Gutsy Gibbon Live-CD boots to black screen (ATI Mobility Radeon X700)

[Peter]

Hi guys, the problem I am reporting is very important to me and i would be extremely glad if you found a solution to it (similar bugs have been reported already): I've loved Ubuntu since Feisty, but with Tribe 5 of Gutsy Gibbon I am having the problem that the system doesn't start up GNOME display manager after booting. All I get is a black screen. The last start-up message displayed is "Starting GNOME display manager..." Everything else before that seems to work fine, the ubuntu boot logo appears and drivers are loaded all "OK". But then: BLACK screen.
I had similar problems with Edgy, and the work-around to get GNOME to work back then was way to complicated for me, so I wasn't able to use Ubuntu 6.10. So, PLEASE, solve this issue with the ATI X700 graphics device this time, so I can keep working with Ubuntu. Thank you very much!

[Susan Cragin (susancragin)]

I have the same problem with the Live-CD. But it's not only the Live-CD, now my installed version goes black, too!
Yesterday on my notebook a prompt popped up in the upper-right. Did I want to echange my NVIDIA driver for a non open-source? I did. Bad move. My Gutsy screen went black.
So I wanted to re-install Gutsy this a.m., but can't get my working files off it because the Live-CD screen is also black.
Knoppix rescue, here I come.

[Wousser (wousser)]

as a workaround:
edit your xorg.conf and add
Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS, NONE"

[Dixon (masonwikipedia)]

Do you mean that one should edit the xorg.conf from the iso before burning it?

[Peter (hint-pet-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Yep, your workaround finally lets GNOME start on my screen. Thanks! Here's the complete How-To for those who might have the same problem:

1) Start your Live-CD and press F6 (Further Options)
2) Delete the commands splash and quiet (they're at the end of the line)
3) Replace them with "break=bottom" (without the quotation marks), Press ENTER
4) Let the Live-CD boot up to a command saying "(initramfs)" (booting might take a while!)
5) now enter "chroot /root" (without the quotation marks) next to (intramfs), Press ENTER
6) enter "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf" (might work without sudo too), Press ENTER
7) scroll down to Section "Monitor" and add an extra line: Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS, NONE" (with quot. marks)
8) press ctrl+o to save, then exit with ctrl+x
9) enter exit to leave chroot /root, Press ENTER
10) enter exit again to leave initramfs, Press ENTER
11) drivers should load automatically now and GNOME display manger (or KDE) should start on your screen

I hope I could remember everything right and it helps those with same problem (the issue seems to be that ubuntu sends the GDM signal through the wrong line - the one going to a second monitor - and not to the connected screen; LVDS, none activates dual screen support so that a graphics signal is sent through both lines)

I had exactly the same problem with Edgy, it was gone with Feisty but Gutsy seems to have brought it up again. Hope this changes in upcoming releases! :-)

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Please try a daily gutsy live-cd (ie. newer than tribe-5).

[Peter (hint-pet-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Great! Just checked with the Gutsy BETA release and all problems mentioned above have been solved! Great work as always, makes the live-cd run perfectly with my computer :-)

[Runar Ingebrigtsen (ringe)]

The problem is solved in the Gutys Beta, according to the reporter.