I’ve been experimenting with Ubunty Gutsy 7.10 on my (relatively) new Asus A7T notebook. For the most part, everything works well after the install, but there are two annoying problems that I ran into:
1. No sound. My laptop uses the ALC882 codec.
2. When I boot up, there is no bootup screen, or splash screen. All I see is a black screen until GDM starts. Also, if I switch to a TTY terminal screen using CTRL+ALT+F1 (through F6), the resolution is incorrect; everything is huge and off the screen by several lines, which renders it pretty useless.
Here is how I have fixed both of these issues:
Fixing Sound
I was able to fix my sound issue using the alsa-base package installed by default (version 1.0.14-1ubuntu2 at the time of this writing). Here are the steps:
A. Create a new file called “/etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel.modprobe”:
$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel.modprobe
Add the following line to the file and then save it:
options snd-hda-intel model=w2jc
B. Edit the file “/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base”:
$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
Add the same line to the end of this file and then save it:
options snd-hda-intel model=w2jc
C. Reboot. After I rebooted, I had sound.
Fix TTY and boot-up resolution
A. Edit the file “/etc/initramfs-tools/modules”:
$ sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
Add the following two lines to the end of the file, then save it and close it:
fbcon
vesafb
B. Edit the file “/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer”:
$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer
Comment out the blacklist vesafb, so that it looks like this: #blacklist vesafb
C. Set the height and width values in usplash.conf to 1024×768:
$ sudo gedit /etc/usplash.conf
Change the values to 1024×768, save the file and close it.
D. Edit the grub config file to add a vga value to set the resolution of the bootscreen to 1024×768:
$ sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
Find the commented out #defoptions line. Leave it commented out, but add the following to the end of the line:
vga=773
Save the file and close it.
E. Regenerate initram file:
$ sudo update-initramfs -u
F. Update grub:
$ sudo update-grub
G. Reboot. After I rebooted, I saw the bootsplash, and my TTY terminals were at a better resolution.
Comments
Sam,
Many thanks for this. I googled for ages to cure the issue with the black screen during boot and also the poor resolution on normal terminal windows.
BTW, my computer is a HP nx6325 running Gusty. It also boots much quicker now as well.
Besr regards & thank you again.
Hello, thanks for this tutorial. I have sound but if I plug my headset I have no sound. Do you have a solution?
Thanks you again
Hi Robert,
I never tested with headphones, and unfortunately I have since purchased a new laptop so I don’t have this one available to test. Does anyone else have the answer?
tty resolution fix worked great. I applied the fix to an old Dell Latitude C640 running xubuntu 7.10. my tty resolution is now 1440×1050. Maybe a little too high, but that is the native screen rez. What is the purpose of the menu.lst edit if it is commented out? there is another write up on the ‘vga=###’ setting here:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2007-June/117497.html
thanks Sam!
[...] tty mit 1400×1050 zu fahren. ich hab folgende anleitung probiert, brachte aber keine besserung: Installing Ubuntu Gutsy Linux on an Asus A7T Notebook (fix sound and TTY terminal resolution) ich kann zwar 1280×1024 nutzen, aber das sieht matchig aus, da es nicht na native aufl
Thanks for the tutorial Sam, I almost don’t have any experience with Linux and after having installed Gutsy on my old HP laptop I was experiencing the TTY and boot-up problem that you described. I could fix it perfectly and easily following your instructions! Thanks a million for sharing!!