games), its just that one point in boot that I stop seeing anything. I think it might be an issue with my graphics card, which is an ATI Radeon X1300. Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all in advance

Last edited by archangel333 (2009-10-12 15:37:06)

indridi · 2009-10-12 09:45:36

Second that

I've been using arch on my old thinkpad R40 for a while now. I hadn't updated for a while until yesterday, when it pulled lots of updates, among them kernel 2.6.31 (updated from 2.6.30). After reboot, I got the exact same problem as described above. I suspect it having something to do with the kernel update, although I'm not sure if the xorg packages got updated as well.

this seems to be the same problem as here http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=82051
My thinkpad also has radeon graphics card: radeon mobility <something>, it's the r200 chip. The presence of ATI radeon seems to be common to all cases of this failure.

Greetings
Indriði

ps. This might belong to "kernel and hardware issues"

indridi · 2009-10-12 10:24:33

ok, seems it's the automatic kernel mode setting (KMS) that causes this see:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI … _.28KMS.29

to get the system to boot, go into the grub menu, edit the boot option (i.e. press 'e') then edit the line that looks like
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=...
and add
radeon.modeset=0
at the end of it. Then your system should start fine. Now add this to the corresponding line in /boot/grub/menu.lst

greetings
Indriði

jspicoli · 2009-10-12 12:54:57

Although 'radeon.modeset=0' stops a similar screen blanking issue on my older (Compaq EVO N610c) ati based laptop I get

kernel: Unknown boot option `radeon.modeset=0': ignoring

and still get locked up when udev is loading.

lspci says:

lspci |grep -i vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]

acpi=off

allows me to boot. This is definitely related to 2.6.31 in my case, going back to 2.6.30 I have no problem booting.

Sorry if this is the wrong thread to post this, hope this info helps someone.

archangel333 · 2009-10-12 15:25:28

indridi wrote:

ok, seems it's the automatic kernel mode setting (KMS) that causes this see:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI … _.28KMS.29
to get the system to boot, go into the grub menu, edit the boot option (i.e. press 'e') then edit the line that looks like
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=...
and add
radeon.modeset=0
at the end of it. Then your system should start fine. Now add this to the corresponding line in /boot/grub/menu.lst
greetings
Indrid-i

Hoo-rah! This worked for me, I'm typing this from my Arch install. Many thanks indridi!

Lothium · 2009-10-12 17:23:52

@jspicoli type nomodeset behind kernel /vmlinuz26 root=...

this should help!

jspicoli · 2009-10-12 20:56:22

Thanks for the suggestion Lothium, but that doesn't work. I tried it after reading the ATI page linked above but neglected to mention it, sorry I should have. I suppose it's entirely possible I had the line in menu.lst wrong but the only way I can get my system to boot is by having 'acpi=off' at the end of my kernel line. I'll keep looking around as I have time, if I find anything out I'll update the thread.

Thanks!

jspicoli · 2009-10-13 01:16:30

I recompiled the kernel with this patch and now can boot with out acpi=off:

http://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/51370/

Full_Metal_Yakuza · 2009-11-19 13:48:50

I have experienced exactly the same problem with my HP Compaq 615 notebook
KMS si not the source of problem,also radeon.modeset=0 at Grub kernel line doesn't solve anything
The only way to boot is to append acpi=off paramter
Problem is caused by pcmcia and pcmcia_core acpi modules(strange indeed that they are loaded,becouse my laptop has a express not pcmcia slot )
Boot with acpi=off and add these modules in rc.conf with ! to disable them from loading with system,boot again normally and everything will work fine now with acpi enabled
I also notice that people with similar hardware like my netbook(AMD chipset)have same problems
I hope that this helps and sorry for crappy english

P.S. Problem is linked with new 2.6.3x kernels,it's not distro releated(same thing is happening on OpenSUSE 11.2 and last version of Ubuntu)and its upstream-on older kernels up to 2.6.29 everything works fine

deadshox · 2009-12-16 22:19:20

Oh man, thx a lot for this.
It seems to work on my HP Compaq 615 too.

Now i can go sleep very well.

kingfinn · 2009-12-22 15:42:02

I also got to thank you man! I thought my 615 would be trash, but now I can do it! Thank you.

hatten · 2010-01-06 18:19:29

Lothium wrote:

@jspicoli type nomodeset behind kernel /vmlinuz26 root=...
this should help!

That helped me. Thanks a lot!

smartboyathome · 2010-02-04 16:06:32

Full_Metal_Yakuza wrote:

I have experienced exactly the same problem with my HP Compaq 615 notebook
KMS si not the source of problem,also radeon.modeset=0 at Grub kernel line doesn't solve anything
The only way to boot is to append acpi=off paramter
Problem is caused by pcmcia and pcmcia_core acpi modules(strange indeed that they are loaded,becouse my laptop has a express not pcmcia slot )
Boot with acpi=off and add these modules in rc.conf with ! to disable them from loading with system,boot again normally and everything will work fine now with acpi enabled
I also notice that people with similar hardware like my netbook(AMD chipset)have same problems
I hope that this helps and sorry for crappy english
P.S. Problem is linked with new 2.6.3x kernels,it's not distro releated(same thing is happening on OpenSUSE 11.2 and last version of Ubuntu)and its upstream-on older kernels up to 2.6.29 everything works fine

I recently updated my laptop (which has an Intel x3100 chipset) and had this problem, setting acpi=off allows me to boot. Unfortunately, I use acpid so hopefully it gets fixed sooner or later.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-12 03:36:12

Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#2 2009-10-12 09:45:36

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#3 2009-10-12 10:24:33

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#4 2009-10-12 12:54:57

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#5 2009-10-12 15:25:28

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#6 2009-10-12 17:23:52

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#7 2009-10-12 20:56:22

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#8 2009-10-13 01:16:30

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#9 2009-11-19 13:48:50

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#10 2009-12-16 22:19:20

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#11 2009-12-22 15:42:02

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#12 2010-01-06 18:19:29

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

#13 2010-02-04 16:06:32

Re: Boot trouble after install - blank screen during boot [SOLVED]

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