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XBMC Live with ATI/AMD graphics controller boots to black screen?
#76
Smile 
Big Grin I tried a couple of different computers all of them Dell, also received a blank screen on the following systems: Inspiron 6400, XPS 420 and an XPS One. All of them will boot to the black screen after selecting the corresponding chipset.

Finally I was able to test XBMC live on an Optiplex with an Intel integrated video card. I also had success using an Inspiron 530 that comes with an Intel integraded video card and an Nvidia gpu (not sure if it's a 7300 series, but I will check). I will post more detailed information in the near future and will focus on the 530 since I have 2 of those and they are also dirt cheap at the outlet, I can throw XP, Ubuntu or Vista and these machines will run it all. But I really want to use XBMC and add an option to play and record HD-TV.

I'll have to say that I'm very impressed with XBMC so farLaughNod. I also found a couple of bugs Sad and have not been able to install it to a hdd Eek, so I'm using the boot option each time and I love it but I want to save my settings, eliminate the keyboard and add a remote control and TV tuner. I'm not complaining but just wanted to point out that this software is near perfect, I would say is 90-95 % ready and the rest requires Linux knowledge that I lackNo. I will keep posting more info as I'm looking to learn more about this software, so far I recommended to a couple of friends that are also impressed with it and will be giving it a try too. Cheers to all the developers that made XBMC possible and please keep up the excellent job. ! BTW this is my first post here.


P.S. Happy New Year 2009!!!!


Luis
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#77
Hello, first time posting in the forum and wanted to say that xbmc is just what I was looking for. Now onto my problem. It is the same as a lot of people in this thread.

I have a Dell Optiplex GX260 and I added an Asus AH3450 (ATi HD 3450 low profile card). I am using a DVI (only port on it) to HDMI because my VGA gos out of range and all it does is boot up to a blank screen. I can see the splash screen but that is it. I tried a trick that worked during tested with a different ATi card (too big to use), and that was to install it using the onboard intel graphic and then put the card in and use that instead of the onboard and it worked. Now that I got this card I tried it again and got closer, it crashes between the text login and a black screen with the X courser. This is a fresh install, basic Xorg.conf file. I have tried adding the two options and last time it would crash before the X courser but wouldn't start xbmc. If you need me to post my xorg I can but any one have any thoughts? There isn't much regarding ATi cards in here. Thx.
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#78
Can somebody with Radeon Mobility HD 3470 paste his xorg.conf ?

10q
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#79
I still can not run XBMC Live becouse of this xorg.conf i thing Sad
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#80
I'm getting the same black screen as everybody else too...on an DFI amd 790gx board.....
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#81
Information 
I don't know if it is the same bug, or the one in the other thread Smile

What I have is on the surface similar to what you guys say, i.e. black screen short after the xbmc splash.

However, I did ctrl-alt-f1 and found out a continuous spurt of "mounting /dev/sda1 on /mnt failed: Invalid argument" (yes, that's the other bug: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...=/dev/sda1 ).

I identified an explanation of some sort here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...=/dev/sda1, but after modifying fstab in CONFIG to sport UUID, the situation remained the same.

So, rebooting several times without quiet and splash parameters and with prompt=1, and stop/starting the scrolling manually with ctrl-s and ctrl-q, I managed to glimpse what I think the error is: the system incorrectly mounts my USB hard drive as /dev/sda1 - and it's not, that's the internal HD of my Dell laptop which I don't want to touch - and then tries to mount the root from there, although the USB drive that has XBMC installed is detected as sdb1.

But why does the launcher do this, and how comes that I managed to fool this wrong detection just once, when repeatedly stop/starting message scrolling, I can't explain - it's up to the coders.

As it is why, when doing exactly the same thing as described above, but booting from a USB stick that has the same Live 'Atlantis' XBMC, it works. (The difference is in size: the stick has 2Gb and the HDD 250Gb, otherwise both created with XBMC Live CD)

Thought my all-day efforts would help someone more technical than me to figure out what is happening.

XBMC Live 'Atlantis' USB drives, Inspiron 510m and Latitude D810 laptops (does the same on both), 512MB and 1Gb RAM, 1.68 and 1.86 Mhz Pentium M's.
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#82
hi all,

I found that I needed to specify TexturedVideo for my Radeon 3850 to work.

good luck, hope it helps you out.

My xorg.conf

Code:
Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "aticonfig Layout"
        Screen      0  "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
        Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
        Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
        Option      "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
        Driver      "fglrx"
        Option      "TexturedVideo" "on"
        Option      "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
        Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
        Monitor    "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection
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#83
Hi,
I have read a lot but one of my question is not answered. Does the problem only occur when using Live XBMC? I am deciding to buy an Pundit P2M3200 ATI or P5N9300 (NVidia)
What would be better to avoid problems like this?

Thanks
Martin
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#84
I believe I'm running into the same problem, with some other symptoms tossed in for fun.

First off, I believe this is my first post here, so let me say Hi to all, and thanks ahead of time for any help.

Ok, I was so impressed with XBMC Live on a test setup I used with an old Abit NF-M2 nView NV6150 board, and a BE-2350, that when I had to give that board up recently to help a bud RMA his board...I wanted to grab another for myself that had some more punch for the HTPC setup I envisioned.

I tried to go about the build with spartan specs in mind, but ran into performance issues with the previous older video chipset.

This time, I bought an Asus M3A78-EM mATX board, lots of connections, support for my chip, good sata options, etc, you get the idea. I currently use the OCZ Throttle 8gb esata thumb drive hooked up internally to an sata port with adapter. This is my XBMC drive and I also have it drawing power from an onboard usb like it needs.

I have an older Seagate 160gb IDE media drive(I'm testing a mixed media config, database-wise atm.) The Seagate is formatted Ext3 (yeah I figured that one on my own!) and was seen readily by the previous installation with no problems.

My problem at this point has been two fold:

1. I am experiencing the black screen cursor everyone else with a 780G board is...

2. I'm not sure if this latest attempt to get XBMC installed to the Throttle has worked as I get to the aforementioned black screen rather quickly, IE: never prompted for password etc.

I was tempted to leave the previous install alone, and swap out the xorg.conf, and hope for the best, but I fear the audio chip, sata performance will not be setup correctly.

Any advice?

That is, before I start doing the "install ubuntu to see if the hardware works" thing first...I'm pretty sure this approach would wipe any working chance I may have had toward making the older install go.

Huh
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#85
if you have a valid xorg.conf use that one (start in "safe mode" in order not to start X automatically.
You may also want to have the xorg.conf generated by ati utility:

aticonfig --initial --sync-vsync=on --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf
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#86
I have tried this on several machines now and it only boots on one.

Machines tried and NOT working are:-

Acer Aspire 1600
Toshiba Tecra R600
i7 system with geforce 295

Machines working:-

Sat Pro U400 pre centrino 2 (i.e. centrino)

Have access to many more machines and can test if it helps. I would personally like to get the i7 system working, but don't want the hassle of downloading, burning and installing unbuntu. So if anyone has any bright ideas let me know.

By the way XBMC live works fantastically on the U400 machine.
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#87
Luigi - Before I go crazy with that...do you think it would setup the rest of the hardware ok? These are two completely different boards(chipset manu.). I have no idea how in depth the XBMCLive config is setup so, I'm kind of flying blind.

Mango - Figures both of us can get it working on older hardware eh? I picked this Asus board, as it has so many input/output options, I figured that would be the best way to go. Oh well.

*note: tried the ubuntu live cd, 8.10 x86...and it hung, I believe this has happened with all the Radeon 3200s I've tried with 8.10. So, I'm not sure this has anything at all to do with XBMC at all. It feels like a ati/canonical thing to me with out of box configs not sensing correctly.

I will try what you suggest if I don't hear from you tonite, I can backup the Throttle partiton in Mint before I fiddle with things.
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#88
UPDATE:

I gave up after much fiddling...nothing seemed to work correctly with the 780g board, once again I'm not sure whose massive fail this is, ATI or ubuntu...but it alienates 25% of newer midrange motherboards.

So, I went with the nvidia 8200 version instead, same board basically, different chipset. This time she works in live mode, installs fine to the throttle...but of course now I have other problems. Analog audio output is so low, I am now two notches from full volume on my receiver and still can barely hear what's playing. Also, passthru mode, and digital out mode for iec958 completely fail, no sound at all, no matter what settings I use. This is odd as I get audio from the 8.10 ubu live cd. Is there something missing? pulse audio? alsa not configured right?

Any ideas anyone? If people need more info on this, I can post the exact HD audio chip used onboard, or any other info needed.

Once again, thanks all!
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#89
sorry for the dbl post, unintended
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#90
the following worked for me when it hanged with a black screen.

1. choose the AMD/ATI safe mode option from the boot menu

2. login (username root, no password)

3. type the following: "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" (no quotes)
just choose the default options on all the choices that you are presented
this will generate a basic xorg.conf file

4. then run the ati init: "aticonfig --initial" (this will install the ati spesific stuff in xorg.conf)

5. type "startx"

you should now be presented with the fluxbox window manager. right click on the desktop and start a terminal, and run the "xbmc" command.


I just typed this from memory, so please correct me if you see any obvious mistakes.
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XBMC Live with ATI/AMD graphics controller boots to black screen?0