Boot parameters for Xserver (desktop) on Mint 13 (Maya) Please help.

Hi
I have a new (Mid 2012) macbook pro; has anyone managed to boot the desktop in Maya (Mint 13) on a machine like this? I have used every kernel parameter passed through Grub2 (using e at the grub boot screen) that I can find. But I can only boot to the command prompt (using the parameter single.. if I don't do this the screen is illegible).

From LSPCI I find I have revision 09 of the Intel Ivybridge graphics controller. I am at my wits end here. Do some parameters conflict with each other? The desktop looks beautiful booted from the DVD.. I do so wish I could get my installation to boot to the desktop.

Are you sure it is configured to boot to a GUI run-level (usually 5)? What happens if you run startx post-boot?
--- rod.

Perhaps should have mentioned that in Mint the 'single' parameter seems to be equivalent to 'rescue mode'. When I use it I get a warning that the x-server is not properly configured. If I try to start it anyway with startx I get :-
"xauth: file /home/<user>/.Xauthority does not exist"
followed by the same info available on booting, then some more lines including the log file and .conf file details, ending with :-
"(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration"
and some further lines about errors and 'giving up'.

I did think about getting the booted DVD to generate an xorg.conf file for my machine, but this is not possible.

I should perhaps also have mentioned that this is the 13" Macbook Pro using the Intel graphics which I understand is on-chip, i.e. not the Nvidia graphics and not retina display. I thought it would 'just work'.

So has anyone got such a machine to boot and what parameters work for you please?

Sorry, I missed the bit about starting in single user mode.

Perhaps let the X server generate a config file with

Xorg -configure

--- rod.

Thanks Rod for coming back on this. Trying Xorg -configure gives a screenful of output, starting with the info about the X protocol version, Operating ssytem etc, then a list of video drivers none of which are marked as probed or anything, and then some lines about Configuration failed. One line says:-
Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices.

The log file includes lines showing many modules loaded and ends with
"Falling back to old robe method for vesa
Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices
Configuration failed"

Any ideas?
Doug

All I can imagine is that your distro doesn't include a (functional) driver for your video hardware. When you boot the working DVD, can you see what video driver gets loaded? Does it exist on the Mint installation? Maybe it is simply a matter of copying/installing the correct driver. Is the DVD to which you refer the installation DVD? Did the installation process use a graphical installer?

--- rod.

Rod that sounds very tempting. On the other hand I am really out of my depth in this.
The DVD is a (Live) distro,and once it is booted there is an icon on the desktop which allws you to install Mint. But I cannot get to another terminal with ctrl-alt-F1 etc, so I cant see behind the splash screen as booting up goes and I can only run a terminal on the desktop, so cannot configue X (to make an xorg.conf file). The log file for xorg shows LoadModule: "vesa" and submodule "vbe" and "int10". And lots of others. Is this what I should be looking for?
Thanks for your help.
Doug

The vesa video driver is a very standard/generic driver that should work with virtually any VGA class video card. It will not give great performance, and may not work at optimal resolutions, but as you can see, it does work. Not sure what the 'vbe' module is, but the 'int10' module sounds like something used to access video BIOS routines or data tables.

If you can get a shell, you should be able to see quite a bit, as you've discovered. You should be able to locate the config file being used by the DVD, and copy it somewhere for use later. Same for the drivers, if they haven't already been loaded. Where the Xorg config file gets stored seems to vary a lot across distros, so I can't say where to look. Using find should be the most thorough, although on a live DVD it may take a while.

Ultimately, I imagine you will want to use a dedicated video driver. You might see if there is any information or downloadable drivers on the Intel web site. Sadly, my experience with Intel video even on x86 based laptops has been less than wonderful.

--- rod.

Rod
I think I should try and install Mint again when I have some time on a weekend; the /tmp partition was corrupted (had to use fsck) so maybe I should try without making a seperate partition for it and giving a decent amount of swap space.

The xorg.conf file looks similar and generic in both installations. Still not sure if the DVD booted desktop is using the vesa driver, but I cannot get it to work in my installation (though it does seem to be loaded according to modprobe -l). Maybe I'll have better luck second try.

I have learned a lot here. Thank you.

Doug