The black screen freeze up during install of Ubuntu 10.04 to HD seems to be a common problem (caused by graphics hardware) for which there may be a "work-around" (if you are lucky). But since 10.04 runs well in "live mode" from CD why shd the install fail?? The same graphics hardware is used for both - isn't it ?? Is there some unique graphics stuff that only happens during install to HD or is there also a bug in boot loader GRUB causing the black screen ?

Neophyte Newbie

ps: Ubuntu 9.10 runs great (both "live" and installed to HD) on my laptop

I would guess its an option not passed to the boot loader when installed, which is auto-detected in the liveCD mode.

When exactly does the screen go black - is it right after grub has finished booting, or is it when xorg tries to start?

Can you paste the output of /var/log/Xorg.* and any other errors you see?

You know, it's funny that you post about this. On 2 machines, I have had the issue where sometimes my 10.04 install won't boot past GRUB either. It just hangs there. I have found that just about every time that I cold boot, to be safe I enter GRUB menu and CTRL+X to boot. This way almost never hangs. Not the cleanest option, but I try to stay with the latest release. 9.10 didn't give me any crap either.