Ubuntu live CD 7076

Snip...

Shot in the dark...

Sounds like X is arguing with Mr. Framebuffer about doing displays. I've had displays that would go blank on all consoles shortly after BIOS-POST and the first few lines of loading a Linux kernel. However, the boot has no other problems (usually); the system continues booting normally.

You finally have a booted system running normally except there's not any visual display at the consoles. You're flying "blind" on them--the mouse and keyboard work fine, but you see no visual feedback. This was often a bug with older video adapters (I don't know about Dell 2200 at all).

If it's a framebuffer glitch like this, one way to workaround it is with a kernel boot parameter:

vga=normal

I've never used Ubuntu, so I'm not sure how kernel boot paramters can be invoked (if at all?). But it may be worth a try if somebody knows how to set kernel boot parameters (if possible) with Ubuntu.

HTH, YMMV...

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