Kubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit Black Screen with Intel Based Laptop

[SteveRiley]

nomodeset (or i915.modeset=0) will revert older Intel drivers to UMS (user mode setting). UMS was removed from version 2.10.0 and KMS is required.

That said, with some hardware/software combinations, failures might happen. That's why Xorg installs the VESA driver. You can always tell which driver is loaded and in use by checking the Xorg log.

[smokethapimp]

"quiet i915.modeset=0"

This article helped me a while ago - http://www.insidesocal.com/click/201...-graphics.html

There are one or two distros that will boot straight out-of-the-box with this, one being Crunchbang Linux

Quoted from your link, and I agree................. it hurts the "brand".

"This kind of BS amounts to one thing and one thing only: New user repellent. If you haven't been hacking around with Xorg for years, and you're just thinking of trying Ubuntu and happen to have a laptop like mine — of which there are MILLIONS out there, Intel video being pretty darn ubiquitous — you're going to get a Ubuntu disc, try to boot it, get no video and wonder what all the fuss is about Linux since you can't even get to the desktop. It's a huge fail.

How could Ubuntu (or Debian, Slackware, Arch ...) solve this issue? During hardware detection, if the Intel 830m graphics chip comes up, use a script to turn off kernel mode setting (and if this hack works for any other graphics chips having this same trouble, include them in this "configuration" script). There's no reason why a very common graphics chip shouldn't work without resorting to the kind of hackery that's way, way above the pay grade of almost every new Ubuntu user."


I thank those here in this thread who helped me resolve this issue quickly and (I hope) completely. It still required me to join a forum, give out an email, formulate my post and hope for info. Many "new" to linux will just bail under those conditions, and in so doing sadly miss out on a great OS.

[perspectoff]

(duplicate post -- see earlier post)

[SteveRiley]

It would appear that at least some of the blame for video troubles during boot lies with this odd urge to have pretty boot splashes. GRUB runs before X loads, so it has to incorporate its own methods for addressing the graphics hardware. Then when GRUB steps out of the way and hands off to the display manager, the DM has to figure out how to switch from whatever mode GRUB was in to whatever mode it knows how to handle. Then when X finally loads, yet another transition has to be made.

I wonder if anyone has conducted any research into the tradeoff. How many additional users are attracted to some Linux distro because it shows some nice splashy boot graphics? How many of these are then disgusted when the boot loader-to-DM-to-X handoffs fail? If we ditched graphical boot loaders and waited until after login to start X, thus reducing points of failure, would we perhaps have fewer complaints and fewer quick abandonments?

[doctordruidphd]

Part of the reason for this, I think, has to do with the (false) belief that Linux has to compete with Windows, and therefore has to at least superficially look the same. Yeah, Windows nowadays boots quickly into its graphical login manager, and thence to the desktop, but if you watch the disk access, it's still loading 10 minutes later.

My $.02: give up on trying to one-up the pigs in the pigpen, and go for the best possible product that THIS product can be. And that means a more methodical approach to the boot process, taking more care to do it right than to make it fast and pretty. After all, if bootup fails, you ain't got nuthin' afterwards.

[smokethapimp]

I really appreciate the additional posts with more info about linux history, problems and solutions. It is all interesting. My 2 cents on a better OS is that it must first work reliably, then comes the "eye candy". But reliable function must always be the number one priority.

And I know I keep saying it, but again, thanks to all for the help so I did not have to (choose to) abandon running Kubuntu dual boot on my lappy.

[Guest]

Kubuntu 13.10 same problem

Apologies for bumping an old thread but I have had the same problem installing Kubuntu 13.10 on my laptop. This thread helped me solve one of the issues I had. Thanks to those that posted earlier.

The PC in question is an HP Pavillion 14" with i5-4200U and intel integrated graphics card.

The persistence required in order to get the machine up and running was well beyond the casual user and I hope these issues are resolved soon.

Meanwhile the black screen issue was resolved by editing the file /etc/default/grub file as instructed and then running sudo grub-update.

Leave well enough alone.

What you have been doing here is changing some of the options the system boots with. Some hardware/software combinations are fussy, and it can take several tries to get it to work right. I don't remember which takes priority, cmdline or cmdline_default, but it really doesn't matter -- if it's working, don't fix it. At least until someone else has a better idea...

Running info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration' explains the difference and I think both should include the modeset to ensure the machine boots correctly on the default and a selected linux version from the list. The GRUB_GFXMODE also needs to be uncommented as reported in an earlier post.

Thanks again for those that contributed earlier and helped with my installation.