Dark Screen After Installation

[mking]

I installed the Linux MCE on my:
    ABIT KV7 motherboard ,
    AMD processor,
    Geforce 6600GT Video.

After the successful installation (I think?) ... After reboot and it then goes through some more configuration..when it gets to the video it eventually causes the screen to go blank...never comes back.

Any ideas?
 

[borjads]

I'm in the same situation that mking describes. I have installed the Linux MCE into a clean Ubuntu. Mi computer is AMD XP 3200+,Abit Nf7-S G-force FX5900XT and 1gb DDR.

Sorry for my english.

Thanks!

[cckrobinson]

Chances are that your video output is not setup correctly for your monitor/TV.  Try this:

If you launched LMCE from ubuntu then you can get switch back to Ubuntu world by pressing ctrl-alt-F7.  Open a browser and type the IP of your machine.  This should bring up the LMCE/pluto admin page.  If the left hand column select "Media Director".  It will open a new page, and in the lower right hand corner you will be able to change the display resolution.  Try different settings, hit update, and then switch back to LMCE to see if it helped.  You can switch back to LMCE by pressing ctrl-alt-F11. 

If you choose the install option to boot LMCE directly then you will need to access the LCME/pluto admin page from a different PC on your network.
 
LMCE updates the video configuration by writing to a file called /etc/X11/xorg.conf.pluto.  This file is used inside of LMCE.  Once you have a working file make sure that you back it up.  LMCE regenerates the file each time it starts up.  Some people (including me) had difficulting with LMCE not detecting our TV information correctly.  If you have the problem where it works initially but then won't work after reboot you can fix it like this.  Add the line 'exit 1;' to the top of the /usr/pluto/bin/XConfigure.sh script.  That will abort the script early and prevent LMCE from regenerating a bad config file.  Most people shouldn't need to do this, but I did. 

[mking]

Your probably right about the video output not being setup correctly. Before I installed the LMCE, the resolution was set to 640x480. I tried to change it in unbutu to a higher resolution...but the system would not let me I tried to use the Screen Resolution option through the menu. Could it be that umbutu does not recgonize my Geforce 6600 GT video card?

I think I will start over and see if I can change the resolution before I install the LMCE. Plus I will install it so the I can launch the LMCE from unbutu.

Note: I'm a newbe to the Linux world...hope you don't have to be some kind of Linux expert to get the LMCE to work.

[cckrobinson]

Before you reload LMCE try reinstalling your nVidia drivers.  I had the same issue at one point, and reinstalling resolved it. 

[mking]

How do I reload my nVidia drivers? When I boot the machine all I get is a Dark Screen. Also, I choose the install option to boot LMCE directly...  So I guess I would then you will need to access the LCME/pluto admin page from another machine on my network.  Which again...I don't know how to do that.

On another note...when I installed the LMCE I choose to not make it a DHCP server.  I'm not sure if that is required in order to access the LMCE machine from another computer on the network??

[cckrobinson]

Download the latest nVidia drivers from here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_1.0-9755.html

Reboot your box.  I assume you are using Grub for the bootloader.  Instead of launching Ubuntu normally, select the option that will cause you to boot to a command prompt (maintainence option I believe).

cd to the location of where you downloaded the driver.  It you downloaded it from firefox it probably went into your Desktop folder.

Change to that folder like this:

cd ~yourUserName/Desktop

run the nvidia installer like this
sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9755-pkg1.run

This will bring up a bunch of dialog boxes, and you will want to reboot.  If all goes well you should see a nice green NVIDIA logo appear after you reboot.

[mking]

Thanks...I'll give that it try tonight.

Question - Do I need to pre-install (before LMCE) all the Linux drivers for my PVRs? I have 2 PVRs in my system - Hauppauge 250MCE and the ATI HDTV Wonder.

[mking]

I don't see any maintenance option when I boot ubuntu.

[HaroBlack]

I don't see any maintenance option when I boot ubuntu.

When you boot the PC the boot loader will show up for a couple of seconds, says "press esc" on mine.. press it and choose the second option.

this will get you to a cmd prompt as root.

[mking]

ok..thanks..got everything installed...now to configuring my pretty complex system. Tme to start a new thread.

[GreenGod]

I got the same problem with nVidia Geforce
The simplest way to bring the system back to live that I've found is just change "vesa" to "nv" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[scine]

Download the latest nVidia drivers from here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_1.0-9755.html

Reboot your box.  I assume you are using Grub for the bootloader.  Instead of launching Ubuntu normally, select the option that will cause you to boot to a command prompt (maintainence option I believe).

cd to the location of where you downloaded the driver.  It you downloaded it from firefox it probably went into your Desktop folder.

Change to that folder like this:

cd ~yourUserName/Desktop

run the nvidia installer like this
sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9755-pkg1.run

This will bring up a bunch of dialog boxes, and you will want to reboot.  If all goes well you should see a nice green NVIDIA logo appear after you reboot.

thanks!  this worked for me.  i was banging my head against a wall over this problem.