If you are running Ubuntu 12.04 or 12.10, and have a ATI/AMD graphics card, you have to follow the instructions here, otherwise you will run into this problem every time you restart your computer.
This usually happens because you have an Nvidia or AMD graphics card, or a laptop with Optimus or switchable/hybrid graphics, and Ubuntu does not have the proprietary drivers installed to allow it to work with these.
Once again refer to the UEFI Community Ubuntu Documentation at Section 4īlack/purple screen after you boot Ubuntu for the first time There is no solution for these errors and the workaround is to disable UEFI to enable the Ubuntu installer to run in legacy mode after which boot-repair can be used to install grub-efi which then allows/needs UEFI switched back on before Ubuntu will boot using UEFI. Simply selecting UEFI in the BIOS settings will configure UEFI mode on hard drives. Not all of these machines implement Secure Boot.
Again refer to UEFI Community Ubuntu Documentation at Section 4 Some machines use a full BIOS with an emulated UEFI layer which may throw errors as described ie "you need to load the kernel first" and "can not read file/cd0" Installing grub-efi afterwards will allow UEFI to be re-enabled. If you cannot find UEFI settings then enable CSM - this will disable the UEFI booting of the installer and then allow a legacy/BIOS install of Ubuntu. If that does not get the Ubuntu installer running, try disabling anything mentioning UEFI in the firmware settings. What you need to do first is to disable SECURE BOOT in the firmware settings. The picture above actually only confirms your DVD/USB booted using UEFI and there will be some means in firmware settings to ensure drives are booted in order to make the UEFI installer run (a solution may possibly be as simple as ensuring SATA is set to AHCI) - check your vendors manual! Also check the UEFI Community Documentation Section 2.3 for more details. REF: UEFI Community Ubuntu Documentation Section 2.4 If your machine is CSM capable (which is a full UEFI implementation with an emulated BIOS layer) after selecting any option from the grub list the system will hang at a black screen. To identify if your machine is booting in installer UEFI mode you will see Ubuntu's installer 'when attempting to run in UEFI mode) will hang and stop due to different manufacturer's implementations of the UEFI specification and will hang in different ways. Black screen or "you need to load kernel first" and "can not read file/cd0" errors when installing to an UEFI capable machine:
You can also try acpi = off and nolapic if nomodset also shows up as a black screen.
Then press Esc, and press Enter to "Try Ubuntu without installing." Press F6, use the ← ↑ → ↓ keys to go down to nomodeset, and press Enter. To see if it works for you:īoot from the Desktop Live CD and press the ↓ key when you see the below: Fixing it and getting to the Ubuntu Desktop to try or install it can often be surprisingly easy fix: the nomodeset parameter. The Ubuntu installer's startup portion is sometimes incompatible with certain graphics cards. Black/purple screen when you try to boot the LiveCD
Check out these steps to see how to check your CD once you boot into it to make sure it's ready to go.
See also: Where to find the checksums of Ubuntu ISO images? or MD5 hash for ubuntu. Ensuring your CD/DVD or USB flash drive burned/written correctly and not damaged: