Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

[metro2003]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

Snowhog,

yes, I do have the restoration point turned off. I have an image copy of the C:\ drive just in case. maan, you guys are good!!! wonder how you figured that one out. and yes, there is a "hidden" partition.

Dibl,

here are the results to fdisk -lu (more copying. I inserted the commas to read it easier) :

=================

Device boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/sda1 2048 16,386,047 8,192,000 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 16,386,048 139,943,927 61,778,940 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 139,943,936 240,986,111 50,521,088 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 240,991,065 390,716,864 74,862,900 5 EXTENDED
/dev/sda5 240,991,128 260,510,039 9,759,456 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 260,510,103 266,373,764 2,931,831 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 266,373,828 390,716,864 62,171,518+ 83 Linux

=================

thank you !

[Snowhog]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

Yeah, we're good!

I had Vista on my laptop, and was dual-booting until I took dibl's advice and install VMWare Player and installed WinXP Pro as a virtual machine running inside of Kubuntu Gutsy. After that, I blew off Vista completely. So, I had experience with Vista.

Your fdisk -lu output confirms that you did a good job of setting up your HD. /dev/sda1 is the 'hidden' Vista recovery partition. /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 are being used by Vista. You created an extended partition (/dev/sda4) and created your Linux 'logical' partitions within: /dev/sda5 (your root file system partition), /dev/sda6 as your Linux swap partition, and /dev/sda7 as you /home partition. Is this correct?

[dibl]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

OK, now run

mount

and post the output -- we may figure something out yet!

[metro2003]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

Snowhog,

yes, that is exactly how I partitioned my hd's. you can tell all that from the numbers?

Dibl,

here's the 'mount' output:

=============

/dev/sda5 on / type ext3 (rw, errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw, noexec, nosuid, nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw, noexec, nosuid, nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw, noexec, nosuid, nodev, mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw, noexec, nosuid, nodev, mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw, mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda7 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /media/sda2 type fuseblk (rw, nosuid, nodev, noatime, allow_other, default_permissions, blksize=4096)
/dev/sda3 on /media/sda3 type fuseblk (rw, nosuid, nodev, noatime, allow_other, default_permissions, blksize=4096)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)

=============

[Snowhog]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

We now need to see what your /etc/fstab file looks like. Open a console and type:

cat /etc/fstab

Copy and report the output.

[metro2003]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT


Hi,

here's the output to the fstab file

========================


# <file system> <mount point> <type> <option> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

# /dev/sda5
UUID=31301cd8-fd9c-437c-8223-700977478184 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

#/dev/sda7
UUID=867e0a4d-85e6-40c8-95b3-0097586b680f /home ext3 defaults 0 2

#/dev/sda2
UUID=12AADAAAAADA8A1D /media/sda2 ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

#/dev/sda3
UUID=85282AB52829CD6 /media/sda3 ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

#/dev/sda6
UUID=158570aa-f8ea-410a-b454-1fda2766cb04 none swap sw 0 0

/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,nonauto,exec 0 0

========================

[Snowhog]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

The first thing noted is the fs_passno (the order in which filesystem checks are done at reboot time) is set incorrectly on the following partitions:

#/dev/sda2
UUID=12AADAAAAADA8A1D /media/sda2 ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
#/dev/sda3
UUID=85282AB52829CD6 /media/sda3 ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

Only the root file system should have an fs_passno of 1.

The root filesystem should be specified with a fs_passno of 1, and other filesystems should have a fs_passno of 2.

The cdrom and swap partitions are properly identified with a fs_passno of 0.

So, you need to edit the /etc/fstab file (as root) and change these two lines to look like this:

#/dev/sda2
UUID=12AADAAAAADA8A1D /media/sda2 ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 2
#/dev/sda3
UUID=85282AB52829CD6 /media/sda3 ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 2

You can do this by opening Konqueror and typing in the location bar /etc and scrolling down to fstab and right-clicking on it and selecting Actions | Edit as Root

[metro2003]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

ok, I changed the fs_passno accordingly. sda2 and 3 are now set to 2.

what's my next step?

I rebooted and see the same exact errors

[dibl]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

Here's a kernel boot code that I have never needed, but it is reported to help some situations with Nvidia 8000-series chips.

xdrvr=fbdev

So that would go in the kernel boot line in /boot/grub/menu.lst, toward the right-hand end of it.

[Snowhog]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

I rebooted and see the same exact errors

That's okay. Fixing the fs_passno on those two fstab entries wasn't going to fix that, but it was necessary to eliminate any contributing issue.

As you know how to edit a file as root, let's now edit /boot/grub/menu.list
You are going to edit the kernel line to remove the quiet and splash options. Locate the ## ## End Default Options ## line. You want the kernel line in the first stanza group. Delete quiet and splash from the line. Save and close the file and perform a normal shutdown/restart. With these options absent, you will see all the messages as your system boots. What we are interested in are the last few messages before you end up at the prompt.

[metro2003]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

ok, I have done that and this is what comes up:

everything has a [OK] on the right side and the last few lines are:

* Starting DHCP D-Bus daemon dhcdbd
* Starting blutooth service
* Starting anac(h)ronistic cron anacron
* Starting deferred execution scheduler atd
* Starting periodic command schedulre crond
* Checking battery state...
* Running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local)

and it just hangs. if I press enter I get the text login prompt

SERVER login:


if I login and startx, I get the same error message as inthe beginning.

and I have tried adding the xdrvr=fbdev at the end of the kernel line for the same stanza.

[Snowhog]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

Okay. Let's start looking 'under the hood.'

Restart your laptop (normal shutdown/restart). Press what ever key(s) to get into BIOS Setup. Check for Power Management settings and disable them. Also, look for something dealing with USB Legacy Support (or some such). If you do have such, and it is enabled, disable it. Save settings and exit/reboot.

Report back.

[metro2003]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

ok, I disabled the power management. there is nothing about legasy USB. I looked all over the bios.

there's this USB boot option, but nothing to disable it.

[dibl]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

The fdisk and mount output, and the fstab file actually look fine (with Snowhog's correction of the fs_passno number for root).

A little Google research on "No resume image, doing normal boot" turned up this bug report:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/103148

which basically says "it looks like an error but all it is saying is "I noticed you didn't hibernate last time you shut it down"" -- which is not an error. So, let's consider that there is NOT a problem with the mounting of the filesystem and partitions.

OK, probably the video issue is the next most concerning, so let's take a shot at it. Here's the page with all the boot options and their effects:

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

Plus, as I mentioned above, the xdrvr=fbdev option is popular among Mepis users with Nvidia chips in the laptops -- I dunno if it works on *buntu or not. Maybe you'd like to play guinea pig and try it for us.

So, these options go in the "kernel boot line" of your boot menu -- that is the file at /boot/grub/menu.lst. In case you're not sure, it's the red one below:

"title Ubuntu hardy (development branch), kernel 2.6.24-11-generic
root (hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-11-generic root=UUID=4947d60b-b181-4a7d-9c22-f4782ed7cb0a ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.24-11-generic
quiet"

In this example, I'm using the options "ro", "quiet", and "splash" for booting my system.

[metro2003]

Re: Blank screen when installing Live CD - using ASUS laptop, nvidia 8600m GT

Hi Dibl,

I have tried the xdrvr=fbdev option and still nothing happens.

not sure what else to do ! I soooo want to get this running...out of principle...


I still think it's something to do with this error when I "startx":

(WW) ****INVALID MEM ALLOCATION**** b: 0xc0000000 e: 0xc000000 correcting
FATAL: Error inserting nvidia (/lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/nvidia/nvidia.ko): no such device
(EE) NVIDIA: Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA: *** Aborting ***
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.


do you know what FATAL error is? inserting nvidia?

thanks.