Mint 16 Will not boot or install from disk or USB stick

[Christopher]

Toshiba P50 laptop with Windows 8.1 pre-installed...Secure Boot disabled...Fast startup disabled...Fast boot disabled... rEFInd installed per instructions at rodsbooks.com...rEFInd shows boot options correctly for Mint boot from disk ...after choosing Mint boot option from GRUB menu...screen goes black and stays black for up to 30 minutes (not enough time?)...created USB boot from instructions found in "Linux on a stick" blog...
copied rEFInd zip file contents to EFI/BOOT/refind/...rEFInd gives option to boot Mint and again GRUB shows MINT boot...when this is chosen same result as above...black screen,no errors, no activity...

Same Mint iso file works perfectly in Virtual Box all day long...no problems with NVidia graphics drivers or anything else...

I have read and re-read rEFInd install and use info at rodsbooks.com and have not been able to determine where the error in configuration or execution lies...

I know this is not a rEFInd problem but I could sure use some advice on what to look at...thanks in advance for any assistance...

[Roderick W. Smith]

"Black screen" problems have been plagueing Linux for the past year or so. There are several different causes, and therefore different solutions. These include (but are not limited to):

• The screen comes up dimmed. Use the keyboard's screen-brightness keys to fix this problem.
• The kernel requires the nomodeset parameter, or a chipset-specific variant of it. You can add this in rEFInd by hitting F2 or Insert twice, or by adding the option permanently to the /boot/refind_linux.conf file.
• Proprietary drivers for Nvidia and AMD/ATI are often broken on EFI systems. The solution here is to use the standard open source drivers that come with X.
• Video auto-detection can go awry. Sometimes this can be fixed by booting into text mode, typing Xorg -configure as root (or using sudo), and copying/renaming the /root/xorg.conf.new file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You can then manually fine-tune that file. Unfortunately, this sort of fine-tuning is rapidly becoming a lost art, and is too complex to fully describe here. Sometimes you can get away with just copying/renaming the file, though.
• In some cases booting in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode fixes the problem. You can do this from rEFInd by uncommenting refind.conf's scanfor line and ensuring that hdbios is among the boot options. This will require that you have a BIOS-mode boot loader installed, though.

In diagnosing your particular problem, it might help to know if you were ever able to get Mint to boot without having this problem, and if so, how you booted it to have success.

[Christopher]

No...I have never been able to get Mint 15 or 16 to boot (or install, obviously) from any iso file downloaded from linuxmint.com to either hard drive or USB...as stated, these same iso files will boot and install without incident or error from inside VirtualBox (which uses the video drivers for the GeForce 740 LM). I have also tried to boot Mint with the standard Windows video drivers without success...adding the nomodeset and/or xforcevesa params in GRUB has no effect...if I can't get Mint to boot up, I can't preview or install it, so I don't see how I can use Linux commands to configure anything...the best I could manage would be to use Windows to edit files on the USB stick...I appreciate the advice to use a BIOS install, but since it works so well inside VirtualBox, it really isn't worth the bother...I'd rather stick with UEFI...I don't have the knowledge necessary to configure it to boot with open source drivers...perhaps I've finally met a technology I'm ill-equipped to learn...what is the next thing GRUB looks for once I elect to boot Mint (in regular or compatibility mode, neither of which work)? because from that point on absolutely NOTHING seems to be happening... Again, from inside VirtualBox, the iso file boots immediately and will even let me install Mint without issue...

[este.el.paz]

Christopher:

I might offer my $.02, as I have done a few LM installs, but on Mac MBPro--it does seem that the LM install process has gotten more finicky, rather than easier. It's become very important to check the md5sum from the .iso and if it's corrupted the install will say "successful" yet not be, or it will break in the install process and just freeze . . . . So, it might* be that Virtualbox doesn't need the md5sum number to be perfect, but the installer does? In terms of the video drivers, it seems like LM gets itself going, and then there is a GUI for "updating drivers" and it runs a search and offers them in a drop down menu to select from . . . if you are getting a black screen on an Intel machine I might consider the install is "corrupted"??

Another question, did you burn the LiveDVD and try to boot that? And, another question, did you let the installer run the install "next to windows" or did you choose another option and do it manually? If you did it manually did you flag the root home, and did you flag the "bios_grub" partition that you set up for GRUB? That has been another problem with LM that might not have been fixed . . . .

And, finally, it seems like the general wisdom is that it is "easy" to install linux on a windows machine . . . and that there would be no need for rEFInd??? Can't confirm that, as for me in Apple-land . . . I need rEFInd to get from OSX boot to linux boot . . . . I would suggest posting a question on the LM forum, the "newbie questions" seems to get some attention there . . . but it can be hit or miss . . . I don't spend too much time there for that reason . . . .

e.e.p.