Screen Scrambled when MX-Linux is Booting and Loaded [Solved]

[fbagnato]

Hello all,

I have an old iMac 5,1 that I just installed MX-Linux as a Dual Boot with Mac OS X 10.11.6.

To install MX-Linux, I had to burn the ISO to a USB Stick (a DVD would not boot) and had to add the "nomodeset" parameter (pressed "e" at the grub splash screen).

Without the nomodeset the screen would go black and the booting process stopped.

On this computer I have rEFInd Boot Manager installed to handle the two OS's.

All went well with the install but now that it is installed when I select to boot MX-Linux from rEFInd the screen becomes scrambled immediately upon booting MX-Linux and stays scrambled (I'm guessing right until and including running XFCE windows manager).

It looks like it is not using the correct driver or is running at an unsupported resolution or bad refresh rate or something like that.

The iMac 5,1 has an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics adapter built into it.

I am not experienced with Linux so I don't know how I can pass parameters from rEFInd. In rEFInd I am able to edit the parameters(?) which at the moment shows "ro root=UUID=1c741628-2440-49bf-b1d6-158855bb8d2f initrd=boot\initrd.img-5.10.0-20-686-pae".

I tried adding nomodeset at the end of this long parameter but it doesn't commence booting at all.

Adding failsafe at the end of this long parameter made no difference (same scrambling).

Any ideas on how I fix this and remember I am inexperienced with Linux.

Regards,

fbagnato

[Charlie Brown]

Though you already stated it's "ATI Radeon X1600" , you can boot live session (ok, with nomodeset as you have to) then post "Quick System Info" from menu.

The weird thing is that it boots with nomodeset on live session and doesn't when installed.

[Charlie Brown]

... Or if you like only, we can try something radical (force it load Radeon drivers):



Boot with the live usb (no matter with nomodeset etc.. )

"Chroot Rescue Scan" from menu, proceed (it'll find your installed MX) and when you see the prompt

chroot>


issue these:

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make-xorg-conf radeon -o /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-radeon.conf

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echo -e 'radeon\n\nloop' | sudo tee /etc/modules

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echo 'radeon' | sudo tee -a /etc/initramfs-tools/modules

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update-initramfs -uk all

Reboot (with the installed MX)


(As you already know: you can copy-paste-press Enter)

[fbagnato]

Hello Charlie Brown,

Thank you for replying and trying to help me.

I booted the live system with nomodeset and ran the Quick System Info.

The following is the output:

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System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-20-686-pae [5.10.158-2] i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/antiX/vmlinuz quiet splasht nosplash nomodeset 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.18.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.3_386 Wildflower January 15  2023 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Apple product: iMac5,1 v: 1.0 serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 13 
           v: Mac-F4228EC8 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Apple model: Mac-F4228EC8 v: DVT serial: <filter> UEFI: Apple 
           v: IM51.88Z.0090.B08.0612151336 date: 12/15/06 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 T7400 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Core Merom family: 6 
           model-id: F (15) stepping: 6 microcode: D1 cache: L2: 4 MiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 8655 
           Speed: 999 MHz min/max: 1000/2167 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 999 2: 999 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: EPT disabled 
           Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations 
           Type: retbleed status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 
           mitigation: Retpolines, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD RV530/M56-P [Mobility Radeon X1600] vendor: Apple MacBook Pro driver: N/A 
           alternate: radeon bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:71c5 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0 driver: loaded: ati,vesa 
           unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1680x1050 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 445x278mm (17.5x10.9") 
           s-diag: 525mm (20.7") 
           Monitor-1: default res: 1680x1050 hz: 77 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1 128 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.3.5 compat-v: 3.1 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio vendor: SigmaTel STAC9221 Codec 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:27d8 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-20-686-pae running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Marvell 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet driver: sky2 v: 1.30 port: 1000 
           bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 11ab:4362 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Broadcom BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n vendor: Apple AirPort Extreme 
           driver: b43-pci-bridge v: N/A modules: ssb,wl port: 1000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 
           chip-ID: 14e4:4328 class-ID: 0280 
           IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Apple Bluetooth HCI type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 5-1:4 
           chip-ID: 05ac:8206 class-ID: fe01 
           Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 1.2 lmp-v: 2.0 
           sub-v: 7ad hci-v: 2.0 rev: 7ad 
           Info: acl-mtu: 384:8 sco-mtu: 64:8 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park 
           link-mode: slave accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 291.13 GiB used: 1.84 GiB (0.6%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD2500JS-40TGB0 
           size: 232.89 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 1.5 Gb/s type: N/A 
           serial: <filter> rev: 6C04 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: Generic model: STORAGE size: 58.24 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1404 
           scheme: GPT 
           SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure? 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 2.79 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 17.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 858 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 1955 lib: 982 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
Info:      Processes: 184 Uptime: 3m wakeups: 1 Memory: 2.92 GiB used: 825.9 MiB (27.6%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: N/A 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

I will try your second suggestion now.

Regards,

fbagnato

[fbagnato]

Hello Charlie Brown

Here is the output from the commands you provided in your second post.

For anyone trying this procedure note that the password for demo is "demo".

I will now reboot in normal mode and try booting MX-Linux.

Fingers crossed!

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===============================================================================
Starting chroot-rescue-scan
===============================================================================
Scanning partitions ...
Scanning directories ...
Only one Linux system was found
                                                                                                  
Please select a Linux system to visit                                                             
    Distro             Date        Dir      Device Arch   Label                                   
  = MX 21.3 Wildflower 2023-07-26  rootMX21 sda5   32-bit rootMX21                                
  > Rescan all partitions for Linux systems                                                       
  > Quit                                                                                          
Press <Enter> to select the highlighted entry                                                     
Use 'r' to redraw, 'q' to quit                                                                    
                                                                                                  
Visiting distro MX_21.3_Wildflower_
Directory: /mnt/chroot-rescue-scan/rootMX21  Device: sda5
Use the exit command or <ctrl>-d to return to main menu
===============================================================================

(MX_21.3_Wildflower_) Thu Jul 27 07:55:33 /
chroot> make-xorg-conf radeon -o /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-radeon.conf

(MX_21.3_Wildflower_) Thu Jul 27 07:55:52 /
chroot> echo -e 'radeon\n\nloop' | sudo tee /etc/modules
radeon

loop

(MX_21.3_Wildflower_) Thu Jul 27 07:56:08 /
chroot> echo 'radeon' | sudo tee -a /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
radeon

(MX_21.3_Wildflower_) Thu Jul 27 07:56:30 /
chroot> update-initramfs -uk all
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-20-686-pae
W: mkconf: MD subsystem is not loaded, thus I cannot scan for arrays.
W: mdadm: failed to auto-generate temporary mdadm.conf file.

(MX_21.3_Wildflower_) Thu Jul 27 07:57:43 /
chroot> 

Regards,

fbagnato

[fbagnato]

Hello Charlie Brown,

Sadly, the same screen scrambling is occurring.

Is it possible that the rEFInd boot manager is causing it?

It would be good if there was another live boot manager I could try without installing it to eliminate rEFInd from the equation.

I did try setting rEFInd to Text Only (textonly setting) and set the Resolution as 1024 x 768 (resolution 1024 768 setting) in the refind.conf file but the same scrambling occurs.

Due to my inexperience with Linux I don't know what else I can try.

Is there anything else you or anyone else can suggest?

Regards,

fbagnato

[Charlie Brown]

... But .. how did you install Refind (since it never booted the installed MX even with nomodeset) ?

And, imho, that shouldn't be the reason ... also on live session it's still the same ...

Maybe an older kernel like antiX 4.19 might be better ..


(The commands look successfully executed in the meantime)


In case you'd like to try another kernel: Chroot again, same way.. then issue:

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mx-packageinstaller

..and install antiX 4.19 from the initial tab with 2 clicks..


Meanwhile, you can also try

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bp=b9

on live session instead of nomodeset to see what happens.

[fbagnato]

Hello again Charlie Brown,

Thanks again for replying.

... But .. how did you install Refind (since it never booted the installed MX even with nomodeset) ?

I installed rEFInd before I installed MX-Linux with a bootable rEFInd USB Stick.

Meanwhile, you can also try

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 bp=b9 

I did this on the Live USB and the boot process stops at a command prompt that states

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==> Bash shell @ breakpoint [b9] Bash shell right before starting init
      Use the exit command or press Ctrl-d to boot
      Use poweroff and reboot to poweroff and reboot
root@(none):/# 

I will try the older kernel next as you suggested.

Is is worth me trying to install the MX-23_RC3_386.iso from the Testing branch on the Sourceforge site dated 2023-07-23?

Regards,

fbagnato

[fbagnato]

Hello Charlie Brown,

In case you'd like to try another kernel: Chroot again, same way.. then issue:

Code: Select all

mx-packageinstaller

..and install antiX 4.19 from the initial tab with 2 clicks..

Before doing this I decided to do a Clonezilla backup so I could try a few things then go back to this checkpoint.

I then installed the older kernel but I didn't see an antix 4.19 kernel but there was an "antix 4.9 32 bit pae" kernel. I assumed the 4.19 was a typo so I went ahead and installed the "antix 4.9 32 bit pae" kernel.

Unfortunately I got the same scrambling screen with this older kernel.

I then tried different versions of rEFInd but had the same scrambling screen.

I then thought I would try installing MX-23_RC3_386.iso from the Testing branch on the Sourceforge site dated 2023-07-23.

I got the same scrambling screen.

I just don't understand why it is working on the live boots (2 different live MX-Linux boots now including the Testing branch) but doesn't work on the normal boots from the hard drives.

Is there a way with "Chroot Rescue Scan" that I can view the existing refresh rate on the hard drive installed system and if necessary modify it?

In Windows the same scrambled screen occurs if you set the refresh rate too high for the monitor.

Another thing.....Is there another Boot Manager that I can try on a Live Bootable Disc to see if the scrambling occurs. I know you are saying that rEFInd can't be the problem but it would be good to try a different solution just to check the same thing is happening. rEFInd is good in the sense that I was able to boot it up from a Bootable USB and it picked up all my bootable OS's so I could test it before installing it.

Regards,

fbagnato

[Charlie Brown]

Actually there are both 4.19 and 4.9 here , in fact I was going to suggest 4.9, just didn't for the support ended for 4.9 in general , but you did well trying that.

It may not show the refresh rate of the installed system when chrooted (not sure). However we can see what rate it is on live session and make a script according to that and place it on installed MX's autostart.. Something like:


xrandr --output DP-0 --primary --mode 1920x1080 --rate 75 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal


However it's still weird that you have to use nomodeset even on live session.. Also the xrandr (thus the script) won't work at Grub stage ...

Shortly: You can install ARandR on live session and either "save as" the output to somewhere (when screen is according to your liking) and post here (if no such rate is stated there, we can add it according to your observation, say 60 is good on Windows ... )

Is it the same on all distros? (Have you tried 1-2 others?)