Cannot Get Ubuntu To Boot

imb4tman · 10 Aug 2010 at 09:57

I'm trying to boot from a USB stick. I get the Ubuntu splash screen followed by the options to try from USB, install etc. I hit try, get a short loading screen then it goes black. I've tried hitting Crtl Alt F1 to get the login box but this just switches my monitor off as it doesn't recognise any signal.

I'm guessing it's a problem coming from my GPU (Ati) but I have no idea how to get the drivers working.

jack.mitchell · 10 Aug 2010 at 10:03

When you get to the boot screen, hit e (i think) to edit the menu entry and append the line with 'ro' on the end and remove 'quiet'. This will disable the boot splash and maybe spit out a useful error message. Post back with what it spits out.

Also what specific ATI card do you have?

rebel rebel · 10 Aug 2010 at 19:25

If your looking for a linux distro that boots from a usb stick, and loads up the desktop on an ati graphics card, try Fedora13 or Peppermint. I have used both recently on my ati 5770.

imb4tman · 10 Aug 2010 at 19:37

jack.mitchell said:
When you get to the boot screen, hit e (i think) to edit the menu entry and append the line with 'ro' on the end and remove 'quiet'. This will disable the boot splash and maybe spit out a useful error message. Post back with what it spits out.

No error message.

jack.mitchell said:
Also what specific ATI card do you have?

5870

rebel rebel said:
If your looking for a linux distro that boots from a usb stick, and loads up the desktop on an ati graphics card, try Fedora13 or Peppermint. I have used both recently on my ati 5770.

I might give Peppermint a try but now I've tried Ubuntu I'm determined to get it to work.

I've also considered Debian but hear it's less noob friendly.

jack.mitchell · 10 Aug 2010 at 19:59

What does it stop on when you remove quiet? You should be seeing a lot of text flash past the screen instead of the splash screen.

jack.mitchell · 10 Aug 2010 at 20:18

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9195971&postcount=14

imb4tman · 10 Aug 2010 at 21:59

jack.mitchell said:
What does it stop on when you remove quiet? You should be seeing a lot of text flash past the screen instead of the splash screen.

The text flies by so quick there is no chance of reading it.

jack.mitchell said:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9195971&postcount=14

Thanks for the link. I will give that a go, probably have to wait to the weekend though.

jack.mitchell · 10 Aug 2010 at 22:30

imb4tman said:
The text flies by so quick there is no chance of reading it.

Ahhh, ok so it actually boots and then blacks out? I think the link above will solve your problem. There has been recent developments with linux graphics drivers which try to implement some tighter integration with the kernel and it has caused problems for some, but in general made the whole situation better. Occasionally some cards still have problems especially the newer generation cards as they havn't had as much time to be tested or reverse engineered. You can turn this off however with the nomodeset flag which is what the post above explains.

Good luck and I hope this solves your problem!