Comment 19 for bug 493834

This bug also affects me; latest karmic/9.10 as of 28dec2009.

Problem encountered when replacing an older TFT monitor (Acer 24" - X243W) with a newer Samsung Syncmaster P2450.

Boot is fine UP TO loading Grub, at which it stalls with the same symptoms - blank, black screen, but backlight on (so it still receives a signal from the gfx card). No curser, no screen activity whatsoever.

No system acitivity either, no HD activity.

When i detatch the monitor (connected between gfx card (Radeon HD4650) and monitor with HDMI cable), boot continues fine, and I'm able to log in (albeit headlessly). I hear the usual ubuntu greeting sound after punching in the username and pw.

I have a fast fix (thanks to Stefan Bader above for the hint!):

1) Boot your system in recovery mode (via grub).

2) Get your terminal and edit /etc/uspash.conf (if you want to use gedit: write 'sudo gedit /etc/usplash.conf' )

3) it's a simple configuration file; edit the dimensions in the two lines to the native resolution of your display.

4) Save, do a 'sudo initramfs -u' - this will write the setting into the boot setup.

5) Reboot.

My monitor still looks a bit mushy but at least it returned my sustem to a workable state.