Problem with Ubuntu 10.04 and Dell Laptop

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
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Hey guys, I'm a pretty big Linux noob, just trying to get the hang of it here.

Basically during boot in either live cd or install version I get a bunch of vertical colored lines across the screen. The boot continues, after I hear the sound I can log in blind, put the computer to sleep and on wake the screen is there, with an invisible cursor haha. I thought I had it fixed, I had to type vga=771 into the boot screen before install and that seemed to fix things. But after a few restarts it was back.

This happens with both Ubuntu 10.04 and Mint 9, not Ubuntu 9.10 though.

For reference my laptop is a Dell Inspirion 1501 with ATi 1150x graphics.

Anyway, any help would be really appreciated as the parts of 10.04 I've seen look killer.
 

PCTC2

Diamond Member
Feb 18, 2007
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Well, it's not a permanent fix, as it would be good to find the root of this issue, but after install, on reboot, hold shift to get into grub and boot to the recovery mode. Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add vga=771 to the correct line in the top sections and rebuild grub or just edit the entry at the bottom with vga=771. Then reboot into the normal kernel.
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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Well, it's not a permanent fix, as it would be good to find the root of this issue, but after install, on reboot, hold shift to get into grub and boot to the recovery mode. Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add vga=771 to the correct line in the top sections and rebuild grub or just edit the entry at the bottom with vga=771. Then reboot into the normal kernel.

Make sure you put it in the kopt line, otherwise it'll get overwritten with the next kernel update when update-grub is run.
 

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
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Ok, thanks for the help. I guess it must be a kernal problem? I have no problems with 2.6.32-21, but -22 gives me the error, both in recovery and non-recovery. So I can't really see what is going on in the recovery mode. Can that file be edited in any other way? If they update the kernal oftenish I guess I can just boot into the old one when I turn it on for a bit here and hope they fix it?
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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Yea, it's most likely an issue with the framebuffer driver (I don't know if it's trying to use the generic vesa driver or an ATI-specific one) and/or the bootup splash screen stuff. Have you tried removing the "splash" and "quiet" entries from the kernel command-line to see if that helps?
 

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
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So I tried adding the vga=771 and taking off the quiet splash so as far as I can tell neither one worked. I don't really know what else to change.

My temporary solution has been to change the default kernel so I don't have to hold shift every boot haha. Hopefully this isn't a problem with the next kernel.
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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You could try vga=ask and pick a low, standard VGA resolution and see what happens with that. The higher resolutions all require VESA support or a chipset specific framebuffer driver which might not work well with your card.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Updated your video card's BIOS lately? It could be an error in the VESA routines in the card's BIOS.
 

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
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Thanks for the help guys, an updated kernel was released today that fixed the problem for me. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. Again thanks for all the help, I appreciate it.
 

rakslice

Junior Member
Sep 29, 2009
2
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You could try vga=ask

From my 10.04 install: "Legacy `ask' parameter no longer supported."

Since as far as I've seen, Ubuntu hasn't shipped with text console mode switching that isn't broken in 3 major versions, it's kind of fitting that when the workaround breaks too, no one knows what to use instead.