Today I tried to fix an ongoing boot problem I’ve been having with Linux Mint. It all went horribly wrong and I had to reinstall the operating system. Fortunately, all my important files are in the cloud so I didn’t lose any work.
My Toshiba Satellite was the problem computer. After I installed Mint, it always booted up fine. The problems began after a kernel update.
When I originally booted up the system I used to get the green Mint emblem in the middle of the screen. After the kernel update, all I got was a black screen and my computer no longer appeared to boot.
When I stared hard at the center of the screen I could see the Mint emblem but it was very dark. Nothing more than a shadow.
I never found a way to resolve the problem but I found a workaround in no time at all. After I switched my laptop on, I pressed the left shift key. This allowed me to enter the grub menu.
Once in the grub menu, I chose the advance start-up options and, scrolled down to the original version. Every time I selected that, I was able to boot the machine just fine but I only ever saw it as a temporary measure. I always planned to resolve the problem so that I could enjoy a normal boot.
It was also possible to get the system up and running by running the generic versions in recovery mode and getting the system to check and repair the files but that took too long. It was much quicker and easier to run the original generic version.
If you are reading this because you presently have a problem getting Linux to boot and it involves the dreaded black screen, you may find this solution works for you too. Just keep pressing shift on startup, enter the grub menu, and choose the oldest generic version.
I wish I’d continued doing that now and left my attempts at a more permanent solution to my Linux black screen until another day.
According to my research, the problem appears to be related to the graphics card. Certain ones cause problems. Apparently, there’s a fix. One of the first steps is to enter the Compatability Mode boot option.
I wasn’t sure how to do this but eventually found out you can enter the Compatability Mode boot option on Linux Mint by pressing the “E” key after you first switch on your machine.
According to information on the Linux Mint Forum, and many other sites, you then have to edit the section of text that contains “quiet splash” and replace it with “nomodeset”.
I’m sure this method works for lots of people but it did not work for me. I got an error message informing me of various problems. It tolme me I needed to do a manual fsck.
I didn’t know what this was so I had to do some research on my other computer.
fsck is a command/program that repairs broken Linux file systems. I tried to run it in the way several sites were suggesting but it would not work. In the end, I gave up because I knew it would be quicker to do a reinstall.
The reinstall worked. My Toshiba Satellite is up and running again. This time it’s running Cinnamon instead of Mate. I know the problem with the black screen will return as soon as I do an update and, for now, I will do the same thing as I was doing before – pressing shift to enter grub, and then using the original kernel version.
Regardless of these teething issues and lack in my knowledge, I still prefer Linux to Windows and I’m willing to learn more about how the system works. Hopefully, the next time I try to solve the black screen problem, I’ll know enough to get it right.
