Ubuntu

10.04LTS CD Boot fail on Toshiba Portege M300

Asked by ianlogic

Hi - I have an old Toshiba Portege M300 (factory standard, unmodified) that is fully serviceable and running Win XP.

I have created a 10.04LTS bootable CD. The CD is a good copy that works fine on my samsung laptop.

When I try to boot from the CD on the Toshiba it initially boots, runs through the 'Ubuntu' screen with the dots that change colour from white to red. However, at the point that it should switch to the language selection screen, the laptop screen just goes blank (literally blank, backlight on but no video signal being received)

Is there some fundamental reason why the Toshiba can't run Ubuntu and is there anything that I can do about it...?

cheers

'Logic'

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
ianlogic
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Ian Farquhar (ian-naturalistsnw) said : 		#1

I'm having the exact same problem with a Celeron Gateway laptop thats maybe 8 years old....
The windows on it is so bogged down and slow I figured its time for some freshening..
The boot disk I created worked completely well on my Thinkpad sl500...
though when used on the gateway the screen goes completely blank halfway through the red dots. At first I thought it was powering off but after closer inspection the screen just blanks out and the power light stays on, the laptop then seems to be working real hard and after 15-20 mins I had to turn it off because it was heating up so much///
Thanks,
ianoutthere

Revision history for this message
Greg Beam (ki7mt) said : 		#2

Try downloading the Alternate Version of the Distribution you want to install (Desktop, Netbook etc).

For Example:

Ubuntu-Alternate-ISO-x86: http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-alternate-i386.iso

Ubuntu-Alternate-ISO-AMD64: http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-alternate-amd64.iso

For a lighter weight Desktop, you could try installing Xubuntu from the ALT-ISO.

Let us know how things go.

KE1HA

Revision history for this message
Ian Farquhar (ian-naturalistsnw) said : 		#3

got it... Well kinda - I'm sure the Ubuntu community doesn't want to hear this but I made an image of distro SimplyMEPIS 8 and it installed without a hitch!? Amazing how much faster this computer goes without XP bogging it down :)

Thanks for your reply
i

Revision history for this message
ianlogic (ianlogic) said : 		#4

OK - I downloaded the alternate x86, burned the ISO and installed that instead.

It completed the installation process without a hitch BUT when it attempted to boot for the first time post-install, I get a couple of iterations of the Ubuntu splash with the white/red dots and then the following error message:

The disk drive for /dev/mapper/cryptswap1 is not ready yet or not present

Continue to wait; or Press S to skip mounting or M for manual recovery

It doesn't matter what I select, the result is the same. The screen loses video signal and a few seconds later the CPU fan spins up to maximum and stays there with the laptop effectively frozen (as per the original attempt to install 10.04LTS).

Unfortunately, having completed the installation, the laptop is now useless!

Any ideas where to go next, or am I back to this laptop being incompatible with Ubuntu...?

cheers

Logic

Revision history for this message
Greg Beam (ki7mt) said : 		#5

ianlogic

Sorry to hear you still having troubles.

I believe the two issues your seeing are unrelated. The /dev/mapper/cryptswap1 is the system having trouble mounting or not seeing at all, your /swap partition. So first I would recommend that you not encrypt the drive initially. If you could go back through the installation and do the installation without encrypting the drive, this would be be helpful or at least reformatting the /swap partition should that issue.

The second half of the problem is a bit more difficult. The Toshiba Portege M300 has an Intel i8XX Chipset. Under normal circumstances, this is not a problem, however there were a series of Kernel among of package modificaitons which have caused all sorts of trouble on this particular. I too have an i855 Laptop and none of these worked for me, but it's not to say it will not work for you.

The following Work-Around should help you solve the issue your second problem:

Link: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes

There are (5) Workarounds. Read the top half of the document for background, then proceed to the sections called Workarounds, with the first being "Re-Enable KMS.

Post back your results after test the workaround.

KE1HA

Additional Resources:
Ubuntu Manual - http://ubuntu-manual.org/
Server Manual - https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/serverguide.pdf
Other Documentation - https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/index.html
IRC Channel Support on irc.freenode.net : #ubuntu #kubuntu #xubuntu

Revision history for this message
ianlogic (ianlogic) said : 		#6

Thanks for all the help.

Re-installing without the encrytped drive solved the first problem but not the second, obviously.

The easy workarounds don't work so I have decided the best thing to do is stick the M300 back to Win XP and then try to put 10.04LTS onto an old S100 that I also have lying around. I'm pretty sure the S100 has a conventional x86 architecture so it should, hopefully, be ok.

I'll open a new query if that doesn't work!

Thanks again

Logic