Ubuntu

Ubuntu freezes before login

Asked by Sauce

I downloaded Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn Live CD installer and when I ran that on my PC it froze every time before I could actually reach the desktop - just a background colour and the "X" mouse cursor show up, sometimes the loading mouse cursor, if I'm lucky to get that far. The system doesn't respond to any keystrokes or mouse movement. I read somewhere that downloading the text-based installer would allow me to install Ubuntu without this freezing issue.

I then downloaded the text-based installer and ran that. I installed it to a 40GB IDE HDD, and left Windows XP on its 200GB SATA HDD. The installer all ran well, I installed GRUB, and I can now boot into both Win XP and Ubuntu from there, however I still get the freezing issues before I can get the desktop to show up in Ubuntu.

I ran the "Check disk for defects" utility on both CDs, but neither showed any errors. I also left Memtest 86 running overnight for 10.5 hours, and got no errors.

My specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
GPU: NVidia GeForce FX 5500
RAM: 2 x 512MB Corsair Value Select RAM
MoBo: WinFast K8S 755A Series
HDD1: Samsung 200GB SATA
HDD2: Seagate 40GB IDE

Some other people experiencing similar, but not identical issues, suggest that Ubuntu has issues with running 32bit on a 64bit machine. They say to add irqpoll pci=noacpi noapic nolapic acpi=off to the boot line. How would I do this? I really am a complete noob to Linux, so I need step by step instructions here.

I've also heard it could be an issue with the graphics drivers, but how would I install different ones without first being in Ubuntu? And which ones would I install?

Apart from that, the only thing I can think of is downloading 64bit Ubuntu, which isn't likely to happen as I think I'm about to reach my download limit for the month.

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Simos Xenitellis 
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Revision history for this message
Simos Xenitellis  (simosx) said : 		#1

I would recommend to visit
http://ubuntuforums.org/
and click for an Advanced search. In the search box type something like "freeze", and choose to search in Titles only.
There are several threads that discuss issues when the system freezes.

-> To pass options such as "acpi=off"
When booting, you get "grub" showing you a menu for Ubuntu and Windows (in case you have Windows installed). At this stage it shows a message that you can press "e" for edit and so on. Edit the Ubuntu line and append the text that was advised on the kernel line (the long line). With "b" you then boot Ubuntu with the option. You can see if this fixes the problem, and if so, there is a process to make the change permanent.

Revision history for this message
Sauce (sauce-overlord) said : 		#2

Thankyou, the acpi=off thing worked. Now how do I make it permanent?

(I'm posting this from Firefox, within Ubuntu :D)

Revision history for this message
Adrian Petrescu (apetresc) said : 		#3

Edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst. Find the "kernel" line corresponding to the kernel you usually boot (or just do this to all of them), and add the acpi=off parameter to it in the same way that you did it before. Now it will be part of the boot options by default! :)

Revision history for this message
Simos Xenitellis  (simosx) said : 		#4

To edit this system file you can type in the Terminal

gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

(ignore any warning shown).

However, first make sure you have a backup of the file, by running

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.ORIGINAL

If this works for you, please close this question as Solved.

Revision history for this message
Sauce (sauce-overlord) said : 		#5

I would like to clarify a few things in case I manage to screw up the menu.lst file.

Here is my menu.lst, minus all the nonsense at the top:

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=92a331f1-1116-49c6-84de-f2883199f50a ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
quiet
savedefault

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=92a331f1-1116-49c6-84de-f2883199f50a ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=92a331f1-1116-49c6-84de-f2883199f50a ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet
savedefault

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=92a331f1-1116-49c6-84de-f2883199f50a ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sdb1
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

Exactly which line do I add "irqpoll pci=noacpi noapic nolapic acpi=off" to? Do I add it to the end of the "kernel" line, or the "initrd" line?

Also, I would like to set it up so that Windows XP Home is the default option upon startup, as this is a shared computer and I am the only one using Linux. Is it simply a matter of moving WinXP to the top of the list?

Thankyou to both of you for your help so far. I really do appreciate it :)

Revision history for this message
Best Simos Xenitellis  (simosx) said : 		#6

You append the options at the end of

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=92a331f1-1116-49c6-84de-f2883199f50a ro quiet splash

That is the kernel line for your latest version of the kernel, 2.6.20-16-generic.

Yes, you can move the Windows XP section at the top of the file.
You can also an option (it is already in the menu.lst file, at the start of it) that can set which of the operating system will be highlighted. I think the option is called "default", and it has the value

default=0

If you change to "6", it should have highlighted the WXP line.

Revision history for this message
Sauce (sauce-overlord) said : 		#7

Thanks Simos Xenitellis, that solved my question.