# Unable to install Ubuntu 9.10 - screen flickers



## Suhas (Feb 19, 2010)

I am trying to install Ubuntu 9.10 but got a blank white screen with default install settings.

I changed to safe graphics mode, then I was able to see the installation screen. After 2-3 min the screen started flickering and the mouse/keyboard did not work and the system hung.

Then i tried adding the boot parameter fb=false (after reading about this in ubuntu troubleshoot section). Now also the screen flickers, but then as soon as the flickering starts the system reboots.

Then I tried adding the boot parameter vga=788, but it made no difference. Then i tried vga=ask and then chose a 800x600 VESA resolution, but this too made no difference.

The display adapter is NVIDIA GeFORCE 6150SE nForce 430 that is inbuilt with ASUS M2N-MX motherboard.The system has 3 GB of RAM

The problem also occurs on LiveCD boot too.

I think that the problem is that it is not recognizing the display driver.

Please guide me in solving this issue and installing Ubuntu 9.10.


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## FilledVoid (Feb 20, 2010)

Im guessing you are using a M2N- MX-SE Motherboard which I used to have. Try this on the Live boot cd . 

1. Disable ACPI
2. Disable APIC 
3. Reboot on Live boot cd and see if it is ok now. 

This happened to me on earlier distros but I was able to get it boot up by disabling APIC. 

PS: Don't double post it just makes the process of getting the answer twice as hard.


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## Rahim (Feb 20, 2010)

^I believe its ACPI and not APIC.


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## FilledVoid (Feb 20, 2010)

Haha woops i typed the same thing twice  . Corrected now.


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## Rahim (Feb 20, 2010)

^Correct it once again  Its "ACPI" & not "APCI" or "ACPI" 
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface


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## phuchungbhutia (Feb 20, 2010)

i have seen both as far as i know ... just press f6 and see there ... it has both acpi and apic in there .. and also dmraid .... 
btw i installed it once and now i myself cant get why i cant install again ... plus i had multiboot problems so am not installing (trying) it anymore ....


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## FilledVoid (Feb 20, 2010)

HAHAHAHAHAH Yup typo again lol. Will change now,


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## Suhas (Feb 21, 2010)

Thanks a ton  FilledVoid!

I selected the following options: 

 - Safe graphics mode (F4)
 - ACPI=off (F6)
 - noapic (F6) 
 - nolapic (F6)

It did not work otherwise.

Now the installation is complete, but the problem exists whenever I boot into the newly installed Ubuntu. I do not want to change ACPI and APIC settings in BIOS so I added the same parameters in grub i.e. "acpi=off noapic nolapic" when booting, but this time these are not working. the screen freezes/restarts. 

Is there any command line parameter for 'Safe graphics mode' ? How do I make this setting permanent ?


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## FilledVoid (Feb 21, 2010)

I changed my BIOS settings on my board I recall but I think you can enter the same from Grub. Also did you edit the menu.lst file or whatever its called to include the switches?


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## Suhas (Feb 21, 2010)

I tried changing the grub settings but it did not work (menu.lst does not exist for the new grub, instead grub.cfg is used ).

So then I disabled 'ACPI APIC' in BIOS. This did not solve the problem either. The screen froze and restarted still. Besides, now XP did not boot at all. So changed it back (enabled ACPI in BIOS) and booted. XP booted fine.

But the problem with Ubuntu remains... Any other ideas/suggestions?


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## celldweller1591 (May 16, 2010)

try sudo gedit /etc/default/grub 
replace GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi=off" and save it. it worked for me.


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