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I tried to be as specific as possible in the title and I will apologize in advance for my lack of technical knowledge. I Bought a new laptop with specific intentions of dual booting (all my other machines have been self installed ubuntu since 12 came out). I never could get 14.04 to work properly, finally got a boot with "nomodeset" but couldn't get an updated graphics driver so I tried 16.04 and everything works except for the boot issue.

HP laptop with AMD a10-8700p radeon R6 , gallium 0.4 on AMD Carrizo graphics. Pre-Installed with windows 10 from factory

When booting from cold (turned off entirely) and going straight into ubuntu 16.04, the computer loads the boot menu just fine, however if I choose Ubuntu or allow the timer to choose Ubuntu for me, it will hang at a black screen (backlit, but nothing more) just like the problems I was having with trying to install 14.04. However, if I first boot to windows, then restart and choose Ubuntu, I have no problems and Ubuntu functions flawlessly (14.04 would only boot with "nomodeset" and then had hideous graphics). I originally thought this problem was random, but then noticed the pattern of myself booting windows (to make sure it worked) and then Ubuntu 16.04 would boot perfectly, so far this has happened every time so I do not think it is a random boot failure.

If anyone can help me figure this out, I would appreciate it. The workaround of booting windows first, then restarting works but I don't like things that don't work correctly, sadly I am not techsmart enough to figure this out on my own.

Thanks

edit I do have "secureboot" and "fastboot" turned off, I did both of those when trying to install 14.04 before abandoning it for 16.04

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  • try grub_gfxpayload_linux=keep in /etc/default/grub to see if it has an effect.
    – emk2203
    Apr 28, 2016 at 13:04
  • While I totally appreciate your answer, I'm not sure I understand it entirely, can you clarify? I am totally ignorant about this type of thing. I understand that Grub is what boots linux, and I do know how to enter command line items, but the instructions of trying the first command "IN" the second line is what I don't understand. I apologize for my noobness. May 2, 2016 at 14:46
  • Sorry, that wasn't clear enough. I try to give more details in an answer since comment space is too limited.
    – emk2203
    May 2, 2016 at 15:03
  • Please update the question with output from the following commands: dmesg | grep -E "AMD|amd|Error" and sudo lshw -c video May 14, 2016 at 15:09
  • conman253 how should I post that info here? I am not able to copy the information using ctrl-c and it would be several pages of typing to type it all out. Is there anything specific that you are looking for? I saw several "errors".... I can type those out without too much ridiculousness. Jun 6, 2016 at 0:49

1 Answer 1

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Open a terminal after Ubuntu has booted to your desktop. Ctrl-Alt-t is the easiest way to open it.

Open the grub settings file with sudo:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Go down to the blank line after

#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

press Enter and enter

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

The position in the file doesn't actually matter, it's just most logically placed there.

close the file with CtrlwCtrlx.

Run sudo update-grub in the terminal. Reboot.

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  • somehow I missed where you added this answer, thank you. I just found it today while googling for help for my problem, I came across my own thread haha.... I tried your answer just now. I will let you know how it works out. Jun 5, 2016 at 23:03
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    Did not seem to work, thanks for the effort though, I appreciate it. Jun 6, 2016 at 0:47

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