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I know there are a couple of threads about this already, but no solution worked for me.

I did a fresh installation of Ubuntu MATE 16.04 on a new notebook with a Skylake chipset and a GTX 965M Refresh. Everything went surprisingly well until I wanted to replace my current workstation, which includes plugging in an external monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Whenever I plug in the HDMI of the external monitor, the laptop screen turns black and the external monitor doesn't get any signal either. When I unplug the HDMI again, the laptop screen stays black and I have to do a hard reset. CTRL+ALT+F1 doesn't get me a picture and the laptop FN key combinations to switch monitors or turn the display on/off also don't do anything. Same happens when I boot with the external monitor plugged in - it just all goes dark after GRUB.

I tried this with:

  • Kernel 4.4.0 + Nouveau
  • Kernel 4.4.39 + Nouveau
  • Kernel 4.8.x + Nouveau

(I didn't get NVIDIA drivers working yet)

Secure boot and Onboard Intel video card is both disabled..

I'm kinda out of ideas, because I can't even debug this while the external monitor is plugged in.

I don't work with desktop distros too much, I just use them for work. So if anyone could point me into a direction where/how to debug this, it would be great. I pretty much excluded video drivers and kernel as a source of the issue already, so I'm not sure what else to do.

I tried xorg-edgers PPA, but same issue with the more recent packages from there.

John Wayne
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3 Answers3

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I had a similar issue. I have fixed it myself using this method.

System won't boot up properly - screens turning off and on. Only when second monitor is plugged in

Community
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OctaVIve
  • 156
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Solution: It works with NVIDIA drivers loaded instead of Nouveau or other open drivers. I couldn't get them loaded on my Ubuntu MATE installation however, which is why I moved to Manjaro KDE by now, where everything works out of the box, including NVIDIA drivers or course. No regrets (so far).

Community
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John Wayne
  • 11
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For Ubuntu Mate 16.04 or Ubuntu in general you can use this to install nvidia drivers

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa sudo apt update sudo apt-get install nvidia-XXX*

Note: XXX -> you can get the exact version here

Shettyh
  • 101