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Intel video and blank screen on Live CD & clean install [SOLVED]

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    #1

    Intel video and blank screen on Live CD & clean install [SOLVED]

    I have an old Toshiba SA40-211 laptop with Intel 82852/855GM video.
    Through the years it worked without flaw on Kubuntu, most recent on 8.04.
    Now I wanted to do a fresh install but found the Live CD got stuck in a blank screen, not even the Magic Keys would get it unstuck.

    I decided to do a new install from the Alternate CD but the same happened, after install I could boot no further than the blank screen.
    Booting in safe mode I could get to the command prompt and had network access but nothing could get me to into X, dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg would simply exit without error.

    I then installed 9.10, it worked fine and I upgraded to 10.04.
    Again the same problem.

    But I do get a working system when I boot in the 9.10's 2.6.31.21 kernel instead of the 2.6.31.21 that came with 10.04.

    The problem looks similar this bug report from 2007:
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...el/+bug/108056

    Anyone with a smart idea?
    Tags: None
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    #2
    Re: Intel video and blank screen on Live CD & clean install

    Well, no smart solution I'm afraid, but I agree that the problem may be with the intel-driver.
    I have an old Fujitsu-Siemens laptop Amilo L1300 with the 855 intel graphics chip and ever since 9.04 I have had problems with getting Kubuntu stable. (I fixed it for 9.04 but then at least I could install so I could follow instructions from here:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...+graphics+i815 )

    This time both the install & live run from the CD completely freezes as soon as the initial booting comes to initializing the graphics. None of the boot options I tried work so far (nomodeset, noapic etc) but then I may be doing that the wrong way. I'm not sure.

    I think that perhaps it is possible to perform a text mode install, ensure booting to text mode and then downgrade the intel driver from there before trying to start Kubuntu in graphics mode. But I have no idea how to do that and besides it is easier to skip trying 10.04 on the old laptop entirely and do something else. Besides the old laptop works OK with Suse 11.2 now.

    It's a pity though.
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      #3
      Re: Intel video and blank screen on Live CD & clean install

      Might be informative: X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes
      Windows no longer obstructs my view.
      Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
      "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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        #4
        Re: Intel video and blank screen on Live CD & clean install

        Indeed it was

        I'll try the Vesa mode as soon as I figure out how to perform a textmode install. I don't really need the fancier graphics like HW acceleration and stuff :P

        Thanks a lot!
        /Bosse

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          #5
          Re: Intel video and blank screen on Live CD & clean install

          I know you will, but keep us informed as to the results you get - good or bad.
          Windows no longer obstructs my view.
          Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
          "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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            #6
            Re: Intel video and blank screen on Live CD & clean install

            First an apology to the original poster for my "hijacking" of his question. I hope he can find some hints here to help with his problems.

            It worked for me, I have a functioning install now :-) Here's how I did it:

            I downloaded the alternate CD instead because that is the only way I found to perform a textmode install. I installed on a parallell partition (created by the install program) to the Suse installation and then booted into the graphics failsafe mode in Kubuntu. This didn't work, but at least it created a xorg.conf.failsafe which I could copy as xorg.conf.
            (I noted that xorg.conf is not created in the installation process, but seems to be created whenever you start X and the xorg.conf is missing. Provided you can start X, that is.)

            The xorg.conf.failsafe is exactly as shown in the link above, it starts a Vesa driver. So now I had a functioning graphical boot and login. Ugly, with 1024x728 and 800x600 as the only available resolutions, but quite workable. So, in order to try to get at least the native resoution (1280x800) I decided to try the other alternatives in the link above, one by one, to see if any would work.

            Luckily the first alternative (re-enable KMS) was a complete success :-))
            I now boot into 1280x800 resolution, no problems with stability so far (it still works after I woke up; I had to sleep and left it running

            A big thank you to Snowhog for the information. It was exactly right for me. I hope that Teunis also can find some solution through that.

            /Bosse
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              #7
              Re: Intel video and blank screen on Live CD & clean install

              Just finished burning my own 10.04 LiveCD and am in it right now. Flawless. Video graphics and compositing all good. Network properly detected and setup. Sound works. Screen brightness controls function as they should. I guess I'll be preparing to replace my Kubuntu Jaunty 9.04 with Lucid 10.04.
              Windows no longer obstructs my view.
              Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
              "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                #8
                Re: Intel video and blank screen on Live CD & clean install

                Thank you Snowhog!

                The first remedy, switching KMS back on did the trick and the laptop is once more running lovely. 8)
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