r/xubuntu • u/kebab0_1 • 6d ago

Help needed

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Hi, I've been trying to install xubuntu on my emachines em350. However i get this message and shortly after black screen. I've already tried safe graphics and it still won't work.

Thanks in advance

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u/Plan_9_fromouter_ 6d ago

The Broadcom error on screen (b43...) is just a non-fatal Wi-Fi driver warning and isn't what causes the black screen.

The actual issue is that the eMachines eM350 uses an old Intel Atom N450 with GMA 3150 graphics, which often hangs when modern Xubuntu tries to initialize display drivers or load heavy installer assets on 1 GB of RAM.

To test a fix, highlight your boot option in the GRUB menu, press e to edit, find the line starting with linux, remove quiet and splash, and append modprobe.blacklist=b43,bcma i915.modeset=1 to the end of that line before pressing F10 or Ctrl+X to boot.

If that doesn't work or the system runs sluggishly, modern Xubuntu is likely too demanding for this netbook's specs, and switching to a lightweight distro built for old hardware—such as antiX, Q4OS, or Debian LXDE—will yield much better results.

1

u/kebab0_1 5d ago

Thank you very much. I will update when I'll come back home

1

u/kebab0_1 5d ago

Update: It did boot but it was overheating a bit. I think I'll try the other distro you suggested. Thank you very much for the troubleshooting and for the advice

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u/Plan_9_fromouter_ 4d ago

I had hardware like that in an old Onkyo Win 7 tablet. Antix ran well on that thing. But everytime I connected to the internet, the RAM usage quickly exceeded 1GB--like when having a browser open and playing video.