Grey Login screen that fails to transition to GUI and reboots. On HD install only?

I was using Kali 1.9 with GPU drivers installed and working great for my MSI GX60 with dual Radeon cards AMD/ATI Radeon HD 8650G/8970M. I could brute force WPA at 80k on oclhashcat. Upgraded to kali on a thumb drive, tested it out, everything seemed to work so I
1. wiped out my kali hd install and the linux swap
2. using graphic instal from my kali 2.0 thumb installed without issues, choosing use largest free space, to reinstall in same place on the hd

On reboot screen was super gray with a fuzzy black kali log on the bottom center of the log in screen. Log in works. Password works. System then hangs and reboots.

Rebooted into safe, connected to wifi from cli, then apt-get update, apt-get upgrade, apt-get dist-upgrade.

reboot same issue.

Search forums, find a ~ chkconfig/level2/gdm3 solution. Computer just hung.

Notice an error when starting
[FAILED] Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:acpi_video0

Chase that error down a couple of forums for answers, hoping solving it will solve the desktop issue.
tried : https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=187921
tried : http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=121008
No luck.

I'm pretty sure this has something to do with my radeon cards, but why it would work from thumbdrive but not on my HD is stumping the **** out of me. Stumped! Any help is appreciated. I love my previous build but refuse to reload 1.9, I want to help fix this for anyone who's in the same boat and make this a better product. CLI info bellow.

[CODE]
uname -a
Linux android 4.6.0-kali1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.6.4-1kali1 (2016-07-21) x86_64 GNU/Linux


lspci -l

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Root Complex
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Richland [Radeon HD 8650G]
00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller
00:03.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Root Port
00:10.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB XHCI Controller (rev 09)
00:10.1 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB XHCI Controller (rev 09)
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40)
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller (rev 11)
00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller (rev 11)
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller (rev 11)
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller (rev 11)
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 16)
00:14.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH IDE Controller
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller (rev 01)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 11)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH PCI Bridge (rev 40)
00:14.7 SD Host controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SD Flash Controller
00:15.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Hudson PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
00:15.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Hudson PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 5
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Neptune XT [Radeon HD 8970M] (rev ff)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E220x Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
04:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

If you cannot fix it with advices given here (https://forums.kali.org/showthread.p...se-after-login), try to install another desktop than Gnome, g0tmi1lk explains how to do that here : https://forums.kali.org/showthread.p...r-axiomd-Theme

iojymbo,
if you ever make it to the midlands UK, (kettering area) your first 2 pints are on me. Thank you for your help!
Unfortunately neither solution worked. I can get kfce following those instructions, and choose it from the drop down before log in at passwords screen. Then I get grey screen, a few 8 bit style blocks at the bottom of the screen while the computer hangs then reboots. I've included the last part of dmesg because I think it has something to do with my graphics card and I see an error I don't understand.

Quote:

---

[ 8.887126] [drm] Connector 0:
[ 8.887128] [drm] LVDS-1
[ 8.887129] [drm] HPD1
[ 8.887131] [drm] DDC: 0x6530 0x6530 0x6534 0x6534 0x6538 0x6538 0x653c 0x653c
[ 8.887132] [drm] Encoders:
[ 8.887134] [drm] LCD1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY2
[ 8.887135] [drm] LCD1: TRAVIS
[ 8.887136] [drm] Connector 1:
[ 8.887137] [drm] VGA-1
[ 8.887138] [drm] HPD2
[ 8.887139] [drm] DDC: 0x6540 0x6540 0x6544 0x6544 0x6548 0x6548 0x654c 0x654c
[ 8.887140] [drm] Encoders:
[ 8.887141] [drm] CRT1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY2
[ 8.887142] [drm] CRT1: NUTMEG
[ 8.887143] [drm] Connector 2:
[ 8.887144] [drm] DP-1
[ 8.887145] [drm] HPD3
[ 8.887147] [drm] DDC: 0x6550 0x6550 0x6554 0x6554 0x6558 0x6558 0x655c 0x655c
[ 8.887148] [drm] Encoders:
[ 8.887149] [drm] DFP1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY
[ 8.887150] [drm] Connector 3:
[ 8.887151] [drm] HDMI-A-1
[ 8.887152] [drm] HPD6
[ 8.887153] [drm] DDC: 0x6580 0x6580 0x6584 0x6584 0x6588 0x6588 0x658c 0x658c
[ 8.887154] [drm] Encoders:
[ 8.887155] [drm] DFP2: INTERNAL_UNIPHY
[ 9.480537] [drm] fb mappable at 0xC04EC000
[ 9.480541] [drm] vram apper at 0xC0000000
[ 9.480542] [drm] size 8294400
[ 9.480543] [drm] fb depth is 24
[ 9.480544] [drm] pitch is 7680
[ 9.480637] fbcon: radeondrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[ 9.606202] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 240x67
[ 9.610269] radeon 0000:00:01.0: fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device
[ 9.622567] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.43.0 20080528 for 0000:00:01.0 on minor 0
[ 9.622737] radeon 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
[ 9.623016] [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (PITCAIRN 0x1002:0x6801 0x1462:0x10F1).
[ 9.623032] [drm] register mmio base: 0xFEA00000
[ 9.623033] [drm] register mmio size: 262144
[ 9.623035] vga_switcheroo: enabled
[ 9.623109] ATPX version 1, functions 0x00000003
[ 9.679076] ACPI Error: Field [TEMP] at 524288 exceeds Buffer [TVGA] size 512000 (bits) (20150818/dsopcode-236)
[ 9.679083] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB.PCI0.VGA.ATRM] (Node ffff88042ecb3978), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20150818/psparse-542)
[ 9.679090] failed to evaluate ATRM got AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
[ 9.679095] ATOM BIOS: MSI
[ 9.679164] radeon 0000:01:00.0: VRAM: 2048M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000007FFFFFFF (2048M used)
[ 9.679166] radeon 0000:01:00.0: GTT: 1024M 0x0000000080000000 - 0x00000000BFFFFFFF
[ 9.679168] [drm] Detected VRAM RAM=2048M, BAR=256M
[ 9.679169] [drm] RAM width 256bits DDR
[ 9.679182] [drm] radeon: 2048M of VRAM memory ready
[ 9.679183] [drm] radeon: 1024M of GTT memory ready.
[ 9.679196] [drm] Loading pitcairn Microcode
[ 9.797849] radeon 0000:01:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/pitcairn_pfp.bin
[ 9.938548] radeon 0000:01:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/pitcairn_me.bin
[ 9.960577] radeon 0000:01:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/pitcairn_ce.bin
[ 10.047723] radeon 0000:01:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/pitcairn_rlc.bin
[ 10.122525] radeon 0000:01:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/pitcairn_mc.bin
[ 10.204462] Adding 15929340k swap on /dev/sda10. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:15929340k FS
[ 10.382405] radeon 0000:01:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/pitcairn_smc.bin
[ 10.382417] [drm] Internal thermal controller without fan control
[ 10.382518] [drm] probing gen 2 caps for device 1022:1413 = 700d01/6
[ 10.389377] [drm] radeon: dpm initialized
[ 10.390329] [drm] Found VCE firmware/feedback version 50.0.1 / 17!
[ 10.390337] [drm] GART: num cpu pages 262144, num gpu pages 262144
[ 10.391334] [drm] probing gen 2 caps for device 1022:1413 = 700d01/6
[ 10.391339] [drm] enabling PCIE gen 2 link speeds, disable with radeon.pcie_gen2=0
[ 10.509158] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
[ 10.509163] cfg80211: DFS Master region: unset
[ 10.509164] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
[ 10.509167] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[ 10.509168] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[ 10.509170] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[ 10.509172] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[ 10.509174] cfg80211: (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
[ 10.509175] cfg80211: (5490000 KHz - 5730000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
[ 10.509177] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
[ 10.509178] cfg80211: (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 0 mBm), (N/A)
[ 10.717696] [drm] PCIE GART of 1024M enabled (table at 0x00000000002E8000).
[ 10.717854] radeon 0000:01:00.0: WB enabled
[ 10.717857] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 0 use gpu addr 0x0000000080000c00 and cpu addr 0xffff88042ae05c00
[ 10.717860] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 1 use gpu addr 0x0000000080000c04 and cpu addr 0xffff88042ae05c04
[ 10.717862] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 2 use gpu addr 0x0000000080000c08 and cpu addr 0xffff88042ae05c08
[ 10.717864] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 3 use gpu addr 0x0000000080000c0c and cpu addr 0xffff88042ae05c0c
[ 10.717866] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 4 use gpu addr 0x0000000080000c10 and cpu addr 0xffff88042ae05c10
[ 10.719403] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 5 use gpu addr 0x0000000000075a18 and cpu addr 0xffffc90003c35a18
[ 10.739601] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 6 use gpu addr 0x0000000080000c18 and cpu addr 0xffff88042ae05c18
[ 10.739603] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fence driver on ring 7 use gpu addr 0x0000000080000c1c and cpu addr 0xffff88042ae05c1c
[ 10.739612] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013).
[ 10.739614] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
[ 10.739616] radeon 0000:01:00.0: radeon: MSI limited to 32-bit
[ 10.739706] radeon 0000:01:00.0: radeon: using MSI.
[ 10.739742] [drm] radeon: irq initialized.
[ 10.811832] FAT-fs (sda2): utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
[ 10.939392] [drm] ring test on 0 succeeded in 1 usecs
[ 10.939398] [drm] ring test on 1 succeeded in 1 usecs
[ 10.939404] [drm] ring test on 2 succeeded in 1 usecs
[ 10.939412] [drm] ring test on 3 succeeded in 4 usecs
[ 10.939420] [drm] ring test on 4 succeeded in 4 usecs
[ 11.115017] [drm] ring test on 5 succeeded in 2 usecs
[ 11.115023] [drm] UVD initialized successfully.
[ 11.224143] [drm] ring test on 6 succeeded in 18 usecs
[ 11.224158] [drm] ring test on 7 succeeded in 4 usecs
[ 11.224162] [drm] VCE initialized successfully.
[ 11.224526] [drm] ib test on ring 0 succeeded in 0 usecs
[ 11.224557] [drm] ib test on ring 1 succeeded in 0 usecs
[ 11.224587] [drm] ib test on ring 2 succeeded in 0 usecs
[ 11.224616] [drm] ib test on ring 3 succeeded in 0 usecs
[ 11.224644] [drm] ib test on ring 4 succeeded in 0 usecs
[ 11.871623] [drm] ib test on ring 5 succeeded
[ 12.371213] [drm] ib test on ring 6 succeeded
[ 12.870766] [drm] ib test on ring 7 succeeded
[ 12.871298] [drm] Radeon Display Connectors
[ 12.871300] [drm] Connector 0:
[ 12.871301] [drm] VGA-2
[ 12.871303] [drm] DDC: 0x65c0 0x65c0 0x65c4 0x65c4 0x65c8 0x65c8 0x65cc 0x65cc
[ 12.871304] [drm] Encoders:
[ 12.871305] [drm] CRT1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC1
[ 12.895072] radeon 0000:01:00.0: No connectors reported connected with modes
[ 12.895078] [drm] Cannot find any crtc or sizes - going 1024x768
[ 12.897206] [drm] fb mappable at 0xD04EA000
[ 12.897207] [drm] vram apper at 0xD0000000
[ 12.897208] [drm] size 3145728
[ 12.897209] [drm] fb depth is 24
[ 12.897210] [drm] pitch is 4096
[ 12.897400] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fb1: radeondrmfb frame buffer device
[ 12.897789] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.43.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 1
[ 14.287927] Netfilter messages via NETLINK v0.30.

---

Don't worry mate, I'm unfortunately don't live in UK but I'm glad to trying to help you. Have you try to remove Catalyst driver and installing theses packages in replacement ?
# apt-get install firmware-linux-nonfree libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-video-ati

Thanks iojymbo,
I re-installed. Tried your xfce fix again, same result. Tried this firmware install and was told they were both the latest versions. What diagnostic can i provide in 1700 lines or whatever the limit is in this blog that could help? Booted into kali thumb drive, and it worked like a champ.
Sigh. Life is hard, life is harder when your dumb...
I'm genuinely sorry to keep hitting you. I'm going to try a fresh install from a newly updated thumb to see if that does anything, and then i'm going to continue searching kali2.0 radeon issues. Google page 5+ here I come!!

I know how it's frustrating, I've spent many hours with a lots of hardware issues on Linux too... I think it's not really a Kali bug but a generic Debian issue, some advanced users applied custom patch for fixing it definitively.

So what can you do ? If you are not worried about 3D acceleration, you can try to copy/paste "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" from your Kali thumb drive to your fresh install. It works because it configured with a generic firmware embedded in all Linux distros.

Kali is not oriented to be "user friendly" like Ubuntu, that's why without a solid Linux knowledge, it's hard to fix or customize it to fit your configuration, but remember one thing, it's like that you can push your limit and learn how Linux works, and if you want to be a real hacker (not an evil scripts kiddies), you need this knowledge and you should try to maintain it everyday.

We're already lucky to have people like g0tmi1k, R. Hertzog and S. Brun who work hard to offer an amazing distro, so like Offensive Security says : Try harder ! ;)

PS: Keep update this post for others and me.

"That which is obtained to easily is esteemed to lightly", I'm going to love the **** out of this install when it's done.
Thank you for your help and motivation. quitting is simply not in my nature, I will fix this if it's the last thing I do!
I'll be sure to post any solutions and a clearer picture of the problems as I progress. And if ever your on my side of the pond, offer for a beer stands.

Ed

Thanks Ed, and don't hesitate to ask here if you need help to achieve this ! ;)

UPDATE: Reflashed BIOS to make sure there wasn't a problem there. No dice
went down the sp5100_tco, I both blacklisted and when that did get rid of the error but not hte grey screen rebooting after log in, I removed entirely. Still no luck.
Going to start playing with kernels....

Solved!
iojymbo- you gave me the solution a while ago and I just messed up the implementation.
Problem: https://www.debian.org/releases/stab...ml#gnome-fglrx Basically with older Radeon cards there is a known issue. Why it works from a thumb drive but not installed is beyond me.
Solution: get rid of gnome. I did this earlier as suggested but I didn't pay close enough attention after using g0tmi1lk's excellent script. You have to choose lightdm as the new display manager. Also DO NOT PURGE GNOME! I don't know why but that kills everything.
1. Install kali to hard drive
2. ctr f3 out of log in on your first boot up, and

Quote:

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apt-get update && apt-get upgrade && apt-get dist-upgrade -y

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*note: you must be at least kali rolling 4.3 for this next step to work, or you will get dependancy errors that have to be fixed with dpkg, and force install missing.
3. use

Quote:

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curl -s http://pastebin.com/raw/58wsGhBD | tr -d '\15\32' | bash

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from g0tmi1lk to install xfce. Make sure to choose ligthDM when given the option.
My desk top now works!!!
I'm going to now attempt to get my graphics cards working with hashcat.... wish me luck! Thanks for the help guys!