ZORIN OS 17 Black Screen at boot and take 3-4 min to load into log in screen

Thank you for the tip. I try your method and it boot up very quick but eventually it turn to blank dark blue screen instead of log in screen. Unfortunately, I have to changed it back to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset" to get to log in screen.

Just to clarify, did you have:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash tsc=unstable"
or
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset tsc=unstable"
when you tried out @Forpli's idea?

I have GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset" and tried GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash tsc=unstable" which @Forpli 's idea.

If it's still slow with Xorg, try the longer one.

I think that's what @Forpli was getting at with:

2 Likes

Thanks for the tips. I try lite version but it seems like didn't make much changes and the issue remain the same. I changed the desktop to Xorg and it seems speed up the boot up process a little bit.

1 Like

Wow. It works. I tested it 3 times and it boot up within 35-45 seconds. It fly like supercars. lol Thank you so much. Guys. The Xorg system idea is great too. @Forpli @chronosJ

1 Like

I'm glad that worked.

It's a small thing, but @Forpli should totally get the "Solved" credit on that one. I have no idea what tsc does.

I just clarified.

2 Likes

TimeStamp Counter.
What tsc=unstable does: It tells the system that the timestamp counter is unreliable and to not use it. This parameter should only be used if the TSC is known to be unreliable or variable.
(I do not think that the TSC would affect a black screen at boot. But the nomodeset certainly would, as it prevents modesetting, allowing the GPU to be initialized after the kernel, not before.)

3 Likes

Weird, yet it only sped up boot time with both nomodeset and tsc parts present.

With just nomodeset, it was still slow to boot.

That's kind of mysterious, but thanks for the info on tsc.

1 Like

Well, boot speed and Black Screen at boot are separate issues...

1 Like

To avoid adding TSC parameter to grub you could try it with kernel 5.15 on your old hardware (this kernel will be supported until Dec 2026 and you will get updates until then). I read that the long boot time could be caused by kernel 6.8 and older kernel work well on this mac.

You can install kernel 5.15 with

"sudo apt install linux-headers-5.15.0-141-generic linux-image-5.15.0-141-generic linux-modules-5.15.0-141-generic linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-141-generic"

Reboot and at grub menu choose advanced options and set kernel 5.15 here.

If it works you can set this kernel to default at boot:

If it is a good solution for you and you want to have better/longer support you could switch to Linux Mint 21.3 XFCE which is completely supported until April 2027 and is based on kernel 5.15 or try LMDE 6 32bit version with kernel 6.1. Zorins support for Zorin 16 with this kernel has ended.

1 Like

How can you find out if this is the case and TSC is causing the problems?

1 Like

You can use

sudo dmesg | grep -i tsc

to check if it has been erroring out. Errors that mention calibration, mask, unstable or unsynchronized.

Most users learn it is causing problems due to System Time being consistently wrong or drifting.

2 Likes

@Aravisian I saw this solution in many posts (in other forums) when the boot time was very long and often it concerned old hardware.
So is adding this parameter harmful or makes problems?

1 Like

If not using TSC, when it is reliable and present, it can increase process overhead, slow down performance; these can cause jittering or lag in high performance actions like gaming or graphical design.
If using a notebook computer, users can see a slightly faster power drain on the battery.

Why it may be recommended to use that parameter: Some older AMD and Intel processors lack the flag for constant_tsc and nonstop_tsc.
Without these flags, any frequency scaling would cause drift in timekeeping.
For example, let's say you overclock an early AMD k7 CPU to 3.0 GHz, the TSC increases by 3,000,000,000 ticks per second but only if it tracks the core clock frequency.

2 Likes

So can @Slacker keep this parameter and test it for a while if all is working well? His computer is really old (from 2009) and perhaps may lack this flag.

2 Likes

Eh... You make me look up things in the literature... heh heh

Looking upward, the user has a Core2 Duo T9600 CPU.

This model, (2008) lacks the nonstop_tsc flag, (constant_tsc is present, keeping the counter at a consistent rate), meaning that any interruption can cause a seeming backward tick in the counter.
Yes, that flag looks appropriate for this CPU.

2 Likes

Phew😅 I'm really glad about that! I didn't mean to give advice that would destroy anything on the system. I was really worried about that I made a big mistake.
Thank you for teaching us all so much here and having so much patience! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

2 Likes

I think you were more attentive than I was; I posted a general comment (including a generic caution of using grub parameters); whereas you had a good idea of the users CPU age.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.