New Minime install on HP laptop.black screen when activating ATI driver (solved)

[MarkNC]

Hi Gang,

I'm revisiting the notion of getting PCLOS installed on a HP Envy with a ATI Radeon 5850 card.  I burned a new CD with the latest Minime spin and the "safe" graphics mode was working fine. After install, the laptop boots with no problems (in safe graphics mode)  A trip into the hardware configuration tool and I'm told there's a proprietary ATI driver that will do the job, so I accept.  I take all the defaults (didn't write 'em down...of course).  Upon a reboot, I get the initial PCLOS loading screen followed immediately by a black screen.  I've waited around 10 minutes to make sure it wasn't just up to something in the background (unless I wasn't waiting long enough!).

The laptop isn't "locked up" because I can see hard drive activity and when I press the power button, it shuts down.  Something tells me the defaults ain't quite right for the Radeon 5850. 

Sure, I could just wipe and start over, but where's the learning and fun in that?   Any tips for a semi-novice for fixing this?

Thanks in advance

[Texstar]

Yes, upgrade your system as there have been driver updates to the ATI driver.

[MarkNC]

Thanks Tex...(do you ever get a day off?)

To be safe, I deleted the old partitions and started from scratch.  Reinstalled from Minime CD.  Same as before...generic "safe" graphics mode is working fine. I updated all the packages (and saw a bunch related to graphics drivers...including ATI).  After rebooting, I ran the graphics config. tool in hardware and let it select my options (It picked an ATI driver).  Once again however, on reboot, black screen.  Any ideas what I did wrong?  Also, is there a way from either Window$ or the Live CD to "fix" the config vs. starting over? (not that starting over is hard...it installs fast.  I just would like to learn how to fix if I can)

Thanks again!

[Texstar]

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
    DefaultColorDepth 24 <---Does /etc/X11/xorg.conf have this


Does it work with standard ati xorg driver by selecting no to the fglrx driver when reconfiguring the video card?

You can also try to totally remove the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and booting and see if it will not black screen.

Why can you not boot normally with MiniMe?


    

[MarkNC]

Hi Tex,

Yep...those lines were in the xorg.conf file.  I tried deleting it (from the live CD), then rebooting into "normal" mode & Voila!  Workin'!

For reference, booting normally in Minime before led straight to the black screen.

Thank you very much for your help!  No wonder PCLOS has such a loyal fanbase!

...Now to figure out how to adjust my screen brightness...

[Wildman]

Hi Tex,

Yep...those lines were in the xorg.conf file.  I tried deleting it (from the live CD), then rebooting into "normal" mode & Voila!  Workin'!

For reference, booting normally in Minime before led straight to the black screen.

Thank you very much for your help!  No wonder PCLOS has such a loyal fanbase!

...Now to figure out how to adjust my screen brightness...

If its like mine, hold down  Fn  and tap down arrow to reduce screen brightness! 

[MarkNC]

Thanks Mike,

Unfortunately, that does bring up the on-screen slider for brightness (after adding a line to grub) but it doesn't actually have any impact on the brightness.  I'll keep digging for a way to adjust it.  Default is pretty darned dim.

[Wildman]

Thanks Mike,

Unfortunately, that does bring up the on-screen slider for brightness (after adding a line to grub) but it doesn't actually have any impact on the brightness.  I'll keep digging for a way to adjust it.  Default is pretty darned dim.

There should be a Fn key on there somewhere that does the brightness, I haven't worked on a laptop in years that doesn't, perhaps on the F keys, ...the slider sometimes can be changed with the mouse pad...