Dan Norton composed on 2016-12-12 20:52 (UTC-0500):
The netinst of jessie from a flash drive, graphic install, went well
like it did on another PC, but on this old PC the boot after install
produced a black screen.
vbeinfo lists some display settings followed by "Preferred mode
1360x768", but this mode is not in the list.
IIUC, vbeinfo can only ever find VESA modes supported by your video BIOS. There
is no such thing as a widescreen VESA mode last I checked, so 1360x768 can't be
in its list. 1360x768 is valid in other contexts, including Xorg and Wayland.
video=1360x768 as a cmdline option, when the display supports it, is one such
context.
> There is an * beside
1024x768x32 in the list. Is that the mode used during the install?
I suspect a fallback and/or preferred VESA mode. Most any more do support
1280x1024, while 1600x1200 is typically the highest VESA mode supported by a
BIOS, less common than 1280x1024, and far less common than 1024x768. FWIW,
1024x768 is XGA and dates back nearly three decades. The x32 is color bits
(highest number of colors modes; other options nothing, x8, x16 and others).
What is the "Preferred mode 1360x768 for?
Xorg (and Wayland?).
Is that for the kernel?
Kernel framebuffers can use it via video=.
I tried to change that by doing this:
grub> set root=(hd0,1)
grub> set gfxpayload=1024x768
grub> linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-686-pae root=/dev/sda1
grub> initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-686-pae
grub> boot
But that still resulted in a black screen. What should be done instead?
It's impossible to accurately answer all your questions without knowing your
gfxchip (lspci) or display model (hwinfo), but try these:
1-Check if Plymouth is installed. If yes, purge it.
2-If Plymouth is not relevant, try testing changes to Grub's boot time
parameters by hitting the "e" key as soon as the Grub menu appears, and remove
quiet and splash from it. If it works, change /etc/default/grub to match and run
grub-mkconfig.
3-same as #2, plus add vga=788 or vga=normal
4-same as #2, plus add "nomodeset" without quotes.
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words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)
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