Issue with black screen during boot. Possible graphics issue?

TerrahBite · 11-18-2015, 03:55 AM

Hi, not sure if i should post this in software, hardware, or here, so forgive me there. <_< first post and all.
So, I couldnt build a computer, could I? SURE I CAN. *silly open mouth smile*
been about 2 years of researching and 1 year of trying to get an LGA775 build working. y'all know it takes an electromancer to get LGA775 systems working. <_<

finally i have hardware that unless its been zapped by aliens or messed with by computer goblins should be 100% compatible.

What I've Tried:
I've tried many different operating systems to install, including but not exclusive to:
Linux Mint 17.2, Ubuntu of all shapes and sizes, Manjaro of all shapes and sizes, plain old Arch, lubuntu of various flavours, LXLE, kubuntu, TinyCore: CorePlus, and even ParrotSecurityOS for Alduin's sake. <_<

none of them seem to work other than TinyCore: CorePlus. and i can get into gparted when i select safe graphics mode(VGA)

What Happens:
I will load up my USB drive with an ISO of an OS, I'll put it in one of the USB ports for my motherboard. I'll press the power button, let things do thier magic, grub shows up. I select any option pertaining to booting the OS and it flashes about a fifth of a second of some terminal stuff that even if it was on screen long enough for me to read i couldn't make sense of, after that a black screen. Then the monitor reports no signal, and turns itself off. THEN the monitor turns back on almost immediatly and displays a plain black screen. the USB is not being used by the PC since the light isnt flashing, all the fans are still going, and it will stay in this state as long as i dont reset or force shutdown by holding the power button. :/

Thankyou for reading,

anything helps.

My specs:
[spoiler] AMD FX 9370 @2.5Ghz (turned down clock and voltage because my cooler and power supply arent the best at the moment. )

GIGABYTE 990FXA UD3 Ultra Durable 4.

8 gigabytes of Team-Dark DDR3.

ADATA SP600 (128gig variant)(sata straight to mainboard)

Radeon HD 7870Ghz edition, from DIAMOND. (2gig variant)(highest PCIe x16 slot)

TP-LINK TG-3468. (highest PCIe x1 slot) (baught it because i had ubuntu 15.10 GNOME working fine before, but had issues with drivers for my onboard ethernet.)

Antec VP 450. (upgrading ASAP)

CoolerMaster hyper TX3, (jankily mounted. dont ask. its sad.)[/spoiler]

donatom · 11-18-2015, 01:44 PM

Well, it seems that your AMD graphics card may not be supported (yet) in Linux. Generally amd and linux haven't mixed well.

Here is a list of compatible amd cards (I don't see yours listed):
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Hardware

NVIDIA and Intel (built into their processors) seem to be very compatible. You might want to buy a cheap NVIDIA card (or borrow one) to see if that helps.

Good luck.

Pearlseattle · 11-18-2015, 03:34 PM

You need to boot into a mode that doesn't try to display "advanced" graphics (meaning: max just show a console), for you to be able to see if anything goes wrong before or after that you push up resolution&colors&driver.
Something like nomodesetting, xdm, etc... .

EDIT: basically all hardware will work at its basic settings - up to you to understand at which level things break.

suicidaleggroll · 11-18-2015, 04:29 PM

AMD processor and AMD graphics - that's where you went wrong. AMD and Linux historically have not mixed well. As donatom mentioned, see if you can find/borrow a cheap Nvidia card to get up and running, then once you have the system installed you can try to persuade that AMD graphics card into working.

TerrahBite · 11-18-2015, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suicidaleggroll

AMD processor and AMD graphics - that's where you went wrong. AMD and Linux historically have not mixed well. As donatom mentioned, see if you can find/borrow a cheap Nvidia card to get up and running, then once you have the system installed you can try to persuade that AMD graphics card into working.

it was more of a budget constraint than choice. ignoring my ATI/AMD fangirl ness <_<

i found a junker video card, thinking i can use something that is more likely supported because its a tad older. :/
plopped it in and this is how booting into mint 17 went.
(google drive link if thats okay? )
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5H...ew?usp=sharing

EDIT:
turns out its an ATI Radeon X300 (RV370... so i need an older kernel to use that :/

TobiSGD · 11-18-2015, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TerrahBite

EDIT:
turns out its an ATI Radeon X300 (RV370... so i need an older kernel to use that :/

No, you don't, the X300 should work fine with any current kernel, as should the HD7870, but support for that might be flaky. Best use the proprietary Catalyst driver with that. If you want to know how to do that with a specific distribution just tell us which distribution you want to use.

TerrahBite · 11-18-2015, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

No, you don't, the X300 should work fine with any current kernel, as should the HD7870, but support for that might be flaky. Best use the proprietary Catalyst driver with that. If you want to know how to do that with a specific distribution just tell us which distribution you want to use.

oh? really?!

in reality i dont care what distro im going to be using: as long as it has good support, (my brain says debian based) and is easy for me to get up and running with minor to moderate help.
reccomendations? (also im thinking KDE/MATE/GNOME because those are the ones most of my friends use and are familiar with. )
mint perhaps? ive heard some good things of manjaro.

Before we continue any of this i really just want to thank all of your for the help, it is truly appreciated. every other forum ive gone to is either unwilling to help me or no one is knowleagable on the matter, and cant help.
thankyou.

TxLonghorn · 11-19-2015, 12:24 PM

Did you try booting your Mint 17 in Compatibility mode?

TerrahBite · 11-19-2015, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TxLonghorn

Did you try booting your Mint 17 in Compatibility mode?

Yes, actaully, i've tried that along side the normal boot each time.
going to go try that again to verify.

EDIT:
tried it again. same thing happened. black screen after GRUB monitor shuts off then turns back on to reveal the same black screen. :/

TerrahBite · 11-20-2015, 12:23 AM

hello? Dx <_> i have no idea where to go from here...

TobiSGD · 11-20-2015, 04:29 AM

When in Grub try to edit the kernel commandline and add the option video=1024x768 to it, where you replace 1024x768 with the native resolution of your monitor.
If that doesn't work try nomodeset instead, this will prevent the system from changing resolutions. It will also disable any graphics acceleration, but it should be enough to be able to install the system and later on install the proprietary video driver.

TerrahBite · 11-20-2015, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

When in Grub try to edit the kernel commandline and add the option video=1024x768 to it, where you replace 1024x768 with the native resolution of your monitor.
If that doesn't work try nomodeset instead, this will prevent the system from changing resolutions. It will also disable any graphics acceleration, but it should be enough to be able to install the system and later on install the proprietary video driver.

thankyou! i'm going to go finish up some math homework and try that ASAP.

if it doesnt work then i'll come back after screaming into a pillow and giving my graphics card some ugly looks.

TerrahBite · 11-20-2015, 08:22 PM

didnt work :/ same thing happened. *sigh*

EDIT:
did the exact same thing again, and it got further into loading, but now it just keeps saying ''stdin: Not a typewriter''

and as im writing this is says ''unable to find a medium containing a live file system''

TerrahBite · 11-20-2015, 10:59 PM

anything? :/ is this a common thing?

goumba · 11-21-2015, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TerrahBite

and as im writing this is says ''unable to find a medium containing a live file system''

You added the above mentioned statements to the command line and not replaced it, correct? Check that first.

Its possible maybe something's wrong with the flash drive, check that it's inserted correctly. Alternatively re-write the image to it.

What it's saying is that it can not find the squashfs file that contains the filesystem needed to boot the system. If you changed the wrong boot parameters, the stick is bad, or just improperly written, this can happen.