I have been running 64-bit Linux Mint on my Ryzen 1800X computer since the Ryzen chips first came out. My motherboard is the first ASUS Crossfire VI Hero motherboard that came out (before they came out with a version with WiFi added). Everything has been running fine since... until today. For many months (close to a year, I think) I've been running Linux Mint v18.1 Cinnamon.

Last week I ran low on disk space... all 6 SATA drives are now only about 10GB short of full. So I ordered a new 8TB disk drive from newegg, downloaded 64-bit Linux Mint v18.3, burned an installation DVD, and tried to install v18.3 on my computer.

I'm a bit chicken about installation, so I when I install and format a new Linux boot drive I always pull all my SATA cables from the motherboard except the new drive and the DVD/bluray drive. Can't accidentally partition and format the wrong drive this way.

And so, I set BIOS to boot from the DVD/bluray drive, then booted the install DVD.

I can see the DVD/bluray drive light flashing as usual when booting Linux Mint installation disk. The bootup process takes a few minutes as always.

At the very beginning there is a low resolution Linux Mint image on the display, but this vanishes early in the process. Then the display goes blank.

But I see the DVD/bluray light flashing in the same way it always does when booting from a Linux Mint installation DVD/bluray, so I just wait.

After a few minutes I hear the sounds that I recognize as indicating Linux has booted up... and the DVD/bluray light has stopped flashing.

But the display is blank.

I booted several times... same results... except.

When setting the DVD/bluray as the boot drive, BIOS provides two ways to do that. Both have the same name of the DVD/bluray drive, but one has a UEFI prefix and the other a P6 prefix (which I assume indicates SATA port #6 or something similar/related). The new 8TB drive has a P1 prefix (which presumably indicates SATA port #1 or something similar/related). Not sure why they start the numbering at 1 instead of 0, but... whatever.

When I boot with the boot disk set to the DVD/bluray drive with the UEFI prefix, I see blank screen during and after the Linux bootup process (flashing DVD/blueray LED).


When I boot with the boot disk set to the DVD/bluray drive with the P6 prefix, very early in the process the screen become filled with 25 lines of very low-resolution text that repeats on each line:

[ 6.621031] nouveau 0000:0a:00.0: fifo: SCHED_ERROR 08 []

... except the first number is roughly 0.001 higher each time (presumably a time or timer value).

On the last line, after the "fifo: " text is the following text fragment (that runs beyond text column 80 and is therefore clipped off):

read fault at 0000220000 engine 04 [B

The "B" is in the 80th text column, and thus everything thereafter is lost.

Anyone have an idea? I performed a several searches with google, but did not find anything.

###########

The following information may or may not be relevant:

#01 : This system has been happily running 64-bit Linux Mint v18.1 for nearly one year.

#02 : I downloaded, installed and configured the latest BIOS (previously had a 4 month old BIOS) and tried to boot v18.3 off the installation DVD again (several times), but the results were the same as stated above.

#03 : CPU == Ryzen 1800X

#04 : GPU == EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FTW3

#05 : display == ACER 43" 4K display (3840x2160)

#06 : RAM == 32GB of 4266MHz DDR4 in 2 sticks running at 2933MHz (as always before). Also tried 2133MHz with no difference.

#07 : FANS == All fans set to run at full speed.

#08 : BIOS temperatures == all very cool (< 50C).

#09 : new HDD == Seagate ST8000NM0055 R

#10 : motherboard == ASUS Crossfire VI Hero (x370 chipset)

No cards installed in motherboard except the GPU card.

I was unable to install Mint 18.3, too.

On my computer, Opensuse Leap 15.0 and Kubuntu 18.04 are runnning.

You were unable to install v18.3 for the same reason as me... a blank display (or a similar error message)?


Do you see any commonality in our systems or situation?

1. Inserted DVD Mint 18.3
2. Grub showing up
3. <Install Mint>
4. Start installation process
5. On top of screen, red pixels are showing up
6. Stop - nothing goes on any more.

My system: Intel core I7 5820 K, Asus X99-A II, 32 GB RAM, 2x 512 GB SSD Samsung Pro, 4 TB WD, Blu-Ray Burner

Additional information...

#01 : I downloaded and burned another 64-bit Linux Mint v18.3 DVD on a Winoze7 computer, but the install process and display failure is identical.

#02 : I downloaded and burned a 64-bit Linux Mint v18.2 DVD, and the install process was... different as described below:

The following text is displayed during bootup from the v18.2 install DVD:

core perfctr but no constraints: unknown hardware
nouveau 0000:0a:00.0: unknown chipset 132000aa1

Then, when v18.2 has booted into what looks like a medium resolution Linux Mint desktop, the following two paragraph message is displayed in a box in the upper-right corner of the display of the desktop:

-----
Cinnamon is currently running without video hardware acceleration ad, as a result, you may observe much higher than normal CPU usage.

There could be a problem with your drivers or some other issue. For the best experience, it is recommended that you only use this mode for troubleshooting purposes.
-----

I did not perform the install of v18.2, but instead downloaded and burned a fresh new 64-bit Linux Mint v18.1 installation DVD. When I booted off this v18.1 DVD, I got the same text as with v18.2. Perhaps I got this text message over 1 year ago when I originally installed 64-bit Linux Mint v18.1, but I don't remember what happened one year ago. I also don't know where the original v18.1 installation DVD got to, but I assume it was identical.

Not sure whether the above helps, but it does seem likely that somehow v18.3 has become even more intolerant of this video card for some reason. But this makes no sense to me, as the GTX 1080 Ti is a very popular GPU card, and EVGA isn't exactly some obscure backwater GPU card manufacturer.


Still waiting for illumination... or at least some ideas to try.

Then try to use Ubuntu 18.04.

Or Opensuse Leap 15.0.

Hahaha. Unfortunately, my memory sucks (always has), so switching distributions is too much trauma for me. Which means, if necessary, I'll just install 64-bit Linux Mint v18.2 or v18.1 and wait for Linux Mint v19 to appear in a month or two.

Still waiting for ideas.

PS: Interestingly, the v18.3 text screen at the beginning does't have as many startup options as the older versions. As I recall, the older versions included bootup options that allowed various settings to be specified. Maybe one of those would have saved my butt.


Another idea. If I install v18.2 does the upgrade to v18.3 put me in the same stupid situation, or does the fact that the process starts with v18.2 running (I assume) eliminate this problem?

I would suggest that you open a thread on the Linux Mint forums (https://forums.linuxmint.com/), but do let us know how you get on, including providing a link to that thread here.

Also, it might indeed be worth trying to upgrade Mint 18.2 in-situ to 18.3 to see if that works, but you should make a system image/snapshot of your system before doing so, so that you can roll back if things go awry.