Trouble with Dapper installation on laptop

Check out https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/ToshibaSatelliteM45-S265

It mentions booting with the "irqpoll" boot option.

I took a look at it and tried out the irqpoll boot option. Doesn't seem to help. All I get is:
Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.

Just to confirm that I am doing the right thing, I have done all of the following:
1. escape out of the graphical installer and at the "boot:" prompt, typed "install irqpoll"
2. in the graphical installer, hit F6 and typed "irqpoll" at the end of the line that showed up
3. in the graphical installer, hit F6, removed the "--" at the end of the line and typed "irqpoll"

I have also tried "noapic nolapic", "pci=noacpi", "vga=771", and "debian-installer/framebuffer=false". Nothing is working.

In Breezy, all I had to do was to specify "vga=771" and that worked. That doesn't seem to work anymore.

Any ideas?

- Maybe your install CD is bad?
- reset BIOS settings to default
- upgrade BIOS (probably not necessary, I guess your machine is pretty recent)

Is there a "quiet" option on the F6 line that you can remove?

I reset the BIOS setting to default. After taking the quiet option off, I found where the install is locking up.

cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff.

I have tried finding information on this and I belive that this is due to the PCMCIA. I am going to try reinstalling without the PCMCIA enabled at first. I will post my results.

Once again, I have tried unsuccessfully to get this to install. I hit F6, remove quite, and at the end of the other options (after the '--'), I put "detect-hw/pcmcia_start=false". I tried it right next to the "--", with a space after "--", before the "--". Still, get the same lockup. Is this not the option to turn off pcmcia?

You are definitely on the right track! I am not sure about the detect-hw/ option name, but it should be correct to add it after the "--" and a space.

I can only suggest this: open a shell during installation (ctrl-alt-F1 or F2, hit Enter): echo "blacklist pcmcia" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-pcmcia ; echo "blacklist pcmcia" > /target/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-pcmcia

You maybe have to find the right moment after these directories have been created (keep trying), and before the probing will start.

Did you try booting in "expert" mode? You can have better control over probing and the whole installation process then.

Still no luck.

I have tried:

- Opening a shell during installation - I have no idea when to do this. I've tried it while the graphical menu is up. I have tried it after telling it to install on the hard drive but before the lockup. I have tried it by escaping from the graphical menu and am at the boot: prompt. Never am I able to execute the command above. What am I doing wrong?

- Expert mode- I am definitely not an expert, that's why I've got this support ticket open. I tried typing expert at the boot: prompt, but the first thing it does is start going through it's normal installation routine and get to the lockup point. Perhaps I am not invoking the expert mode correctly. If so, let me know what I am supposed to do.

I guess I'm pretty surprised that I am having this much trouble installing Dapper when Breezy was so easy (just use vga=771 and install was happy). What has changed so drastically to make this happen?

To open a shell during installation: hold down the [alt] button while you press the [F2] button. This will change to another virtual console, where you can start a shell by pressing the [Enter] button.
You can switch back to the first console (where the installation program is running) with [alt]-[F1].

To select Expert mode, you press [F6] twice. It will then ask questions like if you want to start PC card services, to which you should answer "no".

The /target tree is only available after you have chosen where to install and it has partitioned and started installing programs. /target is in fact your root-partition-to-be.

Another option is the server install, which is a smaller, faster and potentially safer install. Once you've got that one working, you just do "sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop" to get the full installation.

Sorry for being inaccurate, I just reread all your posts. It hangs before the blue/read installation program starts, right? My shell suggestions will only work once this program has started. The same goes for the detect-hw/ and debian-installer/ options, as well as "expert" mode.

If I understand correctly your kernel hangs before it starts any programs. This would be a bug in the linux-source-2.6.15 source package. Can you please file a bug here:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bugs
Then the right experts will be aware of the issue, and can hopefully fix it. Please include details of your hardware, like "lspci -vv" output.

Here's a possible workaround, would be nice if you could test it: Add "BOOT_DEBUG=3" to the boot options after "-- ". This will give you a debug shell when booting. Type here "rm -r /lib/modules/2.6.15-18-386/kernel/drivers/pcmcia" and "rm /etc/init.d/pcmcia" and quit the shell with ctrl-D. Quit the next shell that comes up also with ctrl-D. Now the installer program will start. At this point you can do the blacklist things I mentioned earlier.

Now we're making some progress. By doing the BOOT_DEBUG=3 and following the directions above, I was finally able to install Dapper. I tried the blacklist thing you mentioned. No matter when I executed the commands, I always got an error stating that /etc/modprobe.d wasn't a directory.

So now I've gotten to the point where it is installed and starts to load. Unfortunately, when it gets to the point of "Loading hardware drivers", it once again locks up. I even tried recovery mode and that doesn't work either. Locks up at that very same port probe location. So, I've got an installed system that I can't get in to. I'm going to keep trying variations on the blacklist idea above, but if you have any other ideas, let me know.

Once I do get the system up and running, I am going to post a bug at that other location.

Progress is good! The "real" recovery mode is booting with the added option "init=/bin/bash". If this is successful and you get a shell, you can mount your root partition with "mount -t ext3 /dev/hda1 /mnt" (replace hda1 with your root partition - if you have forgotten, just try 1,2,3 or 4).

Now you can try again (this time /mnt is your installed root):
echo "blacklist pcmcia" > /mnt/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-pcmcia
umount /mnt

If this doesn't help, another resort would be: "mv /mnt/lib/modules/2.6.15-18-386/kernel/drivers/pcmcia /mnt/root" to move these pcmcia modules out of the way. "umount /mnt" and reboot.

Just want to add that, depending on versions and circumstances, the init=/bin/bash might give you a shell where your hard drive root partition already is mounted on /. Check this by running "mount" and see if your partition is listed. In this case, you just do: echo "blacklist pcmcia" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-pcmcia
Run "sync" before you reboot.

I just checked and that file with those contents already exists in that directory. So, any other ideas?

Interesting. Is it possible that you created that file earlier?

Then try "mv /lib/modules/2.6.15-18-386/kernel/drivers/pcmcia /root"

The drive is already mountd at /. When I try the mv command, it responds that it is a read-only file system. I have tried unmounting the file system at / but can't. When I do "mount", I get

/dev/hda2 on / type ext3 (rw,data=ordered)

It looks like I should be able to move it since it is mounted rw.

Finally! It works! For those who might come along with this same issue, let me recap the steps necessary to make it work.

1. When starting the installation from the CD, at the first graphical install menu, hit F6 (Other options) and at the end of the line (after "-- "), type in "BOOT_DEBUG=3" and then hit ENTER
2. At the command prompt, type "rm -r /lib/modules/2.6.15-18-386/kernel/drivers/pcmcia" and hit ENTER
3. At the command prompt, type "rm /etc/init.d/pcmcia" and hit ENTER
4. Quit the shell by hitting Ctrl-D
5. Quit the next shell by hitting Ctrl-D again
6. The install program now runs
7. Go through the entire install script until the time it says to hit Continue to reboot. Instead, hit Ctrl-Alt-F2 and then ENTER to start a new shell.
8. At the command prompt, type echo "blacklist pcmcia" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-pcmcia ; echo "blacklist pcmcia" > /target/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-pcmcia
9. Hit Ctrl-Alt-F1 to return to the installation.
10. Hit ENTER to reboot
11. At the GRUB menu, scroll down to the recovery mode option and hit "e" to edit the entry
12. Scroll down to the second entry, hit "e" to edit it, find where it says "ro" and replace it with "rw". Also, at the end of the line, type "init=/bin/bash" and hit ENTER.
13. Type "mv /lib/modules/2.6.15-18-386/kernel/drivers/pcmcia /root" and hit ENTER
14. Reboot the computer by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del once. Select the normal boot up entry and voila.

Remaining issue: The screen comes up with what looks like static. Also, my wireless network is not starting up automatically. But I will look into those issues seperately and request support on those items if I can't figure them out.

I am also going to report a bug on the site listed above.

Thanks for summarizing the whole procedure!
When you file the bug, include details on the hardware (lspci -vv), and the exact messages ("cs: probing ...") before it hangs. I guess you can easily trigger the crash by moving the modules back and modprobe pcmcia.

See also https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSystemCrash