I had the same problem. My processor is AMD64 and my graphics card is "ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AP [Radeon 9600]".
I tried the following Live-CDs and all ended with a black screen: Kubuntu Dapper i386, Kubuntu Edgy i386, Ubuntu Edgy i386, Kubuntu Edgy for AMD 64. (I could install from the Alternate CD [Kubuntu Edgy i386], got a black screen after installation, too - booted in recovery mode, changed "ati" to "vesa" in the xorg.conf, rebooted, installed the fglrx driver and changed "vesa" to "fglrx" ... works.) I tried the following things only with the Kubuntu Edgy i386 (some with the one for AMD 64, but there seems to be no difference). I always changed the language to German with F2 and removed "splash" and "quiet" with F6 to be able to see the progress and possible error messages. (I left the trailing -- there, no idea what they're for.) What didn't help me (suggestions from ubuntuusers.de) (but some worked for other people on the forum, they may not have ATI graphic cards though): - Verifying md5sum of the CD (was ok) or selftest (was ok, too). - Safe graphics mode (xforcevesa) (does not seem to force vesa ... I still had "ati" in my xorg.conf and somebody else with an NVidia card had "nv"). - Trying various resolutions and color depths (with F4). - Pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or F2, F3 ... F7, F8) when it hangs. Nothing happened, no text console came up. - Resetting the BIOS to the default settings (this actually screwed some things up that I have not been able to fix completely) - Trying various BIOS settings (see http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch03s06.html.de#id2520779 ) - Adding acpi=off apm=off (with F6) (this caused a kernel panic on my computer, acpi=off seems to be the offending option). - Adding acpi=off noapic pci=bios usb=bios (with F6) (this seemed to help several people, but not me ... kernel panic, appearently caused by acpi=off) - Various combinations of the above (with acpi=off kernel panic, without it no change, no error message) - vga=no (no change, no error message) - vga=normal (no change, no error message) - vga=normal failsafe (no change, no error message) - Combining the vga=... with the above options. - Checking if any of the condensators on the motherboard are burst (they look alright). - Checking if there are any metallic objects like screws lying on/under the motherboard (uh, no). - Press F1 and try some of the options listed there: - nolapic noapci fb=false BOOT_DEBUG=2 failsafe (no change, no error message) - nolapic noapci fb=false BOOT_DEBUG=3 failsafe (no change, no error message) (fb=false turns the framebuffer off, that seemed to help some people) - replacing noapci with noapic in the previous two (that seems to be "more correct", but there was still no change and no error message) - pci=noacpi (recommended for VIA chipset) (no change, no error message) - debconf_debug=5 and/or boot_debug=3 (no change, no additional error messages) - xserver=vesa does not work (Knoppix cheat code, somebody else tested it with an Ubuntu Live-CD) Someone here above asked about LEDs: - During the first half of the boot process (from Kubuntu Edgy Live CD for i386 and AMD 64), I can turn on/off the Caps Lock LED (by pressing Caps Lock of course), then this stops working. - During the entire boot process I can turn on/off the Num Lock LED by pressing said key. Once it hangs up, I can continue to do so for about half a minute or so, then this stops working, too (LED stays off). The CD drive is still making lots of noise at this point, it stops about 30 seconds or a minute after Num Lock stops working. Rebooting with Alt+SysRq+b works! (I actually press Alt+SysRq+e for Term, Alt+SysRq+u for unmount readonly, Alt+SysRq+i for kill, Alt+SysRq+b for reboot because I read this is what one should do ... I don't know if the first three did anything, there is no visible effect.) What worked (already mentioned above here): - Add break=bottom (optionally remove quiet and splash) with F6. - Wait for (initramfs) prompt. Note that even if one has changed the language setting / keyboard layout to e.g. German, it's US English again now. - Type chroot /root [the / is on the - for users of a German keyboard ... or use the one on the number pad] - Type nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf, find the modules section, find dri and glx, disable them by commenting out those lines with # in the beginning. [# is Shift+3 on the US keyboard layout] (There was an nvidia user on the ubuntuusers.de forum, he changed the driver "nv" to driver "vesa" to get it to work.) - Save file with Ctrl+O, confirm with Enter (commands are written at the bottom of nano, no need to remember). - Quit nano with Ctrl+X. - Type exit and press Enter. - Type exit again and press Enter, the boot process continues now, a GUI should come up after some time. (The above messages did not mention that one has to do it twice, but when I dit it only once, nothing happened. I guess the first exit leaves the chroot-environment and the second exit leaves the (initramfs) prompt.) -- [edgy][regression][rv280] black screen and console freeze when X starts - drm lockup https://launchpad.net/bugs/67487 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
