No video output after install

[Guest]

Hi,
I have just installed 12.10 into a HP t5550 thin client.
VIA 3500U x64 CPU.
VIA vx900 chrome graphics chip.
8gb ram.
250gb HD.

The install goes fine, then the PC reboots and i get the boot splash screen with kubuntu logo and 5 dots. It works for a while (the dots move), then the screen goes blank and on the monitor it say no video input.
i dont know if it freezes or not, but the num-lock on keyboard doesnt work (as in light doesnt come on when i hit the key.)

I have looked on the via site and there are drivers that can be installed for the vx900 graphics chip, however i have no idea how i can do this without video, or how to boot to command prompt and do it from there.

http://linux.via.com.tw/support/begi...id=661&fid=981

There is no network access either so i guess the network driver isnt working.

I have installed CentOS 6.3 on this same box to play around with email/web server, and it worked fine..

Thanks for any help...

[Dutchman]

Not sure if the problem is with the video, but if it is you can try this to get past it. As soon as the system starts, right after you see the computer's POST screen (Power On Self Test), press and hold the SHIFT key. You'll see a quick "grub" message, continue holding down the SHIFT key until you see the grub menu. Let go of the SHIFT key and press "e". That will open the grub editor. Look for a line that starts with "linux" and has options towards the end of the line "quiet splash" (it may span two lines on your screen but it's actually only one). Move the cursor over to those words and erase them. In the place where they were, type in "nomodeset" (without the quotes), then press F10 to continue booting.

Most modern Linux distributions are using a fancy graphical boot screen, the "Kubuntu" with the dots being the one used here. This screen needs a graphical driver, and the system will pick a generic one (often vesafb) to produce the image. With some hardware configurations though this can lead to problems when time comes to load the regular video driver for the X screen, and the system will either refuse to show the login screen or even freeze. By erasing the "quiet splash" part of the boot command, you're telling it not to show the fancy screen "splash", and also telling it to show everything that it's doing (erasing "quiet"). The "nomodeset" tells it not to load any graphic driver until X starts with the login screen.

If the problem is a graphic driver conflict, this should get you booted. If not, you still may see what is going wrong by being able to see the boot messages.

Hope it helps.