Problems using live CD on new machine

[NoOp]

On 06/30/2009 07:10 AM, Richard wrote:
> I have a new AMD Phenom 2 x4 on an Asus 4GB M4A78 Pro board. The
> chipset is AMD 780G / SB700.  I Googled this before buying the machine
> and found statements that people had run linux satisfactorily with
> it, and I understood that Asus was OK.
> 
> When I try to boot the machine from the 9.04 CD I get the main Ubuntu
> menu OK, but when I try to run the CD live, I just get a black screen
> with a blinking underscore cursor at the top.

Try going through some of these:
<http://www.google.com/search?complete=0&hl=en&q=ubuntu+%2B"ATI+Radeon+HD+3200"&btnG=Search>

That is the built in video of your board according to :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131362

Also:
<https://launchpad.net/+search?field.text="ATI+Radeon+HD+3200"+%2Binstall&field.actions.search=Search>

Your graphics use the ATI Hybrid CrossFireX™ technology, so you might be
running into this issue:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/312756
[support graphics card hot switch]
Note comment 1:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/312756/comments/1
<quote>
OT (but also important): And also on the amd/ati side there are
problems. Many laptops have two graphics chips inside (hybrid
crossfire), but x cannot start, not even with vesa. We need to do
something about this. Thanks.
</quote>

> 
> I have tried the various options offered like safe graphics mode,
> ACPI=off, noapic, nolapic, but they don't solve it.
> 
> Any suggestions as to what else I might try (e.g. BIOS settings).

See if there are any bios settings in the graphics that you can change.

> 
> The board has built-in graphics (ATI-based, I think).  Is it likely that
> this might be a problem?  Might adding a pci graphics card be the
> solution? Or might I need a proprietary driver?
> 
> One other peculiarity with my setup is that my HDs are running off a
> pci disk controller, but that shouldn't stop the live CD from running,
> should it?

Not that I know of. My guess is the crossfire/graphics issue above, so
I'd search those links and see if you pin down a workaround.

> 
> Does anyone else have this M/B + processor hardware?
> 
> - Richard Kimber
>