Booting into GUI gives blank screen and blinking cursor

truthiness

By truthiness
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truthiness Noob

truthiness

Posted
Posted

It looks like this issue has been posted in the past (~ver 6.5), but I am unable to resolve this. I just upgraded my components (new MB, CPU, etc), and plugged my machine into my monitor. When I turn it on, I see the BIOS boot screen, I can select the Unraid boot options (Unraid, Unraid GUI, Unraid Safe, Unraid Safe GUI, Memtest), and then I see the long text scroll past as it boots up. Once that finishes, it goes to a blank screen, and has a blinking cursor in the top left.

 

I can't type or do anything with it. I had hit ctrl+alt+del once, and that restarted the system (no idea if that's clean, so I haven't done it again), so there must be some input recognized. Also, I can boot into the command line, and have no issues typing in there. But my intention was to use this upgraded machine with a Windows VM as my main desktop as well as my server. So I want to be able to boot into the GUI to launch the VM.

 

Found previous solutions:

I saw from these two threads that you can add "nomodeset" to the unraid boot settings. I tried with and without that, and it didn't seem to help.

 

 

I also saw from this thread about going into the BIOS and checking the CSM & UEFI settings. I enabled CSM, made sure my drives are booting into UEFI, but that didn't seem to do anything either.

 

 

MB: Z590 Aorus Elite AX

CPU: Intel i9-10850k

and some snippets from my BIOS boot settings:

  • Windows 10 Features: Other OS
  • *CSM Support: Enabled (This was the second solution above that I tried)
  • LAN PXE Boot Option ROM: Disabled
  • Storage Boot Option Control: UEFI
  • Other PCI devices: UEFI

 

My plan was to use my 10850k iGPU until I can get my hands on a 30-series card. However, I have my old GTX 470 that I have been using in my previous desktop, and I tried plugging that in. But there was no change; I still get the same issues. I tried with and without the "nomodeset".

 

Attached are the diagnostics.

 

Any thoughts? Thank you for your time!

 

tower-diagnostics-20210423-1019.zip

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  • 1 month later...
Crafter Noob

Crafter

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, trurl said:

Do you have a backup of flash?

Yes, so the server boots up fine in both modes (GUI or Terminal), however in GUI is a black screen with blinking curser on the top. Also, when I hit the shutdown button I see all the commands the server send to shutdown.  I've tried to reload the backup onto my flash drive and no difference. I have tried a new install of another flash drive using the latest code and the GUI works. I can upload a diagnostic file if need be. 

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SimonF Experienced

SimonF

Posted
Posted (edited)
52 minutes ago, Crafter said:

Yes, so the server boots up fine in both modes (GUI or Terminal), however in GUI is a black screen with blinking curser on the top. Also, when I hit the shutdown button I see all the commands the server send to shutdown.  I've tried to reload the backup onto my flash drive and no difference. I have tried a new install of another flash drive using the latest code and the GUI works. I can upload a diagnostic file if need be. 

If you have enabled igpu driver try installing intel-gpu-top  but you need to remove file from modprode.d if you have defined it on flash drive.

Edited by SimonF
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Crafter Noob

Crafter

Posted
Posted (edited)

Solved!

 

Looks like in the boot setting I had the boot priority's flipped. First boot should be Scandisk NOT UEFI Scandisk. I also wanted to note, booting from UEFI Scandisk will cause Unraid from booting up. I got a black screen with a curser and as soon as I plugged in a mouse or keyboard it would boot. Also, this solved the gui issue I was having. GUI now works like normal, no more black screen with a blinking curser. 

 

Thanks everyone for you help

Edited by Crafter
Adding extra details
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  • 8 months later...
no-thanks Noob

no-thanks

Posted
Posted

I'm having the same problem with a new build, and the above solution doesn't seem to be working for me. Hoping someone has suggestions, as I've hit a bit of a wall after trying various combinations of settings and reading all the relevant threads I could find.

 

Specs:

MSI B560i

i5 10400 w/ iGPU

2x SATA + 2x M2 drives installed

2x 8GB DDR4

 

BIOS recognizes all hardware, everything seems working fine on that front.

 

Initially when starting up, I only got BIOS setup, no other options. After much fiddling, I finally got my Unraid install USB as a boot option after making these changes:

- Updated BIOS

- UEFI mode

- Legacy USB enabled

- Changed EFI- to EFI on USB boot drive

 

Changing any of those back and I don't get an option to book into Unraid.

 

So now I can boot into Unraid, great! But after selecting Unraid GUI, I see the startup log screen (not long enough to get much info), then I end up at a blinking cursor like others here.

 

So I tried:

- Initiate Graphic Adapter = IGD - no change

- Booting in CSM - no option to boot into Unraid

 

I saw others mention installing an Intel GPU driver, but I don't know how to do that. I don't actually know for sure yet if it's a GPU issue. Can I get to logs somehow to verify?

 

Any help would be appreciated! I'm relatively new to hardware (built my first PC last year), and new to Unraid, so I'm still learning. Thanks!

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no-thanks Noob

no-thanks

Posted
Posted (edited)

No luck -- that's the same solution that worked for @Crafter, isn't it?

 

I don't get have a non-EFI boot option available to select in BIOS unless I put BIOS in CSM mode, but doing so I get stuck in a boot loop where I'm given two options to select, the UEFI USB drive and Setup. When I select UEFI USB, it goes back to the selection screen.

 

If I go back to setup, I'm no longer in CSM mode. I can disable UEFI USB, but I don't get a USB boot option in that case, only BIOS setup.

 

Any idea what I might be missing?

 

Edit: I guess this is really a nice to have, so perhaps I'm just wasting my time anyway....

Edited by no-thanks
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Crafter Noob

Crafter

Posted
Posted

I confirmed that my folder name is EFI- = non UEFI boot. I have another server that is the same way as well. To confirm if it's EFI or EFI- is the folder name on the flash drive.

 

It took me some time to play around with the flash drive and bios setting but I eventually got it.

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  • 5 months later...
jtech Noob

jtech

Posted
Posted

I had this same issue on 6.10.3 (for reference). I am running a VM through my NVidia card and trying to use GUI through my Intel iGpu.

 

My issue was my VM setup. I went into Settings > VM Manager > click "Advanced View" > and for "PCIe ACS override" select "Multi-Function" (I had mine set to "Downstream"). I'm not a pro at this setting. Maybe "Both" is the better choice, but this fixed my problem with 'GUI loading to a black screen with a cursor in the top left'.

 

Reboot Unraid, and then go to Tools > System Devices > and make sure your discreet graphics card is not checked. If it is checked, it likely won't allow GUI boot to work.

 

Hope it saves someone the hours I lost trying to pinpoint this.

 

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  • 3 months later...
Nomad1109 Noob

Nomad1109

Posted
Posted

New User here as of today, and I ran into the blinking cursor on a black screen problem.

On the thumb drive, there was two bootable images, and I had to select the USB bootable version, not the UEFI version.

Selecting that in the boot order in BIOS allowed the GUI to start up.

Hope that helps someone.

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  • 11 months later...
  • 4 months later...
Thunderhead Noob

Thunderhead

Posted
Posted
On 4/24/2024 at 10:03 AM, JorgeB said:

Run the make_bootable.bat as admin, syslinux is not needed for UEFI boot, but it is for legacy, and make sure the flash drive is still the first boot device.

 

 

Alright, I messed around with that alot and it either didn't work or I am doing something wrong.

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