Live USB - Black Screen - No Signal

marlowe221 · 2018-06-09 06:42:12

I am attempting to try out the distro via a bootable USB. I am in legacy mode in the BIOS and Secure Boot-related stuff is off.

I am creating the USB in Windows 10 which is the only OS on my computer at the moment. I have used win32discimager, Rufus, and USBwriter to create USBs. So far, none of them work.

I can get to the graphical menu where I am prompted to choose what kind of live session I would like or if I would like to install. No matter what kind of live session I choose the same thing happens - a line of text flashes up on the screen (too quickly for me to read) and then the screen goes black. After a few seconds, I get my monitor's "no signal" message on the screen and then it goes black and stays that way. The only solution is a hard reboot via the power button on the tower.

I have tried multiple USB sticks and multiple USB writer programs. I used one that loaded up another distro's (Archlabs) live session just fine but could not get Bunsenlabs to work on it either.

My basic hardware configuration is as follows
FX-8320
Nvidia GTX-970
16GB DDR3

I ran a couple of different searches on the forums here but haven't found a solution. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I really want to give Bunsenlabs a try!

Last edited by marlowe221 (2018-06-09 06:43:16)

ohnonot · 2018-06-09 08:25:09

a few thoughts:

- iirc, rufus needs to be set to use "dd mode".
- windows needs to be shut down COMPLETELY, not just hibernated.
- hardware must not be too new (compare to stretch release date, go back at least half a year from that)

marlowe221 · 2018-06-09 15:38:44

ohnonot wrote:

a few thoughts:
- iirc, rufus needs to be set to use "dd mode".
- windows needs to be shut down COMPLETELY, not just hibernated.
- hardware must not be too new (compare to stretch release date, go back at least half a year from that)

I can't seem to find a "dd mode" setting in Rufus. Can you elaborate? I'm using Rufus 3.0.134, there's no box to check or anything.

I have been telling Windows to "restart" - should I tell it to "shut down" instead to get to the boot loader?

My CPU was released in 2012, my GPU in 2014... Is that too new?

Last edited by marlowe221 (2018-06-09 15:45:17)

marlowe221 · 2018-06-09 16:43:23

Well, I figured out how to use Rufus in DD mode. Let's see if this works...

Update - Nope! Same thing happens.

I don't understand this. I've tried live sessions of something like 5 other distros with no problems at all. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

Update 2 - No progress but I thought I would try some additional distros live sessions as a sanity check.

Manjaro Openbox spin (hybridiso) - Works
Archlabs - Works
Debian net install - Works (installer works)
MX Linux - Works

Bunsenlabs - Doesn't Work
CrunchBang++ - Doesn't Work

Last edited by marlowe221 (2018-06-10 07:02:48)

marlowe221 · 2018-06-10 07:13:01

Update 3 -

Part of the problem is apparently that I have a Gigabyte 990XFA-UDA Rev. 3 motherboard. My google-fu has revealed that this series of motherboards is notoriously difficult with regard to Linux, especially 64 bit versions of the kernel.

That said, I have updated the BIOS and tweaked the settings based on my research. I can now get some 64 bit live sessions running (see my above post), but not Bunsenlabs. The only Bunsenlabs live session I can run is the 32 bit version, and then only in failsafe mode. Failsafe mode in the 64 bit ISO does not work for me; it generates a kernal panic.

Unless someone has another suggestion, I think I'm just going to move on. I'm sure Bunsenlabs is a great distro, but unless I buy a new motherboard (and thus, CPU and RAM more than likely) my recent experience hasn't given me the confidence to think that I'm likely to have a good, or smooth, experience based on my hardware configuration.

As far as I can tell, it's the hybridiso format that my motherboard/BIOS doesn't like very much. Hopefully my experiences will be useful to others with this motherboard and/or the developers of Bunsenlabs.

johnraff · 2018-06-11 02:28:54

If you can install a basic (command line tools only) Debian Stretch system, then there is a BunsenLabs install script you could run after that: https://github.com/BunsenLabs/bunsen-netinstall
That would bypass the iso boot problem, but you wouldn't get a live session to try.

#1 2018-06-09 06:42:12

Live USB - Black Screen - No Signal

#2 2018-06-09 08:25:09

Re: Live USB - Black Screen - No Signal

#3 2018-06-09 15:38:44

Re: Live USB - Black Screen - No Signal

#4 2018-06-09 16:43:23

Re: Live USB - Black Screen - No Signal

#5 2018-06-10 07:13:01

Re: Live USB - Black Screen - No Signal

#6 2018-06-11 02:28:54

Re: Live USB - Black Screen - No Signal

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