Another black-blank screen...

**mystmn** · 07-23-2006, 04:33 AM

I'm sorry to be bothering you guys, esecially since I've read over 15+ post with my same or similar problem. I have looked at the F.A.Q. and also have tryed Cheat Codes, which I will post what codes I have tryed.

Heres my dilemma, I have Knoppix v.5.0.1. I boot it up, it runs normal. Recognize my video (Radeon 9800se), mouse ps/2, sound, monitor, and my
Using modes - which I'm guessing is the monitor screen display size. It says " X window systems" and then the screen flickers and its all black and blank, till I restart it - I have waited 5+ mins.

My computer specs are the following: Athlon 64 2800, 1802mhz, 512kb cashe, 2g memory and about 60g of hard drive.

I put the codes in groups so that I could hopefully narrow down the problem. I had no clue what most of the cheats standed for, so I figured to try what seemed to be popular codes to commonly F.A.Q.
The codes I tryed so far, are the following:

(1)noapic noagp noapm nodma
(2)nomce nofirewire nopcmcia
(3)noscsi noswap nousb
(4)noaudio
(5)nosmp
(6)failsafe --Now failsafe did seem to cut off my usb keyboard, so that did me no good.

I even tryed Tips & Tricks and tryed the following:

boot:knoppix vga=0
boot:knoppix acpi=off pnpbios=off noapic noapm
(a) boot:knoopix vga=0 debug -b 3
(b) boot:failsafe debug -b 3

On (a) & (b) it shut off my keyboard at the first stage so I couldn't even type 'exit' like it prompts in the Tips & Tricks.

Hopefully this has cleared up quiet abit to what the problem is. I'm very new to linux and I plan on experimenting with linux to do clusters on my own learning curve.
I would be very grateful if anyone could try to help me out on this one.

For now I need to go defrag the computer (restarting the computer so abruptly has cause many errors to occurred.)
Thank you and God Bless.

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-23-2006, 04:54 AM

Originally Posted by mystmn

for now I need to go defrag the computer (restarting the computer so abruptly has cause many errors to occurred.)

Knoppix does not normally write to the disk, so this should not be happening for a Knoppix boot problem.

Originally Posted by mystmn

.... It says " X window systems" and then the screen flickers and its all black and blank, till I restart it - I have waited 5+ mins.

Certainly sounds like a video issue. A few things to try: If your monitor has on-screen display, bring up the display after it goes black and tell us what frequencies it says it is trying to be run at. Also, check your manual or look up your monitor and tell us what frequency ranges it should run, as the problem that you describe is most commonly seen with an old monitor that does not report it's capability by p-n-p if Knoppix tries to run it too fast. Look at the cheat codes for options that force the monitor to very common resolutions like 640x480 and 60 hz. You may not want to run in that mode in the long run, but it would be a good place to get started, once you have that working then try upping the specs.

Also try failsafe without the debug stuff, and try expert and take notes on all that you answer. Failsafe mode may not be very suitable to run in, but if it gets you past the black screen problem you might learn something in the process. If it fails under expert you can try answering things differently.

You posted your video card but didn't mention the monitor, it might help someone if you posted that make and model too. However, I'll leave you to look up it's specs and see if it supports PNP and is being run in-spec.

Is "tryed" a strange Ohio spelling of "tried"? It sounds almost Almish, and I know Ohio has a good size Almish population. This isn't an Almish computer, is it?

**rusty** · 07-23-2006, 04:57 AM

It could be as simple as a badly burned cd, but a couple things too try.

Try at boot: knoppix 2 , in order to get knoppix booted without starting the x server. See if you can get to a command line. If you do, then type startx, and notice the output as the x server tries to load.

Another cheat code which might help is vga=normal, worth a try.

HTH

**mystmn** · 07-23-2006, 05:57 PM

Heres the type of monitor I am using http://www.aocdisplay.com/envision/manuals/EN-7410e.pdf

Heres my results.

On bios and intill I hit knoppix my screen runs at 640x 480 @60hz

boot:knoppix 2 -- ran at 1280 x 1024 @75hz
vga=normal -- ran at 720 x 400 @70hz then after the setup, on the black screen it ran at 1280 x 1024 @75hz

For the Start X results - from what I could make out considering it gives me about 3-4secs till it continues on.

-11 instead of requested priority -10

All these suggestions still was not able to get me to the linux desktop/graphics mode.
At the moment I'm going to try the 'expert mode' and perhaps looking in cheats for forced monitor resolutions like Harry suggested.

**mystmn** · 07-23-2006, 06:44 PM

Ok heres some more info.

knoppix screen=1280x1024 xvrefresh=60 -- did not work.
expert -- stopped my keyboard from working

Failsafe -- ran my resolution at 720x400@70hz -- Which did work by the way

At desktop the monitor runs at 1280x1024@60hz

*Note*

How can my monitor run at 60hz, yet the desktop says its at 76hz?
Running at 76hz is the only option that was available

I can only run the desktop at 1280x1024. If I switch it to 640x480, it will automaticly switch back.

Trying to also change it at Kole Center was no good either.

Ok guys, theres was more info to chew on, thanks abunch.

**mystmn** · 07-25-2006, 06:55 PM

I've noticed that no one has made any more suggestions. Am I pretty much screwed except to run in 'failsafe' each time? Is there a way to get a list of codes that 'failsafe' activates when disabling components, besides the codes I previously used...Perhaps to narrow down the problem.

Quick question while I'm still on. What the difference between Knoppix and ClusterKnoppix http://clusterknoppix.sw.be/

Alright guys, peace and thank you.

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-26-2006, 12:34 AM

Knoppix is Knoppix. Other Live CDs with Knoppix in the name are not Knoppix, but they are likely based on Knoppix. For example Knoppix STD. Cluster Knoppix is a Live CD that is made for cluster computing, you boot the live CD on each computer on your local network and, at least in theory, you can use the computing resources of all of those system as a "cluster" to work on computation intensive aplications.

As to your video problem, if it works in failsafe mode then I see no reason to expect that you should have to run in failsafe mode, you should be able to determine "cheat codes" that also force it to work, keep trying video related cheat codes until you find ones that work for you.

**ckamin** · 07-26-2006, 06:31 AM

mystmn:

Here is the link to the cheatcode section of the wiki: http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes

The following is the information on "failsafe" contained therein as you requested:

failsafe:
Boot with (almost) no hardware detection
# cat /proc/cmdline
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us vga=normal atapicd
nosound noapic noacpi pnpbios=off acpi=off nofstab noscsi
nodma noapm nousb nopcmcia nofirewire noagp nomce nodhcp
xmodule=vesa initrd=minirt.gz BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux

Try the cheatcodes listed individually or in some combination until you find the one that does the trick.

It's just a process of elimination and many trials and many errors, until you find the right codes.

One other cheatcode I do not see listed for Knoppix is "knoppix noddc". It will then skip detection of the monitor. I'm not sure if it works in Version 5.0.1, but it's worth a try if it is a monitor detection issue.

It might be worthwhile trying a previous version of Knoppix, like V 4.0.2. Some people have been reporting troubles with 5.0.1 and sometimes an older version proves to be better on some hardware. There were many changes from 4.0.2 to 5.0.1. It might be that the next release will resolve some of the issues. The change that may be at the root of your troubles, could be that 4.0.2 used Xfree86 and 5.0.1 uses Xorg 7.0. You might also want to look for additional documentation at www.X.org.