Home / ubuntu / Questions / 392979
Accepted
Anthony O.
Asked: 2013-12-20 03:38:43 +0800 CST

Black screen while installing Ubuntu 12.04.3 on Dell Precision M4800

  • 772

I'm trying to install Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS on my new Dell Precision M4800 (from a USB key, made from Ubuntu) and I've got that problem : after choosing my language on the boot screen, I can see no more things on my screen, it keeps black...

The graphic card is an NVidia Quadro K2100M...

I tried to boot with an Ubuntu 12.04.1 install USB key, and I had something on the screen but my ethernet card wasn't detected (the wifi was OK)...

12.04

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I finally have been able to correctly boot my USB key with option "nomodeset" at boot time and managed to install Ubuntu 12.04.3

    • 0

  2. It also works with 12.10 and "nomodeset" From there it is possible to update to trusty.

    I didn't manage to install 13.04 directly since after installing and rebooting the system got lost in upstart madness.

    However: In 12.10 and current 13.04 with nvidia-331, whenever the screen blanks, it is not possible to get the system to un-blank it again.

    If you install sshd and log in from another machine the system proves to be working fine otherwise.

    • 0

  3. Here is the procedure that I used, it works fine (enjoy the QHD+ screen !!!)

    (skip steps 1-5 if you do not have a SSD)

    1 (for SSDs) Use the Debian disk just to boot the system and obtain a shell (I do not remember the exact option)

    2 (for SSDs) I created a big partition in the whole disk, starting at block 4096 (default).

    3 (for SSDs) I could not find the information on erase block size for the LITEONIT SSD anywhere,so I'm using the default parameters ( hdparm -I /dev/sda reports model type, i.e. LITEONIT LCS-256M6S 2.5 7mm 256GB but I did not find erase block size information on the internet for this model)

    4 (for SSDs) Create the filesystem: mkfs.ext4 -b 4096 /dev/sda1

    5 (for SSDs) Restart installation, select manual partitioning, edit partition, set use as ext4 , mount point: / , additional flags: discard, noatime these flags are useful for SSDs, discard uses block erase capabilities of SSDs, and noatime prevents the system for recording last access time in every files.

    6) First boot: edit booting options (using advanced mode from GRUB screen, select kernel, press e, remove load_video and add flags: nomodeset text, then press F10. nomodeset means that the console remains in text mode, and text means that the system will not attempt to start X11 graphics mode (it seems that the shipped drivers cannot drive the ultra HD screen)

    7) edit /etc/default/grub , find the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet" and replace it with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nomodeset"

    8) add blacklist nouveau in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf (create the file if it does not exist)

    9) update-grub

    10) rmmod nouveau

    11) aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-amd64 linux-headers-amd64-all

    12) Install NVIDIA driver (load it from NVIDIA's website)

    13) dpkg-reconfigure linux-image-3.13-1-amd64 (this re-creates the ramdisk that contains the device drivers, including the new NVidia driver, and re-initializes the grub boot loader). Note: use uname -a to see the version of your kernel (and replace in dpkg-reconfigure command accordingly)

    14) restart the system: shutdown -r Normally, it will boot in graphics mode (and you will see tiny tiny icons, there are far too many pixels in this screen !!)

    15) To make screen contrast hotkey work: edit etc/default/grub , find the line:

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nomodeset"

    and replace it with

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet acpi_osi=\"!Windows 2012\" acpi_backlight=vendor"

    then do:

    update_grub

    Just one thing that does not work: switching to text mode with Ctrl+Alt+F1 gives me a black screen, but Ctrl+Alt+F7 gives me graphics back. Same thing when the screen-saver blanks the screen (Ctrl+Alt+F1 then Ctrl+Alt+F7 gives me the screen back).

    • 0