black screen with cursor after avwizard

[superslacker]

hi there - I just installed fresh 810 from the dvd, rebooted and went through the avwizard. Avwizard finished, and it hasn't done anything since then - just sitting there with a black screen and white arrow cursor, but nothing else going on. I can access web admin page, but there are "no users in database", so clearly it's not properly configured.

What do I do? just hard reboot? reboot from shell?
continually stymied,
stephane

[phenigma]

hi there - I just installed fresh 810 from the dvd, rebooted and went through the avwizard. Avwizard finished, and it hasn't done anything since then - just sitting there with a black screen and white arrow cursor, but nothing else going on. I can access web admin page, but there are "no users in database", so clearly it's not properly configured.

What do I do? just hard reboot? reboot from shell?
continually stymied,
stephane

First of all welcome to LinuxMCE!

The system is undergoing a lot of development right now and many issues have surfaced that people have been working through.  I have not encountered the issue you speak of myself but... I would first suggest doing a little searching on the forums for your issue.  A search of "black screen" brings up a bunch of posts which may relate to your problem:

Topic: SOLVED: Black screen with mouse pointer on Core (0810 alpha 2.31)
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8820.0

Topic: LinuxMCE Black Screen (Solved)
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=5364.0

Topic: [solved] Black screen after starting X-Server
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=3220.msg16195#msg16195

Hmm, are you using an nVidia card?  This poster had an issue similar to yours and found a solution.
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8700.msg60940#msg60940

Check that last one first if you`re using an nVidia card.  

Good luck!

J.

[Boz]

Hello,

I just had this same problem after installing via the internet method (ie. install Kubuntu, then download install scripts from repo).  Immediately after the post_installation script, I rebooted and happily went through the AV wizard.  However, then the system left me with a black screen with just a cursor - after waiting patiently for 30-40 mins I figured something was wrong.

I rebooted and had the same problem, so went into my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and found all sorts of complex settings in the screen, monitor and device subsections.  I edited to match a known good xorg.conf from my old mythbuntu build and rebooted.  Immediately after the system loaded normally (and proceeded to regenerate the UI)

This worked for me - hopefully the same works for you

Cheers,

Boz

[doug]

I'm having the same problem.
Kubuntu install seemed to work and gave me desktop. I clicked on the linuxMCE icon to kick off that part.

I had run through the AVWizard successfully.
  VGA 1024x768 75Hz
  Static Images
  Analog stereo

I tried a number of items from the other threads
dpkg --configure –a
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
  (this seemed to result in a mostly empty /etc/X11/xorg.conf)

I copied a backup xorg.conf that looked like it might work into place.

It chugs along after a reboot says things such as :
  Installing Firefox
  Regenerating orbiter

But then I am left with a black screen and cursor.
  No keys seem to do anything (eg. 1 2 3 4 5, mouse buttons) mouse does move though.

In the text console (ctrl-alt-F1) I see a message about Regenerating Orbiter Complete.

So any more suggestions?
What is supposed to happen after orbiter regeneration?

I'm using pretty old hardware but it worked with an older MythTV release before.
Asus a7v266-e/aa
AMD Athlon XP 1700+
1GB RAM
ASUS v7100 GeForce2 MX, 32 MB Video card
 w/composite and sVideo out
WinTV-PVR 350
CRT Monitor on the VGA port.

[doug]

Hmm I decided to try the web interface or ssh and discovered that it seems to have forgotten about the network card now.
It was working since it downloaded a whole ton of stuff during install and config (even though I did DVD install).

But now and ifconfig comes up blank, not even loopback (lo) shows?

Any ideas, should I just try to reinstall?

[tkmedia]

The orbiter will try to load 50 times then appear to hang.
So depending on speed of PC this can happen.
Commonly on initial install it will exceed that count because of everything is still installing.

IF the orbiter doesn't come up after around 20-30 minutes on first Install, simply reboot and see if it gets to setup wizard the next time.


HTH


Tim

[doug]

I did a full reinstall from DVD.
KUbuntu install seemed fine, networking was fine.
Waited for an hour after the AV Wizard was done.
Rebooted
It went through "Starting Core Services please be patient..."
  "Installing Firefox"
  "Regenerating orbiter"
  I think it had already done these
Still have black screen with cursor (and networking seems broken, ifconfig comes back empty, no "lo" no "eth0")

It takes a long time to boot, probably timing out on networking stuff. i noticed that NFS and bind9 fail to startup, it also mentions networkmanager is disabled.

So any more ideas?

I suspect a big part of the problem is the networking getting broken by the LinuxMCE install (Note: networking is fine after the initial Kubuntu install and it downloads all sorts of packages during the LinuxMCE install fine).

[doug]

I found the problem. I did this:
/etc/init.d/networking restart

It complained about an option with empty value.
couldn't read interfaces file /etc/network/interfaces
  option with empty value

Turns out the netmask and gateway for eth0 were empty, so I changed this:
netmask
gateway
To this:
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

Anyone else stumbling on this thread will have to determine the correct values in their own environment.
Try ifconfig on a working linux machine or ipconfig /all   on a windows machine.

[macaroni]

I found the problem. I did this:
/etc/init.d/networking restart

It complained about an option with empty value.
couldn't read interfaces file /etc/network/interfaces
  option with empty value

Turns out the netmask and gateway for eth0 were empty, so I changed this:
netmask
gateway
To this:
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

Anyone else stumbling on this thread will have to determine the correct values in their own environment.
Try ifconfig on a working linux machine or ipconfig /all   on a windows machine.

I just did a dvd install and got the same problem and I applied your solution and it fixed the issue.
Thanks

[macaroni]

I had some other issues during my install so I decided to re-install. During the installation of kubuntu I can't start network manager from the gui. I can pull up ifconfig and eth0 ip address 192.168.1.100 and mask 255.255.255.0 are there.
I didn't have this issue on the 2nd installation. Not sure what was different.

[armyabn]

great tip.....

but my system is in read-only mode and I can't figure out how to write the file.....any suggestions?

I found the problem. I did this:
/etc/init.d/networking restart

It complained about an option with empty value.
couldn't read interfaces file /etc/network/interfaces
  option with empty value

Turns out the netmask and gateway for eth0 were empty, so I changed this:
netmask
gateway
To this:
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

Anyone else stumbling on this thread will have to determine the correct values in their own environment.
Try ifconfig on a working linux machine or ipconfig /all   on a windows machine.