Black screen when booting from Live CD

[Rumboogy]

When I try to boot from the  live CD I get a black screen after some period.  What happens is that it starts to boot, I select "Boot the system..." or "Video safe mode - VESA" and then it goes on to show a screen that says "Booting the system".  After some time the screen goes black as if the back light is turned off.  The CD continues to seek and the HDD light is still on for about another minute then all is quite.  I have to force a power off.

I am able to start from the CD if I select "Safe boot".  But I assume that this is somehow a minimal version.

Any recommendations on settings to get it to work properly would be appreciated.

[Old-Polack]

When I try to boot from the  live CD I get a black screen after some period.  What happens is that it starts to boot, I select "Boot the system..." or "Video safe mode - VESA" and then it goes on to show a screen that says "Booting the system".  After some time the screen goes black as if the back light is turned off.  The CD continues to seek and the HDD light is still on for about another minute then all is quite.  I have to force a power off.

I am able to start from the CD if I select "Safe boot".  But I assume that this is somehow a minimal version.

Any recommendations on settings to get it to work properly would be appreciated.

Safe boot simply uses the vesa video driver, to avoid the problem you are experiencing. See what happens when you assume.

[menotu]

Just a thought - have you done an md5sum check and/or a media check on your ISO and CD?

[Rumboogy]

I initially tried "Video safe mode - VESA" and this did not work.  It was not until I tried "Safe boot", one of the options further down the list, that it was able to boot.  

If I install Linux on the HDD after booting in "Safe boot" am I loosing something?  If so I should try to get it to boot in normal mode.  Or am I not loosing anything by installing under "Safe boot"?

[Rumboogy]

I have not tried md5sum.  I assume this can only be run from within Linux?

[Old-Polack]

I have not tried md5sum.  I assume this can only be run from within Linux?

Also, stupid forum question: how to you reply in the forum and include a quote of the response you are replying to?  I don't see this option.

You click the Quote link in the post you are wishing to quote.

When you d/l an image you need to run an md5sum check to insure the image is correct, and has not been corrupted by the d/l process. Then the image needs to be burned to disk at the slowest speed possible. Following the burn, the disk itself needs to be md5sum checked to be sure it is a correct burn, and does not differ from the image.

http://www.md5summer.org/

http://www.pc-tools.net/win32/md5sums/

http://etree.org/md5com.html

http://www.irnis.net/gloss/md5sum-windows.shtml

[Rumboogy]

Just a thought - have you done an md5sum check and/or a media check on your ISO and CD?

How do you run the md5sum on an entire CD?  It seems like it is only gives check sums of individual files.

[Old-Polack]

Just a thought - have you done an md5sum check and/or a media check on your ISO and CD?

How do you run the md5sum on an entire CD?  It seems like it is only gives check sums of individual files.

In Linux, the command would be      md5sum /dev/cdrom        or       md5sum /dev/dvd       depending on how the links on your system are set. Haven't run Windows for years, but would assume something like md5sum D:\.

[Rumboogy]

Just a thought - have you done an md5sum check and/or a media check on your ISO and CD?

How do you run the md5sum on an entire CD?  It seems like it is only gives check sums of individual files.

In Linux, the command would be      md5sum /dev/cdrom        or       md5sum /dev/dvd       depending on how the links on your system are set. Haven't run Windows for years, but would assume something like md5sum D:\.

I tried md5sum D:\ on XP but it just gave me checksums of the individual files. 

In any event, I downloaded the .ISO again and verified it's checksum with md5sum.  Then I expanded that ISO to a directory on my disk (with AnyToISO) and diffed that directory against my CD while the CD was mounted in the target machine.  This also showed no problems.  So I am confident that my PCLinuxOS live CD is good on the machine where I am trying to do the install.

Now that I know my live CD is good, does anyone know why my screen goes black during normal boot?

Also, if I boot under "Safe boot" then install Linux to the HDD, will I be missing anything that I would have had if I had booted normally?

[luikki]

does anyone know why my screen goes black during normal boot

probably  video card related... but we know nothing about your hardware ...

if I boot under "Safe boot" then install Linux to the HDD, will I be missing anything that I would have had if I had booted normally?

no! not a single thing.

[Rumboogy]

does anyone know why my screen goes black during normal boot

probably  video card related... but we know nothing about your hardware ...

if I boot under "Safe boot" then install Linux to the HDD, will I be missing anything that I would have had if I had booted normally?

no! not a single thing.

You are right!  I thought I had that in the original post.  Well here it is:
Laptop:  HP dv1000
Display adapter:  Mobile Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset Family
Video BIOS:  1222
LCD panel mode:  1280 by 768 (60 Hz)

[luikki]

so, go for it! install pclinuxos 2010.1!
if some problems arise with your graphic card you'll get additional help to solve them.

and welcome to the forum and to pclinuxos. 

[Rumboogy]

so, go for it! install pclinuxos 2010.1!
if some problems arise with your graphic card you'll get additional help to solve them.

and welcome to the forum and to pclinuxos. 

I already went for it - and had problems.  That is why I posted.

My problems persist.  When I boot to "Live CD" or the "Video safe mode - VESA" the screen goes black (using pclinuxos-kde-2010.1.iso).  The OS seems to be running - I just can't see anything.  I think the problem may come from the native screen resolution of this machine which is 1280 by 768.  If I boot in "Safe" mode, which does work, I can't find my native video resolution in the settings menu - I have to enter it in manually.

So to summarize:

• When I boot from the Live CD using the default mode I get a black screen.
• It appears that the OS is up and running OK since I can manage to log back out without seeing what I am doing (by alternating Ctrl-Alt-Del and Enter).
• This implies the culprit is the display driver which is supported by the fact that my LCD's native mode appears to be somewhat non-standard.

Any ideas?

[Old-Polack]

so, go for it! install pclinuxos 2010.1!
if some problems arise with your graphic card you'll get additional help to solve them.

and welcome to the forum and to pclinuxos. 

I already went for it - and had problems.  That is why I posted.

My problems persist.  When I boot to "Live CD" or the "Video safe mode - VESA" the screen goes black (using pclinuxos-kde-2010.1.iso).  The OS seems to be running - I just can't see anything.  I think the problem may come from the native screen resolution of this machine which is 1280 by 768.  If I boot in "Safe" mode, which does work, I can't find my native video resolution in the settings menu - I have to enter it in manually.

So to summarize:

• When I boot from the Live CD using the default mode I get a black screen.
• It appears that the OS is up and running OK since I can manage to log back out without seeing what I am doing (by alternating Ctrl-Alt-Del and Enter).
• This implies the culprit is the display driver which is supported by the fact that my LCD's native mode appears to be somewhat non-standard.

Any ideas?

Yes, install the operating system. Once installed, we can help you get your graphics problem solved if it still exists.

[Rumboogy]

Well, I am stumped.  While selecting various modes to boot from the CD it started to work properly - e.g when I booted from "LiveCD" it did not give me the black screen.  I don't know why this problem went away.  The CD did not change, and presumably my computer did not change since nothing was written to disk. But somehow it started working.  It almost seems that by first booting to "Safe boot" that I changed something that made it boot properly later.  But this should not be the case.

In any event, I have now installed the OS and am now focused on configuring it to my liking.  So no doubt I will post again.

Thank you all for your suggestions.