Linux Mint Julia cf28 black screen again

Hi I am new to Linux, so please be gentle with me!

My toughbook is cf28-p variant with (i assume) intel 830 chipset.

Just when I though I had the video problem resolved by inserting various parmeters within the grub, it has returned to its former unstable state.

After Mint is installed!!!

through bootup either black screen completely, flickering screen with graphics partly resolved, to finally various shades of black and white, screen half to one side and flickering.

Some times a press of Fn+F3 key will provide a rather poor Mint screen (lacking in colour), maybe 1 in 10 attempts!

If I use a second monitor plugged in the rear, things are more helpful... 4 in 10 attempts at the Fn+F3 keys and I might get a crisp sharp and green Mint page, however sometimes the cursor vanishes.

I have trawled through various sites, but am getting nowhere! worse still are those who reference to a fix in X11/xorg.conf.....But this file no longer exists in Mint Julia.

Any clues, anyone... (note, touchscreen doesn't work either, and mouse is incredibly slow)

 

Did you look at the Mint Install in this forum? I'll go find it.
TEST site:forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic - Google Search
I used Azrial's search machine above.
Found this.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/472724-toughbooks-linux.html#post6093287
Read the whole thing. The 28 guys are marconi and klonsdale.
I'm more 29 oriented.
If you can get into edit mode I think Klonsdale said use i915.modeset=0. I think.
Read it and see if it helps. If you get stuck, holler.

 

That's right, at the boot screen arrow down to stop the automatic boot, then type "e" to enter the edit mode. then at the end of the line space once and type "i915.modeset=0 then hit the enter key. BTW if you use the debian edition of Linux Mint you wont have to do the modeset and debian runs faster on a 28 than main edition. Welcome to the madness.

 

Thankyou both for your input.

But still no success,

There seems to be some differences of opinion with regards the i915.modest, some say it should be 1 and others say 0.

I tried (0) this morning, updated grub etc... But that just seems worse.

I get opening grub menu, then all the packages installed etc etc, after a few seconds the screen goes black and then changes to a weird translucent white starting from the bottom and working towards the top.

With imodeset=1, I get like a raster effect and the screen flickers.

I have also tried inserting "device=intel" on same line. (in both modes, still no joy.

Maybe its time to consider the debian edition or having another go at Ubuntu.

Regarding the forum posts, well I thought I had just about read everything, but the new MINT has no xorg.cnf file, so a lot of the former posts aren't relevant.

Anymore suggestions guys.

 

Did you try nomodeset?

Looks like the revisions have outrun the thread. Sorry you weren't helped.

 

Wow, debian seems to work out the box, as you said,( well so far at least!)

Touchscreen doesnt work, but I suppose I could live without it.

Thanks guys

 

Forget the last post, the problem has returned.

After say 4 successful boots, straight til the logon screen (password etc etc).

The black screen has returned!!!!

I get opening grub gui, then some installer lines flash past, then a few seconds of black screen, the wheel comes up for 4 seconds, then black screen for another 4 until I hear the beep to prompt me to login. Where upon it remains black.

Have tried editing the grub at the front end with,
915 resolution
915 resolution mode 800x600

the autocomplete (tab) recognises 915resolution, but when I do a crtl-c for a promp, 915resolution -r or-l or -c does nothing.
so I am unable to confirm for sure that the bios has intel830 chipset, but that the machine is a cf-28 p variant.

have also tried:
i915.modeset=0 and 1 and nomodeset (but within grub itself, each time doing an upgrade grub)

Any further assistance would be appreciated.

PS tried Ubuntu10, but that just managed to remove my hdd from bios!!

Nightmare

 

You are not forgotten.
How are you loading the Live CD's?
I have no experience with Debian.
I fooled with Xubuntu on a CF-28 but not enough to figure a few things out. Then the mouse went goofy so I dumped it.
Did you look around in the 10.4 Ubuntu thread?
I skimmed the Linux Mint thread and it has become antiquated. Unless you went to an older version of Mint and then it would be o.k.
How much RAM are you running? 128 isn't enough but 256 and above would be fine.
The X desktop (terminology?) of Ubuntu is good but resource hungry.
My use of the modeset commands has been in the the Grub menu only. We are dealing as I think you realize with a chipset issue.
O.K. here's an idea...when you install your Linux version, check the install update box while installing. There have been some changes (daily?) and improvements of Intel resources in Linux. What I am trying to do here is to get the new stuff on the machine though if you get the black screen that's no help either (screams).
Sorry...rambling here and can't help it I just ate dinner. Maybe a brownie would help.
For the record state your model # please. And ram.
Klonsdale stated how the edit should be done better than I could do. See a previous post above.
Hey, if you get loaded (there's an idea) check your xorg.log and talk to us about the contents.

Disjointedly yours,

Jeff
EDIT : i915.modeset=0 goes on the line after quiet splash

 

If you have less than 256mb of ram then you are going to have issues such as you are having. 512mb would be better. You did not say but if you are running 128mb of ram then you have a CF-28m which is more difficult to deal with. Right now I do not have Linux installed on my 28 but after I finish this semester I will reinstall it and see if I can help. For what its worth I am running Linux Mint Debian edition on my CF-27 MK4 with 512mb of ram and it runs well and I have had no issues with it.

Jeff just reminded me of something, if you delete "Quiet Splash" then you will be able to get a text output of the boot process and get a better idea of where the boot process is getting bogged down

 

Excellent. Thanks for above.

Hey Klon, how about another earlier version of Mint? That would more nearly match the information in these pages if nothing else.

 

I could not hurt to try, the modeset trick worked with some of the earlier versions of mint and I'm sure unbuntu as well. If I remember correctly mint 8 worked using this method.

 

Mint 8 would be my choice too.