BT5 - R3 KDE 64 bit : Not your usual black screen after startx... please help!

[SuspectGod]

Hello everyone,

I have used previous releases of Backtrack in the past, and have installed Backtrack 5 R1 on a laptop about 6 months ago. Now I have decided to
make the leap to installing Backtrack on my desktop and dual booting with windows 7. However I'm having trouble getting to the point where i can actually
install the distro!

I boot the live CD and wait for Backtrack to do its thing, and my problem arises after entering the "startx" command to enter the KDE gui. As soon as i enter the command my screen turns black, and the monitor
goes to sleep as it cannot find a signal.

i have tried following multiple guides on this forum, and across the internetz but none have worked so far all that i can find seem to involve changing the grub kernel commands, to something similar to "i915.modeset=1".
However my desktop is an AMD machine, with a ATI Radeon HD 5830 and doesn't use a single piece of intel hardware? So i don't believe that fix applies to this issue.

I have also tried many of the Backtrack 5 R2 forum fixes for black screen and these do not work either... Can anyone shed some light on this problem? I'm sure its a video driver problem or something similar, but sadly i'm no Linux
expert (yet!) and have come to a dead end in terms of my knowledge.

The file boots perfectly on vitualbox, so it cannot be a corrupt file etc.

The closest i came in my attempts was when following a R2 guide to the black screens http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...ad.php?t=48737. Ubuntu loaded up straight into the KDE, but i couldn't repeat this even using the
same commands?!

Sorry for the long post but wanted to give as much info as possible!

My desktop specs:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4, 3.8 Ghz
Memory: G Skill 4096MB DDR3 1066
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5830
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair IV Formula

Thank you in advance for any help.

Would be really appreciated.

[SuspectGod]

Hi, this may help. or at least get you thinking from a different angle.
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...ad.php?t=48659

Thank you!

The link in your post inadvertently led me on to another guide where i found my solution to accessing x . Now Backtrack is installed and I could install the ATI CCC and drivers to solve the video issues at start-up.

The solution was so simple and just a something that i had skimmed over before.

In the grub menu press "TAB" to edit boot.

You will see something similar to "file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz text splash vga=791--"

Just add "xforcevesa" after "initrd.gz" and leaving "text splash vga=791--".

This worked for me! Although i'm not a hundred percent sure why haha.

Thanks again

[maverik35]

Exactly, you have a ATi not intel..

Try using : radeon modeset=1 instead.

If it does not work, please do not startx, in text mode type this:

lspci | grep -i vga
then at the beginnig of the line you will see the pci-id: xx:xx.x

Type again lspci -vvs xx:xx.x and at the end, see the driver used by kernel....
If radeon, look for this file and edit if available: cat /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf
If file present it should show : "option radeon modeset=1", if not, use a text editor and add the line..In case the file is not present, create it and add the line..Then stop the X's:
Gnome: /etc/init.d/gdm3 stop
KDE: /etc/init.d/kde stop

Load module: modprobe radeon modeset=1 and restart the X's.

I hope it helps...

Luck...

[SuspectGod]

Exactly, you have a ATi not intel..

Try using : radeon modeset=1 instead.

If it does not work, please do not startx, in text mode type this:

lspci | grep -i vga
then at the beginnig of the line you will see the pci-id: xx:xx.x

Type again lspci -vvs xx:xx.x and at the end, see the driver used by kernel....
If radeon, look for this file and edit if available: cat /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf
If file present it should show : "option radeon modeset=1", if not, use a text editor and add the line..In case the file is not present, create it and add the line..Then stop the X's:
Gnome: /etc/init.d/gdm3 stop
KDE: /etc/init.d/kde stop

Load module: modprobe radeon modeset=1 and restart the X's.

I hope it helps...

Luck...

Thank you for your reply.

I followed your advise and wasn't too sure about i found... typing in "lspci -vvs 06:00.0" returned:

root@bt:~# lspci -vvs 06:00.0
06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon HD 5800 Series (Cypress LE)
Subsystem: XFX Pine Group Inc. Device 3070
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx+
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 85
Region 0: Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Region 2: Memory at fe9e0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
Region 4: I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at fe9c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [58] Express (v2) Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
DevCap: MaxPayload 256 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited
ExtTag+ AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
RlxdOrd+ ExtTag+ PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+
MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr- TransPend-
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 5GT/s, Width x16, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <64ns, L1 <1us
ClockPM- Suprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
LnkSta: Speed 5GT/s, Width x8, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
Capabilities: [a0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable+
Address: 00000000fee0f00c Data: 416a
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information <?>
Capabilities: [150] Advanced Error Reporting <?>
Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci
Kernel modules: fglrx

So the kernel is using a driver called fglrx_pci? There doesn't seem to be a mention on a radeon driver. I did however find a file "blacklist-fglrx.conf" containing:

# Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
# radeon conflicts with AMD Linux Graphics Driver
blacklist radeon

Is this stoping the ati driver from being used?

Btw I went to the ati website and downloaded there latest AMD catalyst control center and driver for ubuntu 64.

Unsure what to do next? Thank you for your help so far!!

[maverik35]

Sorry, I missunderstood your post, my mistake..I thought you were using live cd. But now see you are using HDD install with Dual boot.

Hello everyone,

I have used previous releases of Backtrack in the past, and have installed Backtrack 5 R1 on a laptop about 6 months ago. Now I have decided to
make the leap to installing Backtrack on my desktop and dual booting with windows 7. However I'm having trouble getting to the point where i can actually
install the distro!

For what I see, you have the propietary driver installed (fglrx) and in the blacklist-fglrx.conf file is blacklisting radeon module because it conflicts with fglrx module (propietary)..That is fine, you cannot have both modules loaded..radeon is the Open Driver so the propietary app blacklist radeon for you automatically...

If having video issues, perhaps you downloaded the wrong driver or is not compatible with kernel version...Something else, make sure you had installed the linux headers and the build-essential (make, gcc, fakeroot, etc)..Then install driver.

Here is the AMD driver to your video card: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...eon_linux.aspx hoping is the same you downloaded. Here you have 2 options in the vendor's page.

If I were you, I'd go with the beta driver, but the other one is fine too...

Need to uninstall the one you have (fglrx) first and then install the new driver...

Hope it helps...