Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-video-ati package

  1. Bug #560056
  2. Comment #2

Comment 2 for bug 560056

Revision history for this message
Sennaista (sennaista) wrote : Re: Lucid beta 2 unbootable from LiveCD/LiveUSB

I think this is caused by the open source ATI drivers. This is how I managed to bypass the problem, if anyone else has the same issue:

Get a liveCd/LiveUSB and boot normally without any options. Let plymouth do its work and once you get to the stage that the GPU is being reset every few seconds press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to drop to terminal and execute the following commands:

#sudo stop gdm

#sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Type in the following set of commands then save and exit.

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
        Driver "fbdev"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Monitor "Configured Monitor"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection[

This would tell X to use framebuffer instead of the actual drivers for your graphics card. After saving the file all you need to do is to run

#sudo start gdm

And you will get the LiveCD desktop and you can install from there. After it is finished you can restart your computer and either use the same xorg.conf file or install the official ATI drivers and let them take over. Whatever you do though don't just use the open source drivers because you won't be able to boot and have to do all the above steps again.