Help - screen goes black - RESOLVED

[runebinder]

I'm new to linux, wanted to give it a go and Kubuntu 8.04 KDE remix looked the most appealing distro I'd seen so went and downloaded it. Problem is I've had to reinstall twice now because the screen goes completely black and sometimes get plain grey boxes where you'd expect to see the windows, tried bashing keys everything, nothing seems to get it to work.

The first time it happened, I was playing with the desktop appearance settings, the second time just hapened randomly.

Has anyone had experience of this, and if so any ways to fix it from happening again on my next attempted install? Or should I just give up and try a different distro?

Oh btw the spec of my PC are:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHZ, Asus P5E3 Deluxe mobo, 4GB Corsair XMS3 1333MHZ DDR 3, Nvidia 9600GT

Also think it might have something to do with the Graphocs card? Have heard issues with drivers for the 9 series.

[dibl]

Re: Help - screen goes black

I would run memtest (for a few hours) to make sure it's not a promlem with the memory hardware. Assuming it is not, then it is that 9600GT.

So, try inserting a boot "cheatcode" on the kernel boot line. Try vga=791 and if that doesn't help, try vga=785.

Also, it might be that you can press Alt-F1, or Ctrl-Alt-F1 when you have the black screen, and get a login prompt. If so. log in.

As soon as you can get logged in, you'll want to install the Nvidia driver. Open the Konsole (or log in to recovery mode) and do this:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install envyng-core

(after the installation finishes)

sudo envyng -t

and choose #1 "Install the driver"

When it finishes you should be able to run the X server and log in.

[runebinder]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Thanks Dibl, will give that a try and let you know how I get on. Don't thinks its a problem with the mem as have been running 64bit Vista for a couple of months now with no issues.

This might sound silly but how do I insert a boot cheatcode into the Kernel boot line?

[dibl]

Re: Help - screen goes black

When you boot the computer, the first thing after the BIOS messages that you see (I hope) is a "boot menu", showing your Kubuntu 8.04 kernel.

So, in the 5 seconds that you have by default, you want to press "e" before it tries to boot. This will allow you to edit (not permanently -- just for this boot attempt). So I think then the editor pops up on the wrong line, and you need to cursor down to the line that begins with "root=(hd0,0) ..." or something like that. At the end of the line, leave a space after the last option and enter "vga=791" with no quote marks. Then press Enter, which will take you to the preceding screen, then with the boot line highlighted, press "b" to boot it.

If it boots to the GUI login, then that's your clue that you need to permanently edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and add that option. If it doesn't boot to the GUI login, then we've just learned one thing that doesn't work. Try it again with "vga=785" and see if that works.

[runebinder]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Ok the vga=791 worked, loaded up to the gui fine, so how do I edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file with that ammendment permanently?

Sorry about all the questions, I'm a complete Linux newbie

[dibl]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Cool -- I'm batting 50% this afternoon.

Alt-F2 "kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.lst" with no quote marks.

Scroll down to the line that you see on the boot menu (way down near the bottom) and add the option just like you did when you were using the Grub editor. Click "File > Save" and exit Kate.

Good job, Mr. Noob!

[Snowhog]

Re: Help - screen goes black

To ensure that the option is carried forward when a kernel update is received, you will also want to change the line:
# defoptions
to
# defoptions=vga=791

[dibl]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Yep - Thanks Snowhog!

[runebinder]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Ok tried Alt-F2 "kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.lst" and get comand not found, have checked my spelling and definitely have it correct. I am doing Alt-F2 from within the kubuntu desktop, is there something I'm not doing right?

[Fintan]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Just a quikie:
Are you in HH kde4.1 or kde3?

If you are in kde3 or kde4.0.5
then do:

kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.lst

You have to leave away the quotation marks when pasting or typing

Hope that helps

Edit: sorry I was too quick.
Your post says HH remix. Okay that means kde4.0.5 or kde4.1 beta.

For kde4.0.5 the above should work.

for kde4.1 beta:

kdesudo /usr/lib/kde4/bin/kate /boot/grub/menu.lst

kde4.1 beta for HH has a few problems with that for now

Edit2:
For more on kde4:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...;topicseen#new

and

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...;topicseen#new

[runebinder]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Cheers Fintan kdesudo /usr/lib/kde4/bin/kate /boot/grub/menu.lst worked. Can't find #dfoptions in there though

[Fintan]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Glad to be help

You should find it here:

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=splash vga=794

Yours may look different as for hdax

And set it with the vga that works then uncomment.

[runebinder]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Thanks, got it now

[runebinder]

Re: Help - screen goes black

Have tried the sudo envyng -t command, pressed 1 for Nvidia and got this message:

EnvyNG ERROR: Envy does not recognise your card as compatible with any version of the driver.this might happen because either your card is not supported by the driver or Envy's hardwaredetection failed. You can try the manual installation at your risk.

Now I know it's definitely a Nvidia geforce 9600 as I built the PC myself, any ideas?
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Edit, I tried manual install and got the option for the 173.14.05 driver when I choose Nvidia which I know is the latest version for my card so have that installing now. Is there any option in Kubuntu which shows you an overview of what hardware is installed, a device manager equivalent etc?
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P.S. The updated nvidia driver has resolved the issue of the black screen, applied desktop effects and everythings working perfectly Cheers dibl, snohog and fintan for coming to my aid

[Snowhog]

Re: Help - screen goes black - RESOLVED

Glad to hear you've gotten the problem resolved. Good job!