Ubuntu 10 install Fails - Screen Goes Black

EMC2 Live Ubuntu 10 install is failing on me. My screen goes black and I never get the nice install screen. (Burnt 2 cd iso.s)

I can do ctl-alt-f1 and get an ubuntu text window but I can not get to nice install screen ctl-alt-f7 gets me a blank screen.

I am trying to install this on a new Intel Atom D525MW that I purchased. 2gb of ram.

I tried Ubuntu 10 install by without EMC2 also and that does the same thing. (Burnt 1 CD iso)

Figured out my problem. It seems to be varying solution for different pcs. I looked at a posting at ubuntu site and played some:

ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10302599#post10302599

For me I had ubuntu with 5 pulse dots and then screen would go blank. To fix this I had to hit F6 on boot and then go to F6 again select "nomodest" and hit enter in order to get "x" to show up next to my selection. I then ran install and I am now going thru the install... currently at copying files... 45% and looks good. For others the fix maybe other settings.

I too have the Intel D525MW atom mobo. I havent had any of the problems you mentioned using "www.linuxcnc.org/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-linuxcnc1-i386.iso" - worked first time. I'm running with a single 2GB So-DIMM (crucial) and an old sata 160GB western digital hard drive - set to AHCI in the bios.

Im using the latest bios - version .74 if I recall correctly.

I have noticed that the Parallel port is detected wrong - i.e it doesnt enumerate as epp/ecp etc. Have you spotted that yet?

Latency tests appear to be very good on this board. With hyperthreading disabled, isolcpus=1 in grub config It is staying under 5000 even while being "hammered" with glxgears and application openings etc. With hypertheading enabled and isolcpus not set - it doesnt go above 10-11k and averages around 6000.

andypugh wrote:

it is very likely that this is the same issue as seen on the D510MO, so I suspect that the same, existing, workarounds in EMC2 will work.

And what might those be ?
My stepper board specifies epp and the d510mo isn't cooperating

It's one of those Gecko G540 all-in-wonder drives. According to the manual;

"Your parallel port must be set to EPP mode in BIOS for the parallel port to work correctly with the G540. If it is not in EPP mode
some functions of the G540 will not work"

BIOS is set to EPP but from dmesg
parport0 0x378 [PCSPP], whatever that means.

Gecko assumes Mach3, EPP may be irrelevant running emc. We'll see.

After a bit of searching of the Gecko forum......

You've hit on the reason Gecko insists on EPP. If EPP mode is not enabled the charge pump will not function.
It's one of the reasons Gecko added a charge pump bypass switch. If the charge pump is bypassed
additional relays and spindle control may not (won't ?) work as expected. Again, this is from a Windows/Mach3
perspective and may not apply to EMC2. In any case I bypassed the charge pump long ago.

All is good for my needs, thanks for your help :-}