Black screen on Acer aspire One ZG5 AOA150 during boot

Hello,

I'm quite new to linux so pardon my ignorance. I'm trying to install linux on my acer aspire one zg5 which is now running win xp. I don't know which distro I prefer as I only know ubuntu for now. So my plan was to install fedora, mint and ubuntu and decide later which one I want to use. (arch seems interesting as well).

Anyways, I tried to install fedora first. I followed the instruction to create a live usb stick (there's no CD/DVD drive on the netbook). Then I rebooted and made sure the netbook boots from the stick. Everything seemed to work (I saw the 3 color progress bar at the bottom of the screen), but suddenly the screen went black as if it was off.

I did many searches and tried just about everything I found, but I always got the same behavior. Among other things, I tried to press tab on the first screen and then add 'text' and/or 'nomodeset' to the text that was displayed, but it didn't do the trick (and to be honest I didn't know what I was doing). I also updated the BIOS to the latest version provided by Acer, in vain.

So then I thought maybe the problem is fedora 16. So I tried many, many other distros. I don't think I can remember all of them, but I tried fedora16, mint12, ubuntu 10, ubuntu 11, archone, puppy, bodhi, and probably more. Actually, I downloaded LinuxLive USB Creator (http://www.linuxliveusb.com/) and I tried many of the distros that it can download automatically.

All of them gave me about the same result: It seems to work for a minute and then the screen goes black. It seems like something is happening since the fan is running and sometimes the light on the stick blinks, but it stay black as if the screen was turned off.

Now, I'm far from being an expert, but my guess would be that it's a video card driver issue. But that doesn't help me. So that's why I'm posting this.

Note that I did have one successful boot: Android. Yep, I ran Android on the netbook. As cool as it sounds, that's not really what I want, but at least I seem some light...

Any help would be REALLY appreciated. I've been struggling for 3 days now, it's really frustrating.

Thanks, in advance!

(Following the question in another thread):
I do not think this is a grub issue. Seems like all distros break something about the same point. I have only once experienced similar behavior, when my motherboard did not support the memory upgrade (BIOS update was the solution then).

There is a potentially related thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1486368

You may also try to boot with a minimalistic rescue distro in console mode, or a larger distro to console, and switch to X later.

Thanks for your help otoomet. I already tried to update the BIOS before I posted, but I didn't do it like described in the thread you refer to. I tried the instructions on the thread anyways, but it didn't solve my problem. It does exactly the same.

I'm interested in trying your other suggestion, but I am not sure how to do it. I tried to write the word 'text' to the text written down when I press the tab key (how do you call this text? The boot command?) but it doesn't seem to work.

I have a lot of distro images so if you know how to do it in one specific distro, (assuming it's not the same for all distros), can you tell me how to proceed?

Sorry but as I said, I'm not very familiar with linux just yet...

Thanks a million!

Can you see boot menu? If yes, you should be given an option like "rescue mode" or something like that (at least debian & friens do that). This boots without graphical interface and prints on screen everything it does.

But you say that if you insert boot dist, you don't see anything? Even not the initial menu about testing/installing/... ?

Not sure why Fedora 16 or Ubuntu 11.10 would cause you problems; both boot fine for me on my AOA150. When booting Fedora (off the USB stick), you might try adding the number 3 to the kernel line. This will boot you into runlevel 3, which is text mode (this won't work for Ubuntu or Mint). If that works, then typing "startx" (without the quotes) should bring up the graphical interface.

@otoomet: Yes I can see the boot menu. For Fedora, it's written:

Start Fedora 16
Troubleshooting >

Press Tab for full configuration options on the menu item

And in Troubleshooting, there are the following options:

Start Fedora 16 in basic graphics mode
Test this media & start Fedora 16
Run a memory test

Boot from local drive

Return to main menu. <

Press Tab for full configuration options on the menu item

I tried basic graphics mode, it didn't work. I tried pressing 'tab' and adding the word 'text' and/or 'nomodeset', didn't work either.

Here's what I see when I press 'tab' on the main menu:

vmlinuz0 initrd=initrd0.img root=live:UUID=4CD2-4196 rootfstype=vfat rw live img overlay=UUID=4CD2-4196 quiet rhgb rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0


Then when I press enter, I see different things depending on what I write/erase from the previous line. But in the end, it's always about the same: I see "something" and then the screen goes blank. The "something" vary depending on the options I give. Sometimes it's text, sometimes it's a black screen with a 3 color progress bar at the bottom, sometimes it's a black screen with a white shape that fills up and eventually becomes the 'f' logo of fedora. But as I said, at some point it always ends up in a blank screen. And by blank I mean it looks like it's off. Then it comes back and then finally goes blank again. And it's stay this way.


@RockDoctor:
Thanks for jumping in! I tried what you suggest (or at least what I think you suggest) but it didn't work. Maybe I have to erase some other options? I tried erasing most of them and adding '3'. I got some error sometimes and other times I saw text, then it went blank, then the text came back, with a smaller font size and then, as usual, it went blank.


BTW, anyone have an idea why Android works, but nothing else? What is different about Android? Is it the video driver? Should I try older versions like fedora 8 or whatever?

Thanks again for your much appreciated help!

What you describe sounds very much like some kind og graphics problems.

Can you start your computer in rescue mode (text only)? See the last question here:

http://www.fedorafaq.org/basics/

I haven't use fedora myself, so I cannot comment too much.

Android probably uses graphics in a quite different way, another driver, no X11, etc.

Yes I tend to think it's a driver issue, but I don't know much about linux or how to fix the problem (IF it is the problem).

So I tried booting like described in the page you refer me to, but it doesn't work. If I erase everything and write only "linux rescue", it comes back right away to the installation menu. I tried leaving a couple things and write something in the vein of:

vmlinuz0 initrd=initrd0.img root=live:UUID=4CD2-4196 rootfstype=vfat rescue

But it doesn't work either. It starts displaying text, then goes blank, then comes back and displays text (with a smaller font size) for a while and then goes blank again.

Anyone has a suggestion as for what I should write in place of

vmlinuz0 initrd=initrd0.img root=live:UUID=4CD2-4196 rootfstype=vfat rw live img overlay=UUID=4CD2-4196 quiet rhgb rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0

Thanks

Perhaps you should ask about Fedora rescue mode in another thread?

Blank screen and system hangs -- these were symptoms when I tried to fire up a physically broken graphics card. I was able to log onto the computer over internet and follow how it stopped responding a few seconds after I started the card.

Looking at your kernel line, my guess is that the overlay file is corrupted. It's happened to me a lot.

Your line now reads:

vmlinuz0 initrd=initrd0.img root=live:UUID=4CD2-4196 rootfstype=vfat rw live img overlay=UUID=4CD2-4196 quiet rhgb rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0

I would eliminate the reference to the overlay, quiet, and rhgb. Try changing it to:

vmlinuz0 initrd=initrd0.img root=live:UUID=4CD2-4196 rootfstype=vfat rw live img rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0

If it is, indeed a corrupted overlay file, and you want persistence on the USB stick, you can eliminate the current overlay file and create a new one. I've never been able to figure out how to recover anything from a corrupted Fedora overlay file; I don't know if it's even possible.

If you have a nvidia video when you get the grub choice of boot or memtest etc. Select try or boot then "tab " then change "quiet flash" to "quiet flash nomodeset". You need to do that each time you boot (if it works). When 1st time booting to get into grub hit down arrow to get into grub (needed if only one distro) select the option the hit " e " then add nomodeset. Once booted sudo gedit /etc/defaults/grub nomodeset again then sudo reset-grub, usually works good luck. Ian.

The ZG5 has intel graphics and shouldn't need nomodeset (it doesn't on my ZG5 running Fedora 15, 16, and Rawhide)

Thanks stanley82, but I think RockDoctor is right. Anyways, I already tried nomodeset in the past and it did not work. I really have no more ideas of what else to try. I'm open to any suggestion (that I didn't already try...)