(OLD) Tablet Boots to Black Screen After Attempted Debian Install
(OLD) Tablet Boots to Black Screen After Attempted Debian Install
This is an old post, I plan on making a new one with updated details.
I was installing Debian on my Getac F100-G2, and I booted to the live usb perfectly fine. I tested everything and it seemed to work great, except for one time I got logged out randomly. I installed it(overwriting windows) and it completed with no error. When I rebooted, it booted to a black screen and did not provide any error message. I've tried booting to the same installation media as well, and it does the exact same. I've switched between legacy boot and uefi, which has been an issue in the past with debian. I have also tried booting from a pureos live usb and that hasn't worked either. Getac devices are for enterprise use more than person, and rather poorly documented, so any help is appreciated!********___
Could it be a Secure Boot issue? From what I can tell, this is roughly a late Windows 8.1 era machine, and I think Microsoft already required OEMs to have Secure Boot around this time; I have a 6th gen Intel laptop (don't know about 5th gen, which I think this laptop has) with TPM 1.2. Lots of laptops are big jerks about this, and sometimes you have to disable it at least until you allow non-Microsoft Keys.
Also, can you change the title of your post? I feel like it doesn't convey what you're actually asking and sort of scares people away from wanting to respond to you. Maybe something more like "Tablet Boots to Black Screen After Attempted Debian Install?"
So the good news is you're probably not bricked.
I've had similar, and had to work through getting my bios into the right state to get the screen to load, and then escaping grub into a grub recovery shell to debug.
Edit: Do you have access to an alternate/external monitor? I would want to try another monitor, just to rule out a hardware failure, too.
I have tried to use my tv but it showed a black screen as well, the bios shows up and works fine so I'd imagine its not hardware related.
Yeah. It's not hardware, then.
I would try searching "black screen <bios version>" with any name and version number you can figure out about your bios, next.
If you can get it back to booting from install media, I would do a full reinstall.
There's recovery layers (such as grub shell) that ought to kick in if this was just a display config issue, so I'm thinking corrupted install files is more likely.
Also, do a careful check through your various BIOS settings - search each one with "Debian 12 <setting name>", to find out if they work with Debian 12, or need adjusted. Debian 12 supports most boot security features, that I have encountered, but I believe there's still a couple out there that have to be turned off.
I suspect your next practical goal will be to get the (presumably failed) bootloader install replaced.
Edit: Tried to add a lot of specific thoughts as search term leads.
Are you even able to access the bios ? Could it be a problem with your montor ?
Yes, the bios and touch functions perfectly fine
This whole BIOS is cryptic... what is "OS select" supposed to mean with the option for windows 7 or 8.1/10? I'd assume this is related to booting but theres little specification. Also, I can't perform a bios update
I'm guessing that the 7 or 8.1/10 thing is probably to select between legacy BIOS CSM or UEFI. What is it set to right now? Maybe try playing with that.
I note that no boot options show up when I select 8.1/10, but my "Legacy Hard Drive" and "Legacy BEV" show up when I enable legacy boot. Do you think that a legacy only install could cause this?
Are you able to boot to the liveUSB again? If so, you may be able to use it to access the log on that broken installation.
No, I am not. The installation media will show a black screen as well