Hi folks,

after googling for a couple of days, I get the feeling, this is a common problem. But the usual fix doesn't seem to work for me.

I am trying to install Linux on a separate partition of my Acer Aspire V5-573G. I used the Lili USB Creator to make a bootable USB drive with Ubuntu 12.04 on it.

when I reach the installation menu, it doesn't matter what I choose (start live, install..), my notebook will always freeze on a black screen.

I figured out how to add 'nomodeset' to the grub line. This does bring me one step further (the Ubuntu start screen) but then I get this message:

After pressing enter I get a command line. From here I don't know what to do.

I've tried other distros (Lubuntu, Linux Mint), but then even 'nomodeset' didn't make a difference. I have also tried to add 'acpi=off' to the grub line after 'nomodeset', but again only black, even with Ubuntu.

Any suggestion or help will be greatly appreciated!

Is this a windows 8 computer? If so you need to disable secure boot in bios. Also you may have GPT partitioning & know what to do with EFI boot partition.

Yes, it's win8. I will try disabling secure boot. At these acronyms, GPT and EFI, my computer skills end, unfortunately..

I tried disabling Secure Mode and it made no difference.

Also, I am not sure wether my partitions are GPT or what to do with my EFI boot partition.

All of this wouldn't be so urgent for me, if I hadn't just crashed my old computer. All of my personal data is on a SATA harddrive (put into an external USB case), that does not work on this new Win8 machine. I figured that Linux might have less problems with the drive (which should be okay generally). I did have a backup, but it is a couple of months old. This is quite important to me. So I really need some help with this.

Does the error message mean anything in particular? I can't decipher it.

To get your old data boot wins 8 & copy any important files or pictures to it, as far as getting your new computer to boot try debian on usb.

What is wrong with old computer will it boot to live-cd or usb?

The old computer is fried, I salvaged the hard drive and bought an external case to access the data. But my new win8 acer Notebook won't read the hard drive and asks me to re-format it.

The drive should be alright. That's because I wanted to install a Linux distro in a separate partition, cause Linux is supposed to be less picky with hard drives.

I tried running Linux in VirtualBox, but I don't know how to access USB devices from within the emulator.

I have the same laptop and found that the black screen was caused by the brightness being set to zero, not an actual freeze. Using fn-left key allowed me to see the screen and use ubuntu normally. Still working on the webcam and geforce gt750m drivers, but everything else appears to work.

In Vbox you have to enable usb support in settings menu before starting the actual machine.

@ lukastillmann
I had the same problem, when I tried to boot Puppy Linux on an Acer V5-573G.The salesman noticed some dark shades of icons. So we turned up the back light and there it was, the Puppy desktop. It had the wrong resolution and I did not have the time to configure the graphic card, but at least Linux was working fine. The same happened with Parted Magic from USB. For some strange reason the Acer turns the backlight down to zero.

Please try it again and turn up the backlight via the keyboard. Please give us a message, if you finally get Linux running.

I have noticed another problem with Linux on Acer. You cannot update the BIOS, because Acer delivers the update only as Windows exe (not even as DOS exe)!

Hi. I just experienced the same problem when installing Mint 15. The black screen was caused by the screen being dimmed on boot. Pressing Fn+Right brings the screen back.

Same problem (Acer Aspire V5 series) , tried to put light to the maximum, no success. I tried Ubuntu 14, Mint 13 17 17.1, puppy linux. I deactivated Secure boot and put EFI off still no display. I can hear the chime of the session openning.
When I tried booting with an external monitor it worked but still black on the laptop screen even when forcing to swith to it or mirroring.
Any idea?

I have to add that the laptop is working fine under windows 8.1.
Thank you