How do I overcome the blank screen booting from USB stick with Ubuntu 18.04.4 in Acer Aspire 515-55?

Hello

I get a blank screen after selecting either to try or to install in the grub menu of the Ubuntu image of my USB stick. I do not know how to proceed to continue booting with Ubuntu 18.04.4 from this USB stick.

Nonetheless I could boot the same computer with an image of Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 LTS on the same USB stick.

Anyway what I need to install is Ubuntu 18.04.4. I guess there might be a bug with Ubuntu 18.04.4 and that is the reason why I get this blank screen. Does anyone know how to overcome it to be able to install Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS?

Thanks

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Gawain

does it have an intel or a ryzen processor?

goahead97

I have an Acer Aspire 515-55.

I think the specs of Acer Aspire 515-55 are:
Processor Manufacturer Intel® Processor Type Core™ i5 Processor Model i5-1035G1 Processor Speed 1 GHz Processor Core Quad-core (4 Core™) Display & Graphics Graphics Controller Manufacturer Intel® Graphics Controller Model UHD Graphics Graphics Memory Technology DDR4 SDRAM Graphics Memory Accessibility Shared Memory Standard Memory 8 GB Memory Technology DDR4 SDRAM

goahead97

I tried to boot with a Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 LTS image and it worked as expected. Nonetheless there must be a problem in Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS to boot in my hardware. I also tried 64 bits and 32 bits Ubuntu 18.04.3 and I also got the blank screen with both of them. Nonetheless I did not get this blank screen with 32 bits Ubuntu 18.04.3 in an old 32 bits machine that I have around.

I wonder how to overcome this blank screen problem with Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS in the 64 bits machine, the hardware of which I described in my previous message.

Gawain

try no.2 on this:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/162075/my-computer-boots-to-a-black-screen-what-options-do-i-have-to-fix-it#:~:text=The solution is to boot,to get the Grub menu.

goahead97

Thanks. I already seen that link you mentioned and I had already tried to make this work by carrying out the following in the BIOS settings:
- replacing Optane without RAID with AHCI
- replacing "quiet splash" with "nomodeset"
- disabling secure boot
The previous settings did not get it working though.

The BIOS' boot mode is UEFI and that is greyed out on my BIOS. Therefore I do not know how to change that back to legacy in case that is what I must do. I am not sure about doing that though. The computer's internal SSD has Windows 10 installed and I would prefer not to mess with that installation.

Moreover, I do not see any CSM settings on the computer's BIOS.

Gawain

it doesn't support legacy. whats the reason for 18 and not 20, i'm curious. :-)

goahead97

The most modern Ubuntu version that is guaranteed explicity by its manufacturer to work correctly is Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS. But nothing about more modern versions of Ubuntu gets mentioned explicitly by the manufacturer. Therefore I want to make sure the troubles that might arise by using this hardware-software do not have anything to do with using a Ubuntu version that is not explicitly supported for sure according to the manufacturer.

Gawain

Acer are explicitly support the use of ubuntu 18 on that model?

goahead97

Probably not. This computer came with Windows 10 preinstalled. I need to install Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS due to only some hardware I need to attach to the computer.

Gawain

i see, its the third party hardware manufacturer that says they support 18. Personally i'd try it with 20 as the hw folks are probably behind on the latest ubuntu number and if it works fine on 18, odds on it will on 20 too. One way to find out! what is the hardware?

goahead97

The thing is sooner or later problems are going to show up. I already tried with Ubuntu 18.04.5 and it seems it worked fine but Ubuntu 18.04.5 is not supported explicitly. The hardware is a datacenter accelerator card. I need to install Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS to make sure that any problem that arises, and problems will arise sooner or l ater, does not have anything to do with not using a OS supported explicitly by the manufacturer.