Elementary OS – Black Screen and Blank Desktop error

This is personal note regarding installing ElementaryOS from USB which lead to Black Screen during installation which later after installation booted into a Blank desktop enviroment without any icons or taskbar.

1. Create USB Linux install using YUMI – Multiboot USB Creator - [LINK]
2. Boot up via USB
3. At Elementary OS menu, select TAB to edit the command line. remove "quiet" and replace with "nomodeset"
4. Proceed with normal installation
5. After installation, boot into Elementary OS and press CTRL+ALT+F1
6. Login using the credential created during installation

   # cp /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.bak
   # nano /etc/default/grub

7. Add “nomodeset” to GRUBCMDLINELINUX_DEFAULT so it looks like this:

   GRUBDEFAULT=0
   GRUBHIDDENTIMEOUT=0
   GRUBHIDDENTIMEOUTQUIET=true
   GRUBTIMEOUT=5
   GRUBDISTRIBUTOR=lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian
   GRUBCMDLINELINUXDEFAULT=“quiet splash nomodeset”
   GRUBCMDLINE_LINUX=”“

8. Save by hitting Ctrl-O, then exit nano with Ctrl-X.
9. # sudo update-grub
10. reboot into the Elementary OS

Rebuild python-vmcloud from source

The information found here are mainly my own personal technical notes, whatever/however you use it is solely you decision !

Rebuild the python-vmcloud from source

/var/lib/dpkg/info/python-vmcloud.*

Create a working directory named "python-vmcloud", the folder structure will be as below

*** copy all the file listed in python-vmcloud.list !
*** cp -a --- copying of subfolders
*** mkdir -p --- create directory with subdirectory

python-vmcloud/
----DEBIAN/
--------control
--------postinst
--------postrm
--------prerm
----etc/
----usr/
----var/

the files under DEBIAN folder are plain text files. "control" file content is as below but without the "###"

### start of control file ####
Package: python-vmcloud
Priority: optional
Section: python
Installed-Size: 307948
Maintainer: vmcloud-dev <vmcloud-dev@cisco.com>
Architecture: all
Source: vmcloud
Version: 0.5.4-1
Replaces: python-vmcloud-st
Depends: python2.7, python (>= 2.7.1-0ubuntu2), python (<< 2.8), python-pexpect, python-lxml, python-libxml2,
virtinst, libvirt-bin, qemu-kvm, mkisofs, genisoimage, python-bottle, python-paste
Conflicts: python-vmcloud-st
Conffiles:
/etc/vmcloud/internal_config f038aed945325df744cd2d68c35b4705
/etc/vmcloud/vmcloudrc dcd847aae42f25b9982735701c45071b
/etc/init/vmcwebsvc.conf aea48c35713d76fb1894e7ae4385d2d7
 
Description: Cisco Network Device Emulator Orchestration Tool
### end of control file ####

When all the files/folders are ready, execute the command to rebuild the .deb

# dpkg-deb -b python-vmcloud

Installation of VMcloud

# dpkg -i python-vmcloud.deb

because there are some dependencies, run the command to auto install them

# sudo apt-get -f install

Redo the dpkg installation again

# dpkg -i python-vmcloud

Set the SUID for the file /usr/bin/vmcnet
# sudo chmod 4775 /usr/bin/vmcnet

*** This allow the application to run as root.

Change the ownership to "root"
# chown root:root /usr/bin/vmcloud
# chown root:root /usr/bin/vmcnet
# chown root:root /usr/bin/vmcwebsvc

Testing the installation

Edit the VIRL configuration (3node.virl) to remove out below parameters

# nano /usr/share/vmcloud/data/examples/3node/3node.virl

<entry key="import files" type="String">/usr/share/vmcloud/data/examples/3node/router1.p12</entry>

Run the topology from the template

# vmcloud netcreate -v /usr/share/vmcloud/data/examples/3node/3node.virl 3NODE

Using default configuration: /etc/vmcloud/vmcloudrc
Launching NDE network ...
Created domain: labguide.3NODE.router1 (console=127.0.0.1 3533, aux=127.0.0.1 3534)
Created domain: labguide.3NODE.router2 (console=127.0.0.1 3535, aux=127.0.0.1 3536)
Created domain: labguide.3NODE.router3 (console=127.0.0.1 3537, aux=127.0.0.1 3538)
NDE network launch: Success

Change Linux command line output color

By default the color when we remotely connect to a Linux shell, the color of folder is signified by the color Navy BLUE. Which is hard to make out from a black color background.

A bit of customizing and you can change it.

# cp /etc/DIR_COLORS ~/.dir_colors

# nano .dir_colors

Scroll down till the DIR and edit the color parameter

Blue = 34
Green = 32
Light Green = 1;32
Cyan = 36
Red = 31
Purple = 35
Brown = 33
Yellow = 1;33
white = 1;37
Light Grey = 0;37
Black = 30
Dark Grey= 1;30

log off from the shell and login back