[SOLVED] Fresh debian install, boots to blank screen with blinking cursor...that's it

jacnj · 07-09-2014, 11:04 PM

Hello all, I finally got debian to install after three days of fatal grub errors. Figured out that I had to delete the partitions and recreate them instead of just reformatting.

A little information:

Installed stable debian via debian-7.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso

I'm dual booting a Toshiba laptop with windows 8.1 and debian.

The issues:

First, no grub menu, boots directly into debian and I don't know how to fix that.

Second and most important, it boots to a blank screen other than a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner that won't accept any input.

Third, after Ctrl+alt+F1 I'm allowed to log on but to command line, where's gnome?

Please help, this has been quite an ordeal. I have a Linux book to help me learn the ins and outs but I need a working distro to follow along.

Thanks in advance.

jacnj · 07-09-2014, 11:19 PM

I started aptitude to check installed packages and am seeing gnome and x11, try to startx and get:

Code:

 
Fatal server error:
no screens found

Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
          at http://wiki.x.org
  for help.
Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.

Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to x server: Connection refused
xinit: server error
jacob@JacobsLapTop:~$

Randicus Draco Albus · 07-09-2014, 11:25 PM

Quote:

First, no grub menu, boots directly into debian and I don't know how to fix that.

As root, enter the command:

Code:

#update-grub

Quote:

Second and most important, it boots to a blank screen other than a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner that won't accept any input.

Video card issue? Do you have an nvidia card?

kentyler · 07-09-2014, 11:29 PM

It sounds like Xwindows is crashing. You could try another distro. I suggest reading up on grub and how to edit the config to set a timeout.. I am not sure which version of Debian you are using or I'd post a link.

jacnj · 07-09-2014, 11:31 PM

do I need a internet connection to start x?

jacnj · 07-09-2014, 11:35 PM

[QUOTE=Randicus Draco Albus;5201484]As root, enter the command:

Code:

#update-grub

Did this here is what I'm getting:

[code]
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found background image: /usr/share/images/desktop-base/desktop-grub.png
Found Linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-amd64
done
root@JacobsLapTop:~#

jacnj · 07-09-2014, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Video card issue? Do you have an nvidia card?

No, I have a AMD Radeon™ HD 8400

Will this driver work? AMD Catalyst 14.6 Beta Driver for Linux

or should it already be included on the debian .iso DVD

jacnj · 07-09-2014, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kentyler

It sounds like Xwindows is crashing. You could try another distro. I suggest reading up on grub and how to edit the config to set a timeout.. I am not sure which version of Debian you are using or I'd post a link.

I installed debian-7.5.0 stable

Randicus Draco Albus · 07-09-2014, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacnj

Did this here is what I'm getting:

Code:

Generating grub.cfg ...
Found background image: /usr/share/images/desktop-base/desktop-grub.png
Found Linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-amd64
done
root@JacobsLapTop:~#

Looks like Grub does not see Windows. Is it still installed or did you replace it with Debian?

Or if this is a newer machine it could be a UEFI issue. Just guessing, since I have no experience with UEFI beyond disabling it.

jacnj · 07-10-2014, 12:00 AM

Yeah, it's still installed but I pre partitioned it. GRUB worked fine after my first installation attempt, I used the small installation disk not knowing it didn't include a desktop. Then came several reinstallation attempts resulting in fatal grub errors. Google discovered the need to delete and recreate the debian partitions for this install and it went fine, no GRUB errors, so I'm very confused. Now I can't get back into windows since it boots directly into debian.

Snarl · 07-10-2014, 09:01 AM

I have what appears to be the same problem, wiped my Fedora 20 Installation using Debian Image "debian-7.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso". Basically all goes well during the install until the first reboot into what is supposed to be the finished Install. At that point I'm at a Blank Scree with a flashing cursor (Googled all kinds of other with same/similar issue). I ran out of time until tonight after work then I'm going to try a few things, hopefully I'll have something more useful to post tomorrow

however please keep updating your status as this is an interesting issue.

FYI My Basic System (No other OS Installed);
i7 930
AMD HD6970 x 2
6GB RAM

Also I had encountered this before, I beleive it was Ubuntu 14.04 LTS however I can't for the life of me remember what I did to fix it, I may have "Fluked" my way into a solution that time.

Good Luck

Cheers; Snarl

yancek · 07-10-2014, 11:22 AM

A good step to get more detailed information on your drives/partitions, boot files and other relevant info is to go to the site below. You can download the bootinfoscript after reading the instructions from the link in the Description box then download and run it from Debian. It will output a results.txt file which you can either review to see if you can solve it or, post it here for help:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

Since you have windows 8.1 installed, you will be dealing with uefi as well as Secure Boot and something like Fastboot which deals with hibernation.

jacnj · 07-10-2014, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

A good step to get more detailed information on your drives/partitions, boot files and other relevant info is to go to the site below. You can download the bootinfoscript after reading the instructions from the link in the Description box then download and run it from Debian. It will output a results.txt file which you can either review to see if you can solve it or, post it here for help:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

Since you have windows 8.1 installed, you will be dealing with uefi as well as Secure Boot and something like Fastboot which deals with hibernation.

Great, thanks. I think I went wrong sometime during a reinstallation, I might have deleted a windows boot partition. I'm researching that avenue so this script will help...a lot. I wont be able to download it until I get to work later this afternoon as my laptop is my only computer.

Still need to figure out why gnome won't launch, it'd be nice to have at least one working desktop.

jacnj · 07-10-2014, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

A good step to get more detailed information on your drives/partitions, boot files and other relevant info is to go to the site below. You can download the bootinfoscript after reading the instructions from the link in the Description box then download and run it from Debian. It will output a results.txt file which you can either review to see if you can solve it or, post it here for help:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

Since you have windows 8.1 installed, you will be dealing with uefi as well as Secure Boot and something like Fastboot which deals with hibernation.

Ran the script, not sure how to interpret the results as of yet but here they are:

Code:

                  Boot Info Script 0.61      [1 April 2012]


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        /boot/bcd

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sda4: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        /bootmgr /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda5: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Mounting failed:   mount: /dev/sda5 already mounted or sda5 busy

sda6: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 

sda7: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sdb1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes

Partition  Boot  Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors  Id System

/dev/sda1                   1 1,465,149,167 1,465,149,167  ee GPT


GUID Partition Table detected.

Partition    Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors System
/dev/sda1           2,048     2,099,199     2,097,152 Windows Recovery Environment (Windows)
/dev/sda2     763,449,344   764,448,767       999,424 EFI System partition
/dev/sda3       2,304,000     2,566,143       262,144 Microsoft Reserved Partition (Windows)
/dev/sda4       2,566,144   763,449,343   760,883,200 Data partition (Windows/Linux)
/dev/sda5     764,448,768 1,432,551,423   668,102,656 Data partition (Windows/Linux)
/dev/sda6   1,432,551,424 1,448,179,711    15,628,288 Swap partition (Linux)
/dev/sda7   1,448,179,712 1,465,147,391    16,967,680 Windows Recovery Environment (Windows)

Drive: sdb _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 32.0 GB, 32015679488 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3892 cylinders, total 62530624 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot  Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors  Id System

/dev/sdb1                  32    62,530,623    62,530,592   c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL

/dev/sda1        0020C65520C65178                       ntfs       System
/dev/sda2        25BA-5E1F                              vfat       
/dev/sda3        A8D6C931D6C90094                       ntfs       
/dev/sda4        F20CCB7E0CCB3C7B                       ntfs       TI10675800F
/dev/sda5        335bf987-7fd6-43ef-8464-5410086cc7e8   ext4       
/dev/sda6        f6154198-9105-4a0f-b49f-be2f5d57648f   swap       
/dev/sda7        B20844190843DACD                       ntfs       Recovery
/dev/sdb1        C801-14E2                              vfat       

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/disk/by-uuid/335bf987-7fd6-43ef-8464-5410086cc7e8 /      ext4       (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/sda2        /boot/efi                vfat       (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=utf8,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdb1        /media/usb               vfat       (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=utf8,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)

EDDY1 · 07-10-2014, 02:07 PM

Did you imstall firmware-linux & firmware-linux-nonfree? That should take care of login.