Ubuntu 11.04 on HP?

[jrlavik]

I just bought a Pavilion dm4 and tried to run Ubuntu 11.04.  The screen was black.  Any ideas?

[IntelSam]

Were you trying to do a dual boot?

Can you explain your intentions and the steps that you have done?

[jrlavik]

I had Ubuntu 11.4 on a bootable USB thumb drive and was trying to boot into Ubuntu. I had already changed the BIOS to boot from USB (in boot order).

When it first booted, I thought it had hung up, but then I saw the splash logo, in "black on black", just barely noticeable, and not legible at all.

[IntelSam]

It can take awhile to load an ISO from USB or disk, how long were you waiting for?

[jrlavik]

I waited several minutes...much longer than the same ISO on my old laptop.  As I said, I could just make out the splash screen logo, but couldn't make out enough to navigate.  I'm thinking it is a monitor driver issue, but don't know how to diagnose it.  I was hoping someone else had experience.

[IntelSam]

Did you try loading it from a DVD?

[jrlavik]

No...we have no DVD.

[IntelSam]

I'm not sure why it's not working. You could try to load a different image from the usb key such as Clone Zillia, just to see if it works.

[pepe999]

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jrlavik wrote:

I just bought a Pavilion dm4 and tried to run Ubuntu 11.04.  The screen was black.  Any ideas?

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It has happened to me many times with different distribution. This was another reason why I stopped using Ubuntu and started using Sabayon linux. I think that the problem is a bad settings for the graphics card. Some older versions may work but this won't. I suggest to try linux Mint. It's a based Ubuntu distribution so it's similar to Ubuntu and they have a better hardware support. If you really want to try Ubuntu, you need to modify the boot line on the grub menu page (the list of boot options). Press F5 or F6 (the one for editing boot options) and add a command to the boot line at the end:

xdriver=vesa

It should work and boot up to the X screen in a low resolution. When you install the system, activate the driver from Hardware Drivers or install the propriate one from the manufacturer..

[rfugger]

I'm having the same issue with my new DM4, trying to install Ubuntu 11.04.  Booting from the USB drive would hang on a blank screen most of the time, but it worked eventually and I installed the system.  Now the same thing happens when booting from the hard drive.  Sometimes it boots, but mostly it just shows the grub menu, then a black screen with a flashing cursor in the corner, then a blank screen with nothing. 

Some people elsewhere have said they've fixed this problem by turning up the brightness, and others have said that closing the screen and opening it again helps (and then possibly adjusting the brightness).  None of this works for me.  I just have to keep rebooting until I get through.  I'm going to check the error logs next time I can get in, or maybe just boot to a command prompt...