Black screen after boot on MX 17

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colin_b
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Black screen after boot on MX 17

#1 Post by colin_b »

I'm not sure whether this is my setup or a problem.

My PC is connected to a main 1080p monitor via a VGA cable and it is also connected to my 1080p TV via a HDMI cable.

For some reason MX 16 seems to default to the TV as the main output, but this isn't a problem as I simply mirror the displays.

I downloaded MX 17 and put it on a USB stick and booted up. On the first time of doing this I had to set up persistence etc, and I did this looking at my TV as my monitor did not turn on. When I clicked "save" and booted my monitor turned itself on, but instead of mirroring the TV output I simply saw the xfce logo. I solved the problem by mirroriing the TV display. I turned on the compositor and rebooted.

This time the displays both appeared for a few seconds after booting, and then both displays went off. It strikes me this could have happened when the compositor came on. Anyway, the only way I could get out of this was to hit the power button to turn the system off.

I redid the USB with unetbootin to make sure I had caused no problems, and when this was done I booted the USB. After the settings were once again sorted the PC booted to the desktop. The picture was great on both displays for a few seconds, and then the output to the monitor and TV once again ceased. :bawling:

I am left scratching my head. Any ideas?
Last edited by colin_b on Wed Dec 20, 2017 12:45 am, edited 2 times in total.

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colin_b
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Re: Black screen after boot on MX 17

#2 Post by colin_b »

Problem solved.

Instead of using inetbootin to create the USB I used the create live USB tool. Things now work correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8n2KAHNRVU

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Jerry3904
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Re: [solved] Black screen after boot on MX 17

#3 Post by Jerry3904 »

Good problem solving!

:popcorn:
Production: 5.10, MX-23 Xfce, AMD FX-4130 Quad-Core, GeForce GT 630/PCIe/SSE2, 16 GB, SSD 120 GB, Data 1TB
Personal: Lenovo X1 Carbon with MX-23 Fluxbox and Windows 10
Other: Raspberry Pi 5 with MX-23 Xfce Raspberry Pi Respin

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colin_b
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Re: [solved] Black screen after boot on MX 17

#4 Post by colin_b »

As an afterthought, I've just realised why my main monitor simply displayed the xfce logo.

The default number of desktops is 2. My main display defaulted the correct output to the TV, and my monitor displayed the second desktop which wasn't set up, therefore it simply displayed the xfce logo.

Would it be possible for the default setting for dual outputs to be "mirror display"? It would solve this problem and it could be modified later if required.

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colin_b
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Re: [solved] Black screen after boot on MX 17

#5 Post by colin_b »

Yikes!

My problems have returned. :bawling:

My screen initially went black after I changed the Compton application autostart command and rebooted MX 17.

I changed it to compton --backend glx --unredir-if-possible --glx-no-stencil --glx-no-rebind-pixmap --glx-swap-method buffer-age --vsync opengl-swc

This has worked fine on my MX 16 setup.

After I reloaded the USB with MX 17 using the create live USB tool both of my displays came on and things worked correctly after I mirrored the displays.

I found that Compton gives some undesirable artifacts when playing YouTube videos, so I installed Compiz from the repo. I have used it for a long time on MX 16 without problems.

After installation everything worked great and the video artifacts were gone, so I had to dig around to find the startup commands. When I got them they were added to application autostart (Compiz and Emerald).

It was only after a reboot that a problem became apparent. Both my monitor and TV initially came on and displayed correctly. After a few seconds my monitor turned itself off, I looked at my TV and it still showed the desktop. Then, a few seconds later the TV output ceased and I was left with the notice "no signal".

The common element is compositor changes.

Has anyone else had similar problems using Compiz from startup when running from a USB stick?

I am using the default Nouveau drivers that come with the distro.

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BitJam
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Re: Black screen after boot on MX 17

#6 Post by BitJam »

The problems seem to be with X-windows and the graphics driver. You should still be able to get to a command line with <Ctrl><Alt><F2>. There may be clues in the files /var/log/Xorg.0.log and maybe, if it exists, /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old. If you upload those to pastebin and provide a link then maybe people here can have a look.

Also, the output of the command "inxi -F" posted inside of [ code ] ... [ /code ] tags (no spaces) may be useful. Since you say things worked fine on MX-16 and these problems only appeared in MX-17, I'm wondering if X is using the "modesetting" driver instead of the nouveau driver which was the default for your hardware in MX-16. Here is the portion of the output showing the video driver on a system that uses the nvidia driver:

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GT218 [GeForce 210]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.5 driver: nvidia
           Resolution: 1920x1200@59.95hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce 210/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.104
If you are still running live, a quick thing to try is the cheat "xorg=nouveau" which may force use of the nouveau driver but I'm not sure this will work unless you also add "nomodeset". I'm afraid our automatic video driver selection code has not kept pace with the changes in X-windows. Trying to support legacy video hardware OOTB has become more and more of a minefield.

Edit: If the nouveau driver isn't being used then another way to force its use without adding "nomodeset" is to use the cheat "bp=b9" which will give you a Bash shell right before the real init starts. Then run this code:

Code: Select all

make-xorg-conf -o /etc/X11/xorg.conf nouveau
Then exit the shell.
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool."

-- Richard Feynman

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colin_b
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Re: Black screen after boot on MX 17

#7 Post by colin_b »

I'm afraid the above is way beyond me.

If I install MX 17 along with the Nvidia drivers will this sort the problem?

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dolphin_oracle
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Re: Black screen after boot on MX 17

#8 Post by dolphin_oracle »

colin_b wrote:I'm afraid the above is way beyond me.

If I install MX 17 along with the Nvidia drivers will this sort the problem?
quite possibly, as that will also create a xorg.conf to force the use of the nvidia driver.

before you do that though, could you post the output from our "Quick System Info" utility?
http://www.youtube.com/runwiththedolphin
lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 - MX-23
FYI: mx "test" repo is not the same thing as debian testing repo.

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colin_b
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Re: Black screen after boot on MX 17

#9 Post by colin_b »

I will need to redo MX 17 onto the USB stick so that the display works again.

It's really late so I'll do it tomorrow.

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colin_b
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Re: Black screen after boot on MX 17

#10 Post by colin_b »

I can see how you get the info on MX 16. Details below:

Code: Select all

 System:    Host: mx-16 Kernel: 4.7.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.2
           Distro: MX-16-public-beta1_x64 Metamorphosis 31 October 2016
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: MSI model: H61M-E33(B3)(MS-7680) v: 2.0 serial: N/A
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: V12.3 date: 01/10/2013
CPU:       Dual core Intel Celeron G1610T (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           clock speeds: max: 2300 MHz 1: 1601 MHz 2: 1599 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA Device 128b
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NV106 version: 4.3 Mesa 12.0.3
Audio:     Card-1 C-Media CMI8788 [Oxygen HD Audio] driver: snd_virtuoso
           Card-2 NVIDIA Device 0e0f driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.7.0-0.bpo.1-amd64
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCIE Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 8c:89:a5:a3:e8:32
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 516.1GB (38.4% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST500LM000 size: 500.1GB
           ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: Cruzer size: 16.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 193G used: 7.6G (5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: /home size: 259G used: 155G (64%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.59GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C gpu: 35.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 182 Uptime: 10:06 Memory: 1506.2/7954.1MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.53 
 

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