Issues during boot
Hi, every install I've done of Trisquel 4.5 from a number of different sources has given me this problem.
During boot I just get a blank screen with a flashing cursor in the top left. No disk activity. If I do alt-F2 a couple of times I can eventually get to the 'Trisquel' with the 4 blue dots. However, these don't switch on and off on their own, I have to repeatedly press 'enter'. I presume the system is waiting for some form of input? Eventually I get to login. If I don't do the above then the system never boots.
/var/log/syslog is here for the latest boot.
/var/log/boot is here
/var/log/dmesg is here
These are the only files in /var/log/ that are timestamped with the boot time.
Any ideas?
Ta.
You did the regular disk install or the netinstall? What kind of graphics card do you have? Is there any way you could take a picture of this (maybe with a digital camera) so we can get a better idea of what is going on?
Graphics card is a Radeon M9600 in a Uniwill laptop, AMD64.
It's primarily a blank screen during boot until I get the 'Trisquel' splash with the 4 blue dots. I can only get them to progress by continually pressing the enter key.
Try this,
Go into the grub menu (I believe it is 'e' at the grub menu which I think you can access by pressing shift -- sorry don't do a lot of grub stuff)
*Using arrow keys navigate to and delete quiet and splash and type the word nomodeset in their place
Will do tonight and let you know what I see.
Thanks
Do you think I may have more success using the 64-bit install?
I actually think the issue is due to your video card. The radeon free software drivers are the least supported out of the three major video manufactures (intel/nvidia/ATI(AMD)). That GRUB flag I mentioned basically instructs the kernel to not load video drivers and use BIOS modes instead until X is loaded.
I got my info from this Ubuntu forum post (here) which describes exactly what you mention
"The newest kernels have moved the video mode setting into the kernel. So all the programming of the hardware specific clock rates and registers on the video card happen in the kernel rather than in the X driver when the X server starts.. This makes it possible to have high resolution nice looking splash (boot) screens and flicker free transitions from boot splash to login screen. Unfortunately, on some cards this doesnt work properly and you end up with a black screen."
If it was an issue with the kernel and video card then I'd expect it to occur on other distros that I've looked at recently - Mint, Antix, Zenwalk, Fedora, Arios. None of them had booting issues, although I believe Mint now goes deliberately to a blank screen during initial boot due to card conflicts.
However, the link to the Ubuntu post does seem quite relevant. Let's see what happens when I have a go with your nomodeset suggestion when I get home tonight.
OK, changed quiet and splash for nomodeset in grub and updated.
Boot gives me the list of steps being processed. There are a number where nothing happens until I give a keyboard input like 'enter'.
Where do these boot messages get logged so I can paste them here?
Also I have only once seen a grub selection menu when initially booting, and I think that was first boot after install? Ever since it's gone straight from the BIOS splash to a blank screen, or the boot messages since tinkering with grub.
In the /var/log directory. If what you see are kernel's messages, the relevant file is dmesg. In doubt, syslog should contain everything.
Added to pastebin
[1st ENTER NEEDED HERE] is where I had to start using the keyboard to get it to progress.
I am a translator!
To get the grub2 menu just do this:
Open a terminal and type
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
add a # before GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 in the text file. Then type this in the terminal and reboot:
sudo update-grub
Yup, grub menu now visible.
For reference I also have to press the enter key a number of times during shutdown!
That is definitely odd. I've never had any of these issues you describe. I'm not sure if it would fix it but you could as mentioned before try the 64-bit version. It certainly couldn't hurt if you are willing to give it a try.
I do remember something similar when I had a quick look at Ubuntu, the latest or previous, can't remember which.
It is odd and a bit of a pita seeing as everything is coming together nicely on this install.
Perhaps the 64-bit is worth a shot.
64-bit Trisquel installed, off to walk the dog while the updates are downloading!
RT2500 wifi chipset so unfortunately stuck at 150 kbs download :(
Right, 64-bit installed, updated and same issue.
However, if I choose the 2.6.35.28? kernel instead of the .30 kernel at grub then it loads just fine!
Peculiar!
Interesting. I am using the .30 kernel w/ no issues. Maybe for the time being just boot with the .28 kernel (is there something you would need especially in the .30?). Then maybe with the next upgrade try again?
No, nothing I need specifically with the .30 kernel. I'll probably just change the grub default order to go with the .28 at boot.
How long we looking at until Trisquel 5.0 final is released?