[SOLVED] SOS facing the black screen of death

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 04:15 AM

OK so booting up without the USB doesn't make it freeze but I need your input on what I should do next. Sending you the snapshot.

mrmazda · 06-14-2020, 04:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Somdatta

I need your input on what I should do next.

Switch to advanced mode and check for a BIOS setting that is a choice between Windows and Other. If there is one it needs to be set to Other. Then try booting the HD. If that gets the grub> prompt again, try booting the USB stick again. I'm going back to bed soon.

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 04:32 AM

OK so there are 3 partitions, which one do I choose, there is San Disk,San disk1 and disk2

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 04:35 AM

On choosing San Disk it goes to the grub prompt

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 04:37 AM

On choosing San Disk 1 it goes to the grub prompt as well

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 04:39 AM

What should I do after choosing San Disk, go to the advanced options?

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 04:45 AM

Booting from local Disk right now, taking forever.

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 04:54 AM

Ok installation on

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 09:07 AM

Still facing black screen grub prompt after xubuntu installed successfully.

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 09:14 AM

Tried to go for manual option while choosing partitions and saw bizarrely that/sda3 had files enough to take up the entire 1tb hard Disk, and had to beat a hasty retreat to the safety of the default option. Any ideas what might be going on?

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 09:54 AM

Snapshot of ls at grub prompt. It's bizarre, no sign of the kernel anywhere.
BTW what you guys did for me is unthinkable, keeping awake till 3:30 in the morning and all, I can't even imagine...

mrmazda · 06-14-2020, 10:45 AM

Did you look for a Windows vs Other setting in BIOS advanced?

Did you try the F8 key during POST?

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 10:51 AM

As I said before, there was no windows or other option to be executed. And I successfully used the f2 during POST to go to the BIOS from which I also successfully installed xubuntu. But then when I try to boot the machine it goes into grub prompt mode.

mrmazda · 06-14-2020, 11:29 AM

At this point it might be worth to try again instructions in #25, properly adjusted for the new partitioning. First we need to know what that new partitioning is by seeing fdisk -l output and the content of /etc/fstab on the new root partition.

One possibility is the BIOS is resisting or objects to the MBR partitioning used by the most recent installation. You could try installing Xubuntu again using UEFI and possibly achieve acceptable results.

Until you try installing something other than *buntu, or its cousins Debian or Mint or any of several others, we are unlikely to discover what's going wrong with Grub installation. If you insist to stick only with *buntu, you probably should start a new thread in the Ubuntu forum to attract Xubuntu users to your thread.

Somdatta · 06-14-2020, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

The second photo cuts off an important part of what you typed on the linux line. It looks like you typed /dev/sda1 where you may have needed /dev/sda2, or no root= at all. Without fdisk -l output, we don't know where your root filesystem lives. Retry without any root=/dev/sdanything:

Code:

insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
linux /vmlinuz noresume root=/dev/sda2
initrd /initrd.img
boot

If it fails, try without root=/dev/sda2.

But as you can see from the last snapshot, I don't even know what the kernel is anymore