[Solved] MX 18.3 USB boots on Lenovo x200s, but not on x200t

[trebor]

I'm trying to install MX 18.3 64-bit on an Lenovo X200t. Therefore I prepared an USB-stick and tried to boot from that. I can see the MX-Live-Boot-menu and I can start booting, but it aborts nearly after starting lightdm. After that the screen turns black and nothing happens. The same USB-stick works on another Lenovo x200s, so that I can boot completely into an MX-Live-Environment, but it works not on another x200t, for example. I also tried the Failsafe-options with no success. it would be very helpful to get some hints how to install MX Linux on an x200t.

[KBD]

I'm not an expert, but I have had several Thinkpads, the one closest to yours' being the X201 and T410. So I'm interested in your issue. If, as it looks like, you have the GMA X3100 video driver, it is known to have issues with a kernel newer than 4.18:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1813509
Perhaps chose advanced and boot into an older kernel, the 4.15 MX kernel would be a likely choice.

[trebor]

The video card is X4500MHD and is the same as in x200s, where I have no problems. That's why the reason must be something else.
But changing the kernel could be an idea for testing, nevertheless. How can I do that?

MX Linux provides an easy method of upgrading/downgrading the default kernel: open MX
Package Installer and click on the “Kernel” category. There you will see a number of kernels that
are available to the user. Select the one you want to use (ask on the Forum if unsure) and install
it.

( https://www.mxlinux.org/user_manual_mx18/mxum.pdf , page 173)

As I cannot boot from USB completely, I'm not able to install MX and finally I'm not able to open MX Package Installer.

Is there another/older version of MX Linux, that uses another kernel, that I should try?

[trebor]

I'm not an expert, but I have had several Thinkpads, the one closest to yours' being the X201 and T410. So I'm interested in your issue. If, as it looks like, you have the GMA X3100 video driver, it is known to have issues with a kernel newer than 4.18:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1813509
Perhaps chose advanced and boot into an older kernel, the 4.15 MX kernel would be a likely choice.

I tried to boot MX 17 (https://sourceforge.net/projects/mx-linux/files/Old/) with exactly the same result! I could try even older MX-versions for testing, too.

In the meantime, I will try to boot without the quiet and splash boot-options to see more messages on the screen. Is there an opportunity to write them to a file?

[JayM]

I know you can install a different kernel on a USB with persistence enabled, and there's a way to change the kernel it boots from the default 4.19 to the one you've installed but I've never done that so I can't tell you how. Perhaps someone else can?

I recommend the 4.9 Debian kernel available in Popular Applications in the MX Package Installer as it seems to have the fewest problems with older hardware. Once you get MX installed you can always install and try newer kernels later.

Boot-time messages are saved in the logs, found in /var/log in the USB's file system. If you post log file contents please enclose them inside of code tags: [code] [/code]

[JayM]

OK, I think what you want to do is:

Boot the Live USB (on any computer that's able to boot it.)
Enable persistence (F5). perst-all is a safe choice and let it auto-configure your rootfs and homefs sizes.
Connect the wifi to your router's SSID or plug an Ethernet cable in so you have Internet access to the repositories.
Use MX Package Installer to install the older kernel of your choice. If it offers you updates, ignore them. All we want to do at this point is change the kernel.
Run MX Tools/MX RemasterCC and remaster the USB (If you installed the Debian 4.9 kernel do not choose lzh compression, choose one of the other two options, as that kernel doesn't support a squashfs with lzh, or so Live Kernel Updater told me.)
Reboot into the Live USB to finish the remastering process.
Run MX Tools/Live Kernel Updater and follow the on-screen prompts to change the default kernel from 4.19 to the one you installed.
Reboot, run MX Tools/Quick System Info and check the kernel version that it shows. It should be the one you installed.
Power down and try booting your x200t from that Live USB.

Let us know what happens.

[KBD]

The video card is X4500MHD and is the same as in x200s, where I have no problems. That's why the reason must be something else.
But changing the kernel could be an idea for testing, nevertheless. How can I do that?

MX Linux provides an easy method of upgrading/downgrading the default kernel: open MX
Package Installer and click on the “Kernel” category. There you will see a number of kernels that
are available to the user. Select the one you want to use (ask on the Forum if unsure) and install
it.

( https://www.mxlinux.org/user_manual_mx18/mxum.pdf , page 173)

As I cannot boot from USB completely, I'm not able to install MX and finally I'm not able to open MX Package Installer.

Is there another/older version of MX Linux, that uses another kernel, that I should try?

Follow Jay's advice and see if that helps. It sounds like a hardware issue, the difference is that the 200t is of course a tablet, which makes me think there is a hardware difference between the tablet and regular 200s that is making the software choke at startup. There were lots of different cpu choices on the 200s.
Specs 200s
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/migr-73156
Specs 200t
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd010685

[trebor]

1. booted LiveUSB built from MX-18.3_x64.iso using MX-Tools with default-kernel 4.19.0-5-amd64 on another dev-machine (X200s) with persist-all and default settings
2. installed kernel 4.9.0-9-amd64 using MX-package-installer
3. did a remaster using MX remasterCC with gzip-compression
4. rebooted LiveUSB to finish remastering
5. changed default-kernel to freshly installed one (4.9.0-9-amd64) using MX-tools (Live-USB-Kern updater)
6. rebootet LiveUSB on dev-machine X200s with success

But rebooting LiveUSB on issue-machine X200t failed with exactly the same result as using default-kernel! The log-files in /var/log only contain messages related to the boots, that were successfull and nothing else.

[JayM]

Did you check Quick System Info to make sure that kernel 4.9 is the one it's actually using now?

What happens if, when you get the black screen after lightdm starts, you wait for at least 10 minutes? If you're patient it may eventually time out and return you to a console (text) login prompt. If this happens, it's not actually failing to boot, it's failing to start the GUI which is a different problem (maybe video related.)

If you ever get that login prompt log in as demo, default password=demo, then type sudo lightdm, enter your password, and see if the desktop opens.

[trebor]

taken from /var/log/messages:

Code: Select all

Jun 28 09:29:58 mx1 kernel: [    0.000000] Linux version 4.9.0-9-amd64

It's sure, that the changed kernel is used.

I would say, that even after 10 minutes there was only a black scree, but I will test it again, later.