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Author Topic: Just got TC installed but getting black screen  (Read 2738 times)

Offline TC_ME

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Just got TC installed but getting black screen
« on: January 14, 2013, 11:21:47 PM »
Hi all,
I am new to Tiny Core, have been with different ubuntu flavors since 2008.
Really love how super fast TC is.

My issue right now is I don't know how to get past the problem of the desktop not showing properly.
TC works great booting off the CD.
But when I install on HD it gets to a terminal screen.
I enter startx and it asks for video and mouse parameters.
Then when it boots I know the desktop is there as I can right-click and access normal selection boxes.
But the rest of the screen is black.
The VGA is NVIDIA - [1024-768]
But the strange thing to me is the CD has no problem with the video.
I'm guessing its something very silly that I've forgotten.
I apologize if you've heard this question too often by newBs.
Your help appreciated.
Muchas Gracius! :)

Offline Rich

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Re: Just got TC installed but getting black screen
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2013, 11:34:28 PM »
Hi TC_ME
Did you use a Tinycore CD or a CorePlus CD? Did you use the supplied install utility or some other method?

Offline TC_ME

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Re: Just got TC installed but getting black screen
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2013, 09:19:25 AM »
Hi Rich,
I used the TinyCore Plus CD.
I installed from the installation application on the CD.
I selected what I thought was the correct vga resolution option on the install options.
I wonder if a vga driver file didn't get copied over from the CD.
And I wouldn't know where to look on the CD for it.
I can off-course use the terminal commands after boot up.
I can do this two different ways.
1) The system boots up not to the GUI but to the terminal...so I can use it there.
2) In the terminal I can type "startx" to get into the TC GUI, right-click on the black screen and select the xterm...which brings up the terminal emulator.
The mouse and keyboard are both functional.

Thanks!
« Last Edit: January 15, 2013, 10:02:05 AM by TC_ME »

Offline curaga

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Re: Just got TC installed but getting black screen
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2013, 10:35:59 AM »
If the CD was fine but the install is not, sounds like your Nvidia card does not like the framebuffer (the vga=xxx bootcode).

Try removing it from your bootloader's config file and rebooting.
The only barriers that can stop you are the ones you create yourself.

Offline LinuxUser01

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Re: Just got TC installed but getting black screen
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2013, 10:55:15 AM »
The system is booting up to the console, then when you enter the desktop, thats where you can open a terminal. You most likely got the CorePlus CD. Don't know much about the CorePlus, but i've been using TinyCore for several months now with an ATI card. The Xvesa that comes with TinyCore or CorePlus is just a basic video driver, but it should still give you a decent resolution. It would really help if you try to find out what exactly that video card is in your system.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2013, 12:19:40 PM by LinuxUser01 »

Offline TC_ME

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Re: Just got TC installed but getting black screen
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2013, 11:49:17 AM »
>> Try removing it from your bootloader's config file and rebooting.

Hmm.... Not sure I would know where to look in the files for this.

Perhaps alternatively, I could reinstall from the CD and simply not select anything as a VGA option.
But since its working up to the point that it is, I would rather leave well enough alone and take your suggestion and modify the config file.
Ok, that would be the /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf  file.
I'll check this out when I get back to the hacienda!

Sincere thanks! :)
« Last Edit: January 15, 2013, 02:23:22 PM by TC_ME »

Offline Zendrael

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Re: Just got TC installed but getting black screen
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2013, 04:42:01 PM »
@TC_ME

Try to install it again and, in the installer app, do not select any boot code related to the vga!

I think this will do the job for you.

Offline TC_ME

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Re: Just got TC installed but getting black screen
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2013, 11:00:36 PM »
Thank you all very much for your help!!
I think since I've made changes I've got a different problem now.
For best practice, I should close this post and open up a new one.

My sincere thanks good people  :)