Newbie In Need of Assistance (Boot Menu Fails)

[naathyn]

Hi everyone. First let me say, thanks in advance for those taking the time to help me. It is much appreciated and Karma will be good to you.

First, a little background: I claim ignorance and know little about The Fedora Project. I have used default operating systems for nearly twelve years (Windows, Mac), thus I have never had to manually configure any setting in order for it to work.

I have been interested in alternative operating systems for a while now and have researched the ones that caught my interest with Fedora being my primary interest.

The Nitty Gritty: I have used Windows 7's image burner to apply "Fedora-17-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso" to a clean, well-functioning CD ROM. The burn was successful, therefore I thought I would be ready to boot Fedora upon reboot.

Once the boot menu appeared, I followed Fedora's comprehensive manual directions and went to boot options > CD ROM. All was well: Fedora 17's boot screan appeared as well as a countdown to launch. After the countdown finished, it quickly took me to a gray screen with a blinking "_" . Then for a moment, the screen goes black as if it is attempting to load the startup menu, and then I lose video signal. I hear the CD ROM still working hard, but no matter what I do, I can not establish video signal.

I do not ask for your help wishing for you to research this problem for me. As a matter of fact, yesterday from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. I researched threads and threads and threads of users experiencing similar--not similar, exact--problems as me. The real problem being, among all the pages with replies, not one definitive answer could be found.

The few things I did readabout were problems with NVIDEA graphic cards (which I have) and modification of the GRUB file. In addition, many suggested entering certain commands in the terminal upon booting. I apologize for my ignorance, and I reiterate my attempts in finding solutions, I am unaware of how to access the terminal and/or the proper grub file modifications needed in order to boot successfully.

One of the very few things I do know, is when I hit ESC during the countdown to launch, I'm taken to a black screen with the words "boot: ". Is this the terminal? If so, none of the commands I were reading about worked.

I apologize if the information is not definitive enough for proper diagnostics, although I will find and share any neccessary in order to solve this problems.

Thanks for reading, and bless you for your help.
-Nathan

[steveking]

Hi Nathan,

I unfortunately am having a very similar problem, but mine is post installation. I found a work around for mine which was simple but won't help you in the slightest.

What I might recommend doing is reburning the .iso onto a new disc (not your disc that is defective) but it could just be your download was interuptted and you didnt get a important file or two. This has happened to me in the past and a new download worked a treat. maybe try a different mirror with your download?

Also I do not mean to insult, but did you download the correct one? Maybe you downloaded the 64 bit and you have a 32 bit machine?

Firstly I recommend downloading again and retrying (making sure it is the correct architecture).

If that doesnt work then please post back and we shall investigate further

[kalwisti]

Hi, Nathan,

There's no need to apologize; it sounds as if you've done a fair amount of searching on your own. My guess is that you've run into some type of conflict between your Nvidia graphics card and the open-source Nouveau driver.

In order to pass so-called "kernel parameters" to the system at boot time, you do the following: Insert your Live CD as usual, but when you see the bootloader menu, hit the Tab key. This should allow you to type in the boot parameter(s) on the line below.

You could try the options below (one at a time) and see if one of them works for you:

nouveau.noaccel=1

quiet rhgb rdblacklist=nouveau nouveau.modeset=0

xorg=safe

This is just a stab in the dark, but it's worth a try, I think. If it's unsuccessful, I trust that one of the more knowledgeable Fedora folks will be able to help you.

I notice that you've also tried pressing the ESC key when you see the countdown (i.e., the blue Fedora bubble, aka Plymouth splash screen). This should put the Live CD into verbose mode and that should show you what processes / services are being loaded. It would be helpful if you could report how far you're getting before the system hangs.

< Is your system progressing to the point where you see this screen? http://tinyurl.com/7omd74k

This is where you would press the Tab key and try entering the boot parameter. >

HTH and Good luck.

P.S.
steveking's suggestion about verifying your download and burn (SHA-256 sum) is a good idea as well. Assuming that you have a good download and are persistent, once you get the Live CD to load properly, you should be able to install to your HD without further problems. I have an Nvidia integrated GPU, and the Nouveau driver has worked fine for me in Fedora. However, with another distro [Pardus 2011], a bug of some sort prevented the Installation DVD from loading properly and produced a garbled screen image. I had to use the "xorg=safe" boot parameter in order for the installer to load.