Can only log in via recovery mode-resume log in

Dear Forum users,
This is my first post and please pardon mistake. I am a newbie to Linux and I spent significant time reading forums to educate myself so that I can install Linux. Finally, I have chosen Zorin and installed it on one of my old laptops that I am trying to revive for basic use (that is the whole point of even trying Linux).
Here are key relevant specs: Dell Inspiron 1501 AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-50 × 2. It has only 1.5GB RAM. a modest 80GB HD and ATI integrated radeon express 200m graphics.
I have successfully installed Zorin 12.2 (kernel 4.13.0.32) and everything else is working fine except boot. It is fresh install, no windows (orginally had visata) and I had run software updates using the software updater tool. All is good like internet working. When I boot, it shows zorin splash logo screen, then it comes up with a black screen with bunch of line and "ok popping up". Then it stops. The last line I see "starting location look up service" , then OK.
I push the power button and then boot to recover mode. Then hit resume normal boot. Great, it now shows log in screen, enter password, perfect. Everything works. Then when I shut down, it again shows bunch of lines, OK. The line is "reached target shutdown", OK. Then nothing happens. So I have manually shut it off.

As I said, I am newbie to linux. I spent hours reading and there are so many suggestions, its confusing. Some say it has ot do with graphics. The "software" adiitional driver doea not detect anything there.
Can anyone clearly point a solution it? Please do not point to many links that are out there and I have seen none ha led to any meaningful solution.

In my opinion, if this is indeed a graphics problem, the Zorin os through software updater should fix it. I am at the end of my patience and can easily understand why linux has a long way to attract windows users. No offense, but this is simply not user firenldy in resolving issues. There is not even a re-install option for the OS! How pathetic is that.

Thank you all. Please help.

Welcome newuser2018. I'm afraid having researched Turion processors they are not as fast as Intel and tend to overheat more:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads ... ts.283701/

Sadly, I think your Notebook is underpowered for Zorin 12 Core - I would recommend Zorin 12 Lite instead. If you are looking at possible alternatives if that does not work out, take a look at AntiX-17 (http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page), very quick on old kit, even with only 512 Mb RAM, or Q4OS: https://www.q4os.org/ and lastly
Makulu Flash: http://www.makululinux.com/wp/flash/ or even give Freespire 3 a run: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2154&start=240#p59816

Sorry I can't be of more assistance friend.

Swarfendor437,
Thank you for replying but you did not try to help on the issue. The issue is on the Zorin side, not the computer I am using.

Just to assure you, the computer worked fine when I had used vista and Zorin 12 side by side. I recently did a clean install of zorin 12.2 and then problem gradually started. So, lets try to address the issue without worrying about the hardware when at least it is above the spec.

OK, it is just that from other peoples experiences, Core has tended to work best with 2 Gb Ram. Now the graphics could be an issue and Radeon (AMD) don't support GNU/Linux anymore - I will do some more delving and get back to you.

OK, my best advice I can offer you is to carefully follow the advice on this page - there is quite a lot of it and be aware there are links in the page that you should open in a new tab. Hopefully it will get you sorted:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

check which kernel module is in use. insert undernoted in Terminal.

Code:

lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D'

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Swarfendor437 wrote:OK, my best advice I can offer you is to carefully follow the advice on this page - there is quite a lot of it and be aware there are links in the page that you should open in a new tab. Hopefully it will get you sorted:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

I looked at that page before and not much to gain out of it. there is no solution for this problem. As I mentioned, I know what graphics card is installed and that is till supported. I mentioned that it worked in zorin before.
I can try the radeon.dpm=1 thing but dont se that as a deal breaker. the real question is why I will not get the log in screen in normal boot but get it when go through recovery option and doing nothing. Then at he other end, does not shutdown. I have read and tried different solutions on ubuntu as many other people reported such problems in older ubuntus and even some in 1.04 lts. I just did not see a solution that worked here.

Does anyone think if it has anything to do with gnome or gdm ? Should I try to install lightdm ?

zorinantwerp wrote:check which kernel module is in use. insert undernoted in Terminal.

Code:

lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D'

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01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS482M [Mobility Radeon Xpress 200]
Subsystem: Dell RS482M [Mobility Radeon Xpress 200]
Kernel modules: radeonfb, radeon

Swarfendor437 wrote:OK, it is just that from other peoples experiences, Core has tended to work best with 2 Gb Ram. Now the graphics could be an issue and Radeon (AMD) don't support GNU/Linux anymore - I will do some more delving and get back to you.

One thing I must point out that a lot of people reported such issues in ubuntu forums with very latest hardware too. Also, on differetn versions of ubuntu. This is puzzling because the problem then may not be ith just one version. for example:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/566018/ ... overy-mode

Hi newuser2018, Had a look at that ask ubuntu thread and that related to Ubuntu 14.04 (= Zorin 9) - Zorin 12.2 uses Ubuntu 16.04 as its base. I am wondering if the mbr/GRUB is corrupted as you did state you did have dual boot installed at one time and perhaps with the fresh install it may be having issues - even mbr's can break over time as it uses a specific 512 kb sector set aside at the start of every hard drive.

If you don't have any valuable data currently on your Zorin install I would first try a fresh install but not without getting hold of some DOS utilities that can run FDISK. I would boot using the utility and run:

Code:

FDISK /mbr

Remember at the start of the live disc to press the space bar as soon as you see the little person = keyboard so that you get to see the boot options - by default F2 (Language) should be shown which defaults to 'English US' - if this is OK, leave it, press Esc key and then F3 for keyboard layout - check it is the correct language setting that matches your keyboard. Esc once more and press F6 key and select: nomodeset, acpi=off, noapic, nolapic.
Then do a fresh install of Zorin - if you are not having anything else on it, boot into the live desktop first and check that everything is working as it should before installing. If you are happy, click on the icon on the desktop, install to hard drive. During install, choose the something else method - the last option, and give yourself a '/' root (system) partition of 30720 Mib (30 Gb) formatted to Ext4, then at the end of the drive create a 'swap area' equal to your RAM, but would be tempted to round this up to 2048 Mib. Whatever is left, create '/home' partition and format that to Ext 4 also. What I always avoid is:
1. user name with any capitals.
2. computer name as one word, no dashes (which is what most GNU/Linux distros tend to do, i.e., put dashes in - name your machine something else.
3. DON'T under any circumstances encrypt your /home folder during installation.
4. You may also not want to include updates during install as this may point to your locale (country) server where you live instead of 'Main Server' which is what you should change to after installation.

Keep us posted.

In my opinion all points to an (ATI)AMD driver issue. Since no dual boot is involved I would follow the AMD guide concerned.

Code:

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDGPU-PRO-Install.aspx

fingers crossed

I already tried fresh install couple times.
However, in your honor, I followed as recommended and did a clan install. Unfortunately, the result is same.

One extra development: Based on my other reading, I added nomodeset in grub boot. Now, I can log in but as you know nomodeset is not the desired solution. Still shut down problem is there. "reached target shutdown stays on. Again, based on my reading of other forums, I tried adding acpi=force but did not work for my case. reverted back to original.

So the nomodeset result confirms that it is due to graphics driver. This kernel mode setting is not what we expect from a modern OS as zorin 12.2 which came up with the idea of attracting windows users.

zorinantwerp wrote:In my opinion all points to an (ATI)AMD driver issue. Since no dual boot is involved I would follow the AMD guide concerned.

Code:

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDGPU-PRO-Install.aspx

fingers crossed

I get OS not supported message when run the install in terminal.

So sorry but I am at the end of the line.
Copy of exchanges with AMD on linux drivers is daunting

Code:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13142285

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Just to add that the kernels usually have some form of built in support for AMD. On this rig before I upgraded it was an internal Graphics chip which was a basic AMD chipset. I tried to install the Catalyst software and it broke my system. The additional drivers in Zorin is purely for nVidia Graphics and Intel microcode, not for AMD. And as I have stated earlier, for some reason AMD (ATi) ditched formal support for GNU/Linux. I only ever use Nouveau driver/OpenSource driver for Graphics that are built in to the kernel.

It's a timely reminder not to blame GNU/Linux for the issues - people bemoan the fact that GNU/Linux is not mainstream because it is unable to do certain things etc - let's be clear, hardware manufacturers are geared to writing closed source code for their hardware to be compatible with closed source Operating Systems like Windows and MacOS. And as I have stated elsewhere, Windows is not always compliant with certain pieces of hardware - individually they may be compliant, but it has been known that individual hardware that is compliant with Windows in a desktop can become non-compliant if those two pieces of hardware are put together in the same machine.